Tutoring in Tacoma, Washington
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Tacoma, 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.
Tacoma Public Schools runs five neighborhood high schools, Foss, Lincoln, Mount Tahoma, Silas and Stadium, alongside three small high schools that a student applies to instead of being assigned. SOTA is the School of the Arts, SAMi is the Science and Math Institute, and iDEA is the School of Industrial Design, Engineering and Art. Choice enrollment also lets a family ask for a neighborhood school other than its own. The towns on the edges of the city each have their own district, including University Place, Fife and Clover Park in Lakewood.
State tests Tacoma 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 | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Not tested |
| Math | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | WCAS | Not tested | Not tested | WCAS | Not tested | Not tested | WCAS | Not tested |
- Smarter Balanced (Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA)): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8 and 10
- WCAS (Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science): science, grades 5, 8 and 11
The grade 10 Smarter Balanced tests can settle the graduation pathway early. A score of 2548 in English language arts and 2595 in math meets it, and a student who falls short has to use another route, such as an SAT or ACT score, dual credit, a transition course or a career and technical sequence.
Testing dates and graduation rules for the whole state are on a separate page. Washington 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 Lakewood, University Place, Fife, Puyallup, Federal Way and Gig Harbor as it does in Tacoma.
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 Tacoma, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Tacoma Public Schools can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at University of Puget Sound, University of Washington Tacoma, Pacific Lutheran University or Tacoma 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.