George Cigale Named Visiting Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education

NEW YORK, October 3, 2012 - George Cigale, the founder and CEO of Tutor.com, has been named a Visiting Fellow for the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. Cigale will focus his fellowship on the power of persistent student feedback and investigating the effect regularly asking for and sharing student perceptions has on the quality of instruction, student engagement, and the K-12 school culture.

The power of persistent student feedback is a topic Cigale has been passionate about since he was a tutor more than 20 years ago. He has seen the results of asking students for their opinions about their learning from delivering more than eight million tutoring sessions online through Tutor.com, and receiving millions of student comments and completed surveys.

Cigale has also been influenced by the work done by Dr. Ronald Ferguson, a Harvard professor and researcher who created the Tripod Survey, a student questionnaire implemented in several school districts as part of a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation project. Working with Johns Hopkins University faculty, Cigale will explore the current body of research and will look to develop tools and a process that teachers can implement in the classroom environment.

"Student feedback has driven every aspect of Tutor.com, from the features we develop in our online learning platform to how we rate and assess the effectiveness of our tutoring," explained Cigale. "This fellowship gives me a unique opportunity to work with top faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education to explore how we can give students more of a voice in their own K-12 education and make it better. Students know when they are learning. We just have to give them the opportunity to share their perceptions with their teachers and schools."

"I am very excited that George will be part of our Visiting Fellows program," said David Andrews, dean of the School of Education. "The student-centered approach of Tutor.com is a good fit with our efforts to develop new personalized instructional models. I am looking forward to working together to design better research-based learning tools to benefit both instructors and learners."

About George Cigale, CEO Tutor.com

Mr. Cigale is an education technology leader and entrepreneur working in the education, software and Internet field for more than 20 years. He held positions at The Princeton Review and Adizes Consulting before founding Tutor.com in 1998. Mr. Cigale is the Chair of the Johns Hopkins School of Education National Advisory Council, on the Board of Directors of the Poet’s House and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) Education Division. To see Mr. Cigale’s full biography please visit www.tutor.com/our-company/directors. You can also read his blog at ceotutor.blogspot.com and follow him on Twitter @gcigale.

About the Johns Hopkins School of Education Visiting Fellows Program

The School of Education Visiting Fellows program is designed to provide a forum where leading researchers and practitioners can exchange ideas, debate, study, and evaluate new approaches to reforming educational practice in the United States. The program seeks progressive thinkers from both the public and private sectors with an interest in changing American education by examining the most relevant issues in K-12 reform.

In collaboration with School of Education faculty and staff, Visiting Fellows develop a work plan on a reform topic of joint interest which can involve a public policy presentation, participating in a panel discussion or class presentation, or joining in our incubator program for the development of new approached to education reform.

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