Tutoring in Atlanta, Georgia
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Atlanta, and we have no office there. If you want a person, this page says how we would look for one. If the question is which skill is missing, we can help with that part.
Atlanta Public Schools assigns each address to a neighborhood school inside one of nine clusters, each a group of elementary and middle schools that feed one high school: Carver, Douglass, Jackson, Mays, Midtown, North Atlanta, South Atlanta, Therrell and Washington. Charter schools authorized by the district take their own applications, and open enrollment transfers into schools with room are decided by lottery. Past the city line the suburbs belong to other systems, including Fulton County, DeKalb County and City Schools of Decatur, each with its own calendar.
State tests Atlanta students take
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | Georgia Milestones EOG | Georgia Milestones EOG | Georgia Milestones EOG | Georgia Milestones EOG | Georgia Milestones EOG | Georgia Milestones EOG | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
| Math | Georgia Milestones EOG | Georgia Milestones EOG | Georgia Milestones EOG | Georgia Milestones EOG | Georgia Milestones EOG | Georgia Milestones EOG | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | Georgia Milestones EOG | Not tested | Not tested | Georgia Milestones EOG | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
- Georgia Milestones EOG (Georgia Milestones End-of-Grade): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8
- Georgia Milestones EOG: science, grades 5 and 8
Georgia ties promotion to the test. A third grader has to reach grade level in reading on Georgia Milestones to move up, and fifth and eighth graders in both reading and math. A student who misses is retested, and a parent can appeal a retention to a placement committee, whose vote to promote must be unanimous.
Testing dates and graduation rules for the whole state are on a separate page. Georgia guide
Kolu finds the missing skill and goes back to it
It starts with a skill check, a short test that gets harder or easier depending on the last answer. The result is a map of the subject broken into skills with their prerequisites drawn in, each one marked as solid, still being learned, or a gap.
After that, each session is a handful of activities picked for that student, usually something due for review, a gap to repair and one new skill. When an answer is wrong, Kolu looks at which earlier skill the mistake points to and goes back to it. Here is what that looks like for a sixth grader who can't divide fractions.
The problem on the page
3/4 ÷ 2/5
Dividing fractions
Grade 6
Multiplying fractions
Grade 5 · rests on the one below
Equivalent fractions
Grade 4 · usually where it started
Multiplication facts
Grade 3
Kolu does not call a skill mastered after one right answer. That takes correct work on different kinds of problems on different days, and a skill that fades gets brought back.
Kolu is not test prep for Georgia Milestones EOG. It has no bank of released questions. It teaches the skills the test draws on, and it will not do tonight's homework.
It runs in a browser, so it works the same in Decatur, Sandy Springs, East Point, College Park, Brookhaven and Smyrna as it does in Atlanta.
When to hire a person instead
Some students need a person, and software is the wrong purchase for them. That includes a child who shuts down when the work gets hard, a student with a learning disability who needs someone trained in it, and anyone with an exam in ten days.
In Atlanta, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Atlanta Public Schools can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, Emory University or Spelman College, who took these courses recently and usually charge less than an agency.
Whoever you hire, ask one question before the first session: how will you find out what my child doesn't know? If the answer is that they will go over the homework, keep looking.
Free for one subject, $15 a month for 5
Kolu is free for one subject at a time, with one full skill check every 30 days and up to 4 sessions a day. Plus is $15 a month, or $120 for a year, and covers 5 subjects at once with unlimited skill checks. A learner under 13 needs a parent or guardian to set up the account.