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		Past Extra Credits May 26 All issues

The following excerpts are from a recent article in The Flint Journal (Mich.) highlighting the benefits of the free tutoring programs provided under No Child Left Behind for low-income students in schools that do not meet state-defined benchmarks for three years:

"Dina Knott used to pronounce her older sister's name as Krina with a K instead of Trina with a T, and called her cousin Deontray instead of Deonte. But today the Civic Park Elementary second-grader pronounces those names correctly because of a free after-school tutoring program she has attended for two months, said her mother Jo-Ann English.

"'We ride down the street and she sees signs and sounds them out,' English said. 'She reads all my mail. It's like her IQ is opening up.'

"Dina is among nearly 1,400 Flint students signed up for a free tutoring program the Flint School District began offering in March as part of the nation's No Child Left Behind education reform initiative."

"The district received about $2.6 million in additional federal dollars this year and must spend at least $1.5 million of that on the tutoring and other requirements of the No Child Left Behind law. ... The two for-profit companies offering the tutoring are Reading and Language Arts Centers Inc. and Catapult Learning, formerly Sylvan Learning.

"'It's a chance for students to get small-group tutoring, which is really quite a luxury in schools that don't have the financial resources or staff to provide this type of tutoring,' said Evelyn Peters, president and founder of Reading and Language Arts Centers."

The complete text of this article is available online.