[originaltext] Teams of teachers and school administrators from at least fou

Teams of teachers and school administrators from at least fourteen American cities are at a conference in Washington. The American Federation of Teachers, a labor union, holds the Quest conference every two years.
    This year, one of the subjects is a tutoring program that provides extra help to students in Rochester, New York. The Rochester City School District was one of five in the nation recognized by the Bush administration for their tutoring programs. Tutoring is big business in the United States these days. There are private learning centers where parents can take their children after school. Test preparation companies are also doing well. One reason for all this tutoring is the growing competition for places at top universities. Another influence is the Bush administration’s federal education law, called No Child Left Behind. The law requires services like free tutoring for poor students at schools that fail to meet educational goals for three years. There is federal money to pay the tutors. But the No Child Left Behind law does not say who must do the tutoring. It can be a private company or local teachers. The law does say, however, that the provider must have shown a record of effectiveness in helping students learn. In Rochester, the tutoring is provided by a teachers union, the Rochester Teachers’ Association. The program began in the spring of 2003 with 47 students and 15 tutors.