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Please support me in my efforts to help "Bridge the Gap" for college-bound, low-income students:
According to Niche's 2020 Best Schools, The Palo Alto School District (PAUSD) is the 23rd best school district in America and the 2nd best in the State of California. However, the district continues to fail to bridge its socioeconomic achievement gap. The achievement gap is the significant and persistent disparity in academic achievement between students who are and are not low income. According to the California Department of Education, PAUSD students from low-socioeconomic status backgrounds have an 80.7 percent graduation rate and perform significantly worse on standardized tests and state proficiency exams than the district average. Comparatively, the overall graduation rate is 95.1 percent graduation rate.
When I decided to offer my skills as an SAT tutor this summer, I was unsure if my impact would be truly positive in the larger scheme of things. Effective private tutors in the Bay Area can cost, on average, anywhere between $70 and $100 per hour. I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of individualized coaching, but the unfortunate reality is that expensive tutors are not a financially viable reality for many families. I was hesitant to offer my services for fear of contributing to a system of educational inequality that reduces opportunities for students of low-income families planning for a post-highschool education. As a result, I decided to tailor my program to prioritize equalizing educational opportunities by offering tutoring services to all students, regardless of financial capacity.
My coaching program runs on an opt-in, “pay it forward” basis up to the client’s discretion. For those who are financially able, I charge $30 per hour of one-on-one tutoring. My price is set significantly lower than that of most private SAT tutors in the area so as to encourage additional donations, which will help to cover the cost of tutoring sessions for high-achieving students of families with unequal cost accessibility.
My goal is to operate at a base one-to-one ratio, offering my services to just as many low-income households as I do to high-income households, so as to give all my students equal educational opportunity as they prepare for their college applications. However, there is still a disparity between the funds I am receiving for SAT Prep for high-income students and the donations I am collecting to provide SAT Prep for low-income students. This is where I need your help--100 % of every amount donated to this GoFundMe goes towards providing individualized SAT prep tutoring for college-bound, low-income students.*
Every $10 donated pays for 20 minutes of individualized SAT prep for college-bound, low-income students. My goal is a 1:1 ratio, so that for every hour I tutor a student from a high-income household, I can offer the same SAT prep services--always at zero cost--to a student from a low-income household.
I will be keeping track of my hours and producing proof-of-work documents--which I will periodically distribute to all my donors--for all tutoring hours I put in for low-income families. *All additional funds raised that do not go to covering the cost of tutoring for low-income families will be donated to the Ravenswood Education Foundation's Emergency Fund, which provides financial relief related to school closures due to COVID-19 in the East Palo Alto school district. You can read more about the Ravenswood Education Foundation and their Emergency Funds on their website.
According to Niche's 2020 Best Schools, The Palo Alto School District (PAUSD) is the 23rd best school district in America and the 2nd best in the State of California. However, the district continues to fail to bridge its socioeconomic achievement gap. The achievement gap is the significant and persistent disparity in academic achievement between students who are and are not low income. According to the California Department of Education, PAUSD students from low-socioeconomic status backgrounds have an 80.7 percent graduation rate and perform significantly worse on standardized tests and state proficiency exams than the district average. Comparatively, the overall graduation rate is 95.1 percent graduation rate.
When I decided to offer my skills as an SAT tutor this summer, I was unsure if my impact would be truly positive in the larger scheme of things. Effective private tutors in the Bay Area can cost, on average, anywhere between $70 and $100 per hour. I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of individualized coaching, but the unfortunate reality is that expensive tutors are not a financially viable reality for many families. I was hesitant to offer my services for fear of contributing to a system of educational inequality that reduces opportunities for students of low-income families planning for a post-highschool education. As a result, I decided to tailor my program to prioritize equalizing educational opportunities by offering tutoring services to all students, regardless of financial capacity.
My coaching program runs on an opt-in, “pay it forward” basis up to the client’s discretion. For those who are financially able, I charge $30 per hour of one-on-one tutoring. My price is set significantly lower than that of most private SAT tutors in the area so as to encourage additional donations, which will help to cover the cost of tutoring sessions for high-achieving students of families with unequal cost accessibility.
My goal is to operate at a base one-to-one ratio, offering my services to just as many low-income households as I do to high-income households, so as to give all my students equal educational opportunity as they prepare for their college applications. However, there is still a disparity between the funds I am receiving for SAT Prep for high-income students and the donations I am collecting to provide SAT Prep for low-income students. This is where I need your help--100 % of every amount donated to this GoFundMe goes towards providing individualized SAT prep tutoring for college-bound, low-income students.*
Every $10 donated pays for 20 minutes of individualized SAT prep for college-bound, low-income students. My goal is a 1:1 ratio, so that for every hour I tutor a student from a high-income household, I can offer the same SAT prep services--always at zero cost--to a student from a low-income household.
I will be keeping track of my hours and producing proof-of-work documents--which I will periodically distribute to all my donors--for all tutoring hours I put in for low-income families. *All additional funds raised that do not go to covering the cost of tutoring for low-income families will be donated to the Ravenswood Education Foundation's Emergency Fund, which provides financial relief related to school closures due to COVID-19 in the East Palo Alto school district. You can read more about the Ravenswood Education Foundation and their Emergency Funds on their website.