Algebra 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.
Public schools in Tacoma are run by Tacoma Public Schools. Washington has no separate Algebra I exam. Algebra is tested inside Smarter Balanced (grades 8 and 10).
Algebra I assumes middle school went well
Algebra I is where students who got by on memorized procedures run out of procedures. The course assumes negative numbers, fractions and the distributive property are automatic. For a lot of ninth graders they aren't, and the course doesn't stop to check.
Watch what happens with 3(x − 4) = 2x + 5. The algebra in it is one idea, which is to do the same thing to both sides. Most wrong answers come from somewhere else, usually 3 times −4 turning into −7 or +12. A student can practice solving equations for a month and keep losing points to a seventh-grade skill.
The problem on the page
3(x − 4) = 2x + 5
Solving multi-step equations
Algebra I
Distributive property
Grade 6 · rests on the one below
Multiplying and subtracting negative numbers
Grade 7 · usually where it started
Order of operations
Grade 5
What Washington tests, by grade
| 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
Testing dates, graduation rules and the one deadline families miss are on a separate page. Tacoma guide
Kolu finds the missing skill and goes back to it
In Kolu, Algebra I is a map of skills with the middle-school ones still attached. When a student misses an equation, the grader looks at how it was missed. A dropped negative sends the next few activities to integer arithmetic and then back to equations, to see whether the fix held. Students type algebra as algebra, and 2x + 5 and 5 + 2x are the same answer.
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.
When to hire a person instead
A person is worth paying for when a student is failing the class right now and the semester grade is at stake. Someone who can look at the teacher's own tests and decide what to skip will do more in three weeks than a program will.
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.