Blogs

• Experience: Match.com has been in the business of bringing people together since 1995.
• Scale: Match.com has accumulated a vast amount of data and learnings over the years.
• Continuous learning: Every day, Match.com learns more than anyone else and uses it to iterate on its algorithms.

Tutor.com, bought by Match.com’s parent company, works much the same way. In its 14 years, Tutor.com has completed more than 10.8 million sessions all online and one-to-one with teachers and tutors. She described the massive amounts of data collected in storing every session. Every single session can be measured, reviewed, and coached for quality control.

Each night 7,000 sessions are going on: between students in libraries, at online universities, and among military families. With no geographic constraints, children living abroad with military families have access to tutors based in the US. The vast majority of tutors are free to students as libraries pay for this service. “It’s been about a social mission; it’s a great service for kids who can’t afford to pay to get access to tutoring,” Ginsberg says.

She noted that 30 percent of students from grades 7 – 12 have accessed tutors. Tutor.com has 3,000 teachers. All of them have undergone extensive background checks, and have passed the 90-minute test required to become tutors. The test is refined every six to eight weeks.

In pairing the right student with the right tutor at the right time, Tutor.com looks at:

Static inputs

• Tutor qualifications (education, experience, subjects)
• Historical ratings and quality assessments
• Tutor schedules
• Historical demand by subject by data and time
• Student profile including age, grade, geographic, gender, proficiency, and deficiencies
• Students’ prior session history and feedback – general and tutor specifications

Dynamic inputs

• Real time demand by subject and grade level
• Real time tutor utilization and session time lapse
• Student’s favorite tutors and other desired preferences
• Real time quality inputs ex: connection difficulties, drop rates, etc.
• First time student vs. student who has used Tutor.com previously
• Predictive tutor-student chemistry

Goal: Minimize student wait time; maximize tutor utilization; maximize student learning

Ginsberg says Tutor.com wants to ensure that students are not waiting more than 10 seconds to reach a tutor. The site has both on-demand and scheduled tutoring. If students’ feedback on their overall tutoring experience is below 4.5 stars out of 5, it gets flagged for review.

The platform used is an effective learning tool that can be accessed on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. “Students go back and forth with a tutor on the phone; I don’t know how they do it but they do,” Ginsberg says. Typically communication is through voice and instant messenger. Video is not as popular because students don’t want to talk to someone face to face unless they know them. In the past couple of years, she’s seen a lot of growth in the use of tablets and mobile phones.

Students build confidence with the online tutoring set-up. “There’s a feeling that I don’t put myself out there in the class, but I can ask a question in a more intimate setting like this one,” Ginsberg says.

When asked why the focus is on kids, she notes that about 20 percent of Tutor.com’s audience is college age. While tutor.com has focused on academics, she says, the technology platform could have a range of uses. For example, the US military is now working with us to understand how people learn and use this information for their training purposes, Ginsberg says. 

But Tutor.com’s mission is not just about helping students academically.  “We strive to create emotional connections with students every day. We rely on thousands of qualified, dedicated educators who want to change their lives,” Ginsberg says.

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ASU + GSV: New Fund-raising Model in Schools

Missy Shelburne of donorschoose.org, which matches teacher’s projects with funders, says this model of fund-raising is changing the system:

• Inventors and entrepreneurs can introduce new projects and tools to teachers directly.
• Teachers gain decision making power (as opposed to the current system: 10,000 school districts’ procurement officers who are not connected to the real users, the teachers).
• Our data is open and we’ve hired data scientists to analyze it. We know what teachers need in their classrooms and how donors give. This helps the public school systems better use taxpayer dollars.
• All can be citizen philanthropists. (You're able to witness what you and a dedicated teacher can do together when gatekeepers don’t stand in the way.)

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ASU + GSV: Gov. Jeb Bush’s Call to Action on Education and the American Dream

In his keynote on the opening night of the ASU + GSV summit, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush addressed education in the context of the American Dream – in what sounded like a call to action.

Political media of late have been reporting on whether Bush will enter the 2016 presidential race.

“We can no longer neglect our most valuable resource, our children,” he told the audience, emphasizing that this includes all children: poor children, children of color, immigrant children, and affluent children who think they’re doing well, but aren’t when measured against those of other countries. For example, he noted that teenage students have fallen behind their counterparts around the world in the areas of science and math.

The focus ought to be on engaging every child in our education system. The concern is that we might “dumb down” the expectations for an immigrant child from the inner city and perhaps shuffle him through the system “till he’s so far behind that no one can deal with him,” Bush said.

The consequences? “There will be no social mobility for this child; there will be no achieving the American Dream. We’ve been doing this for far too many children, and the data reflect it,” he said, adding that if you can’t read by the fourth grade, you’re more likely to drop out of school. “Think of all the untapped potential we’re losing,” he continued. “We could create the most productive workforce in the world.”

No magic bullet exists to solve the problem, he said. The solution going forward will be in the form of a “cocktail,” including:

• Early child literacy.
• An end to social promotion.
• Robust accountability, including grading schools on an A-F scale based on student learning.
• Choice, whether that’s charter schools, home schooling, private schools, online. “Choice improves our lives in every aspect of what we do. Why are people so reluctant to embrace it in the most important service?”
• Poor teachers removed from the classroom. “They’re dooming the children who are in front of them,” he said.
• A transition out of herd education.

He singled out Julie Young in the audience, who took a risk with the Florida Virtual School. In the first year, her school offered five classes and enrolled 77 students. Now, it offers over 120 courses, including honors and AP classes. The school doesn’t receive full payment until students finish the class. In a nod to its efficiency, he noted that the costs are below those of traditional public schools. Bush referred to Young as “the godmother of digital learning.” With no rules and road map to follow, she and her team created their own.

In that vein, he said entrepreneurship “is not the threat to public education; it’s its savior.” Here, he says, government has a right to regulate but should be an “honest broker.”  Florida Virtual School was viewed as a threat to those who wanted to protect the status quo, and Bush made the point: “Innovation without policy that allows it is little more than wishful thinking.”

Bush concluded his speech: “When our children and grandchildren rise, our nation will rise, and the American Dream will be restored.”

 Links to previous posts:

ASU + GSV: The Qualities of Rock Star Schools

ASU + GSV: Rethinking the Purpose of the University

Education's Role in Expanding "American" Dream @ Education Innovation Summit