Tutoring in Honolulu, Hawaii
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Honolulu, 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.
There is no Honolulu school district. The Hawaii State Department of Education runs every public school in the islands, and the city is one of its administrative districts, organized into complexes made up of a high school and the elementary and middle schools that feed it. A child attends the school for their home address. Going anywhere else takes a geographic exception, and requests are ranked by set priorities such as a sibling already attending on an exception or a program of study the home school does not offer. Public charter schools enroll separately, each with its own application.
State tests Honolulu students take
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Not tested | Smarter Balanced | Not tested |
| Math | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Not tested | Smarter Balanced | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | HSA Science | Not tested | Not tested | HSA Science | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
- Smarter Balanced (Smarter Balanced Assessment): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8 and 11
- HSA Science (Hawaii State Science (NGSS) Assessment): science, grades 5 and 8
A child attends the school assigned to their home address unless the family applies for a geographic exception, and applications for the next school year are taken from January 1 to March 1.
Testing dates and graduation rules for the whole state are on a separate page. Hawaii 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 Smarter Balanced. 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 Pearl City, Aiea, Kaneohe, Kailua, Waipahu and Ewa Beach as it does in Honolulu.
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 Honolulu, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Hawaii State Department of Education (Honolulu District) can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii Pacific University, Chaminade University of Honolulu or Kapiolani Community 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.