Concerned About Your Child's Education? Gooroo Has the Answers

Education has been thrown into complete disarray by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Homeschooling is a choice that some parents make for their children but many choose not to - that is, under normal circumstances. The pandemic has put working parents at home with children who are learning remotely as well, and it's been a struggle for many.

Learning can be hard at the best of times, and as households experience increased stress, positive attitudes fray, tensions flare and children often don't learn as much as they normally would. These educational gaps will surely have repercussions down the road. 

One company is trying to change that.

Scott Lee, founder and CEO of Gooroo, believes that tutoring can fill a gap in education. Not only is Gooroo's mission significant in regular circumstances, but in the circumstances surrounding COVID-19, Gooroo has taken on a unique role. I interviewed Lee to pick his brain on what tutoring can do to fill the pandemic education gap.

Tutoring: the key to better education

"We didn't start this company with a global disease in mind," says Lee.

"I started Gooroo because of the impact tutoring and mentorship had on my life, and I wanted to create a way that other people could reap the benefits too. Everyone can succeed given the right education, and at Gooroo we believe everyone deserves a good education."

The average class size in the US wavers around 23 students, forcing teachers to broadly divide their attention. Comparatively, a nuclear household during COVID-19 asks parents to split their energy between their jobs, household chores and schooling their children. 

Tutoring doesn't face those challenges. Instead, tutoring offers a one-on-one relationship.

Companies that offer tutoring services such as Gooroo have an opportunity in this pandemic to reach people and offer a helping hand.

Individual, not scattershot

"Our company offers individualized tutoring services that are tailored to each child," Lee says. 

"We knew going in that we didn't want this to be just like a classroom where everyone just gets what they get. In our case, we use an algorithm and questions to determine how the child learns, what they need to learn, and how to give them what they need."

As a seminal 2001 Department of Education report pointed out, tutoring works. It raises outcomes across the board. How much more if the tutor is hand-picked for the child, either through an algorithm - like Gooroo - or through people who know that child well?

Finding the right fit between a student and a mentor can make a huge difference in that person's life. As one tutoring study notes, "[effective tutoring] strategies focused not only on the tutees' cognitive progress, but also on their motivational and affective states." In other words, good tutors are able to fit the method to the student's learning style.

Incredibly detailed feedback

Every parent and guardian wants to know how their child is doing at school. But, when a teacher has several classes of students, they may not be able to provide the individualized level of feedback a parent needs to help their children.

"We knew going in that we wanted to provide a level of feedback and structure that parents would be comfortable with," Lee says. "Feedback and action steps after each session as well as quarterly reviews allow us to give more than the average teacher is able to. They work very hard, but they aren't able to drill down as far into each student as a dedicated tutor can because of the logistics of a classroom."

Gooroo Gives Back

There can be a concern that tutoring does not favor underserved and undereducated children.

Tutoring usually costs money, and not everyone has it. The most at-risk students are also often the poorest. There are not a lot of good solutions. Some local church and civic organizations may provide free or low-cost tutoring services, but you can't always count on the quality. That's where for-profit tutoring services like Gooroo can make a difference.

"We don't want to create a culture of education haves and have nots," says Lee.

"Gooroo has a nonprofit side called Gooroo Gives Back that provides our mentoring services to at-risk children and older adults that need it. And we're not alone. There are others who see the need and act on it too. It's worth looking around."

The coronavirus pandemic has forced education issues to a head by pushing both parents to stay home with children, sometimes working, sometimes dealing with the impact of a furlough or job loss. Children are now having to learn remotely or homeschool if it's even possible and taxing already-strained school systems and parents with plenty of problems of their own.

Tutoring can help ease those problems and set kids on the fast track to success. If you haven't considered it before, now is the time.