Oma Jones called Club Z last spring to help her daughter, Megan, with reading and math in fourth-grade.
"She was on the honor roll for first and second nine weeks, but on the third nine weeks she was having difficulty with her math and reading. She was tutored for the last nine weeks and by the end of the fourth nine weeks, she was back on the honor roll," Jones says, noting that her daughter was crazy about her tutor.
The school systems also offer extended school services (ESS) during school hours and after school for children who might be having trouble, usually with reading or math.
Ruth, a mother of three, says staying on par in school is important.
"It's a whole lot easier to keep up than catch up. A lot of parents wait until it's almost too late," she says, noting that parents may not realize until mid-term grades.
Dean was familiar with Sylvan's program because her son, Michael, who is ShiAnne's father, also sought help from Sylvan.
"Michael went for reading, too, but he was in fourth- and fifth-grade," says Dean, who notes that taking ShiAnne is much easier because Sylvan opened a Danville center in the spring.
Dean says ShiAnne is a whiz in math, but fell behind in reading because while her father was stationed in Iraq with the National Guard, her mother moved several times.
ShiAnne didn't get much of a break this summer as her evaluation showed that she would need several hours of classwork to boost her reading skills. She attended class four days a week for four hours in the morning and had a second session for a couple of days a week.
One of her teachers, Shelton, has been guidance counselor at Danville High School since 1999. She decided to tutor as a way of checking out career options.
"I'm nearing retirement so I was looking at other options in education."
After two days of training, she was ready to begin.
"You can see the strategies that they use and a lot of it's phonics. A lot of it is just sounding out words."
The best thing about Sylvan's method is the teacher-to-student ratio.
"It's more of a one-on-one thing," Shelton says, noting that the groupings can be three-to-one.
In addition to working with the pupils ShiAnne's age, Shelton also has older students. A high school junior from Garrard County wants to improve his interpretation and higher-level thinking skills.
"I know it will help him on this CATS test," Shelton says.
Although Shelton has been working at Sylvan, she says the school systems also do their best to help students who are having difficulty. Many times this is in the form of extended school service.
"A lot of teachers begin it the first day," she says, noting that a lot of teachers do their own tutoring and National Honor Society members earn volunteer hours as tutors.
"A lot of teachers do it even if they don't get paid. That's one thing I like about the faculty here."
Danville offers March Futures Program
Last school year, Danville High also began offering the March Futures Program to offer students help twice a week based on teacher recommendation.
A night school is available on computer. Students who have failed a class can make it up at night.
Shelton says sometimes the students do fall through the cracks and she sees ninth-graders who have fourth-grade reading skills. "Kids will just say, 'I don't like to read.'"
Even successful educators like Shelton have resorted to tutoring services.
"I went to tutoring after school. I went to tutoring in college. Chemistry about killed me," the former science teacher says.
The other paid tutoring service in Danville, Club Z, offers in-home tutoring. Ruth started the business two years ago.
Summer is not a busy time, but Ruth says that is a mistake.
"People think they want to take the summer off, but it's really not helpful. I've tried to get parents to agree to one hour a week to keep up in the summer."
The same problems occur during the school year, Ruth says.
"Scheduling is so tough with sports and after-school activities, I try to get two hours a week, but sometimes, I'm lucky to just get one," says Ruth, who has 10 tutors who come to the home.
The reasons people call Club Z differ.
"Most of what we see has to do with reading and math and right now has to do more with middle school kids," Ruth says. "Last year, it was geometry."
In addition to tutoring, one of the services Club Z offers is a class to study for the ACT.
