A new way to tutor

Technological advancements over the past decade have changed the way people interact, do business and access information. Those advancements have also given educators new tools, like SmartBoards and iPads, to use when leading classroom instruction.

And technology is helping a growing number of students in Baldwin pass Regents exams, catch up on credits or earn their diplomas. Since 2013, Baldwin has used iTutor, a Jericho-based company that offers online tutoring, to help students at Hastings Academy, the district’s alternative high school, as well as students who are homebound with medical problems and those suspended from school.

Dr. Augustine Tornatore, the principal at Hastings, said that each of his 65 students has used iTutor in some way over the past two school years. Tornatore is a member of a committee that identifies at-risk students at Baldwin High School who may be good candidates for Hastings, which offers a smaller, less busy learning environment.

“With at-risk students, not only do they have deficiencies of credits at the high school, but they usually have failed one or more of the Regents examinations,” he noted. “We wanted to be able to offer them extra support so that they had the chance to be more successful when they went to take them initially or retake the exams.”

Baldwin was one of the first districts to hire iTutor. The first contract between the two was for 75 hours, according to Harry Aurora, iTutor’s founder, but the district has since upped that total to more than 2,000 hours. Since iTutor is a member of Nassau BOCES, explained Denise Weiss-Marder, the company’s senior education director, districts save money by contracting with iTutor instead of offering traditional academic intervention services.