Tutoring in Durham, North Carolina
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Durham, 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.
Durham Public Schools covers the city and the rest of Durham County, and each address has an assigned school. The district also runs magnet and other application schools, among them Durham School of the Arts for grades 6 to 12 and an early college high school on the North Carolina Central University campus. Chapel Hill and Carrboro, a few miles west, have a separate district. The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics is a different case. It is a state-run residential high school in Durham that admits students from across North Carolina by application.
State tests Durham students take
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | EOG tests | EOG tests | EOG tests | EOG tests | EOG tests | EOG tests | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
| Math | EOG tests | EOG tests | EOG tests | EOG tests | EOG tests | EOG tests | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | EOG science tests | Not tested | Not tested | EOG science tests | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
- EOG tests (End-of-Grade tests): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8
- EOG science tests: science, grades 5 and 8
Under Read to Achieve, a third grader who is not proficient on the reading EOG can be retained unless a good cause exemption applies. A summer reading camp and a separate Read to Achieve test give further chances to show proficiency before that decision is final.
Testing dates and graduation rules for the whole state are on a separate page. North Carolina 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 the EOG tests. 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 Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Morrisville and Cary as it does in Durham.
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 Durham, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Durham Public Schools can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at Duke University, North Carolina Central University or Durham Technical 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.