CUSD recently purchased the 24/7 tutoring program Paper for all students in the district. 

The program advertises to be a convenient resource for students that offers tutoring any hour of the day. With English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin-speaking tutors, Paper supports all students and is completely free to use. It can review essays for students within hours, and even has an online chat interface that connects students to tutors of any subject.

However, student opinion seems to disagree upon the effectiveness of Paper. 

For instance, the chat interface may not be as “user friendly” as expected. Some students say that tutors are often unable to effectively respond to questions, especially in higher level classes. 

The effectiveness of the essay review system may also raise some disagreement, as the comments tutors write for students may not always be helpful.

“I feel like it’s very useful because you can get advice from certified writers I guess but they also have very different ways of writing and therefore different critiques,” said junior Maia Garcia about their essay edits. “But I’d say it’s more helpful than not.”

“It’s good in theory but not in practice,” said junior Jack Perez, regarding the essay review. “It has potential if they can ensure their graders are putting forth the most effort for each essay.”

“They gave me good advice on specific sentences that needed fixing with grammar or extra wording,” said junior Kyla Larson, who utilizes the platform for essay review.

Students do have the opportunity to resubmit their essay an unlimited amount of times for review, until they feel satisfied with the critiques.

Accessing the platform is simple for students. 

First, log on to the Clever platform. From here, find the “District Supported Applications” section on the website, and click the “Paper” icon, a blue square with a white “P”. 

CUSD students have free access to all of Paper’s elements and resources. The program hopes to become a useful tool for student success.