Math tutoring in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Pittsburgh, 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.
Public schools in Pittsburgh are run by Pittsburgh Public Schools. Pennsylvania tests math with PSSA in grades 3 through 8. In high school, Algebra I has its own state exam (Keystone Exams), taken in whatever year the student takes the course.
A bad grade this year is often a gap from two years ago
A sixth grader who can't divide fractions has usually been taught the rule, flip and multiply, more than once. What's missing is older. They aren't sure that 2/4 and 1/2 are the same number, or their times tables are slow enough that every step costs them, and by the time they reach the new idea there is no attention left for it.
Going over tonight's worksheet gets tonight's worksheet done, and the same gap is waiting under next week's. The useful question is which earlier skill the mistakes point to. Answering it takes a different set of problems from the ones the class is doing.
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
What Pennsylvania tests, by grade
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | PSSA | PSSA | PSSA | PSSA | PSSA | PSSA | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
| Math | PSSA | PSSA | PSSA | PSSA | PSSA | PSSA | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | PSSA Science | Not tested | Not tested | PSSA Science | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
- PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8
- PSSA Science (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment in Science): science, grades 5 and 8
Testing dates, graduation rules and the one deadline families miss are on a separate page. Pittsburgh guide
Kolu finds the missing skill and goes back to it
Kolu's skill check walks backward from the student's grade until it finds ground that holds. Answers are checked by code, so an equivalent answer written a different way still counts and a sign error is recognized as a sign error. If the misses on fraction division look like an equivalence problem, the next session is equivalence, with pictures the student can drag. Fraction division comes back after that.
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 PSSA. 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
Hire a person for math when the problem is not math. A student who knows the material and freezes on tests, or who decided in fourth grade that they are bad at this and stopped trying, needs someone in the room.
In Pittsburgh, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Pittsburgh Public Schools can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University or Community College of Allegheny County, 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.