Tutoring in Minnesota
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Minnesota, 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.
The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, known as the MCAs, are the state tests here. Reading is tested in grades 3 to 8 and again in grade 10. Math is tested in grades 3 to 8 and then in grade 11, so high school students meet the two subjects a year apart. Science comes in grades 5 and 8 and once more in high school. All of it falls in a long spring window that opens in early March. Minnesota does not put every junior through one college admission test. Districts are required to offer eleventh and twelfth graders a chance to take the ACT or SAT on a school day. State law also lets a parent refuse the MCAs on a form the education department publishes.
What Minnesota tests, and when
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | MCA | MCA | MCA | MCA | MCA | MCA | Not tested | MCA | Not tested | Not tested |
| Math | MCA | MCA | MCA | MCA | MCA | MCA | Not tested | Not tested | MCA | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | MCA | Not tested | Not tested | MCA | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
- MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments): reading and writing, grades 3 through 8 and 10
- MCA: math, grades 3 through 8 and 11
- MCA: science, grades 5 and 8
- Main testing window
- early March to early May, with science running to mid-May
- Standards
- Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards
The ACT or SAT is not part of state testing in Minnesota. Districts have to offer one of them on a school day to eleventh and twelfth graders, so ask the high school which test it gives and on what date.
Is there a graduation test in Minnesota?
No. Minnesota does not require a passing score on any state test for a diploma.
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 MCA. It has no bank of released questions. It teaches the skills the test draws on, and it will not do tonight's homework.
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.
Ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. A nearby college is the next place to look, since students there 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.