Wichita ? Denise Davis gives top marks to the instruction materials she uses for her after-school tutoring sessions at Marshall Middle School. But they can’t be used in regular classrooms, since they belong to a private firm paid by the federal government to raise student achievement.

Davis teaches art at Marshall, which was among the Wichita schools required to provide tutoring for children from low-income families for failure to show adequate progress on annual state tests under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Twelve companies provide state-approved tutoring to districts statewide, paid for by taxpayers through federal money that helps children from low-income families.

While the state doesn’t track how much these companies make, three of them – Achievia, ClubZ and Huddle Learning Services – have made a little more than $400,000 so far this school year from the Wichita district, according to The Wichita Eagle.

Parents at Marshall and two other Wichita schools chose the three providers after hearing presentations from the companies earlier in the school year.

Achievia charges $40 an hour and has made $200,970 so far, according to district records. ClubZ, which tutors both at school and at children’s homes, charges $60 an hour and has made $118,755. Huddle charges $35 an hour for an individual and $20 an hour per person for small groups, and has made $82,215.

Huddle and Achievia Huddle both use school district personnel as tutors.

Davis has been holding twice-weekly tutoring sessions for Achievia after school since mid-November, after taking the company’s three-hour training session.

“The materials are wonderful,” she said. “They are copyrighted so we can’t use it in the classroom. They guarantee that kids move up a level and I can see why. It’s very intensive.”

She said it was too early to tell whether the tutoring is helping students improve. But the students have fun, she said, noting they can win prizes such as a new bicycle or CD player for good attendance.

“The program itself has encouraged kids to stay,” she said.

The Kansas Department of Education’s application for providing supplemental services requires that tutoring firms “have a demonstrated record of effectiveness in increasing student academic achievement” and provide services that are “high quality and research based.”

“Those that met the criteria are on the list” of approved tutors, said Judi Miller, the department’s assistant director of state and federal programs.

Gene Sherrill, co-founder of Achievia, said that when teachers are tutoring, they are paid by his company, not the district.

“We hire from the district, that’s our first choice,” he said. “But those people have to go through our training program.”

Huddle uses software in combination with tutors to help with student achievement, said Donald Fast, the company’s vice president of operations.

Student progress is measured with the same exam that the school district administers in the fall and spring. Sherrill said Achievia tests students before and after the tutoring and provides parents and teachers with a progress report.

Officials in Kansas and elsewhere say it’s difficult to gauge the effectiveness of the federally mandated tutoring or of the private companies that have stepped in to provide it.

“There is very little empirical data to draw any good conclusions about some supplemental services,” said Jeff Simering of the Council of Great City Schools, which represents Wichita and other large urban districts nationwide. “Here we are five years into (No Child Left Behind) and we don’t know how effective one of their provisions are.”

Simering said that some of his organization’s member districts have seen moderate results, while others have seen none.

Mary Ellen Isaac, the Wichita district’s chief academic officer, said at this point it’s trial and error.

“We’ll know along the way,” she said. “We’ll be watching those reports because we want this to work. We have a stake in this.”