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FOCUS ON: WORLD LEARNING
It is 8 a.m., and the city of Kochi is beginning a new day. The aroma of boiling rice wafts through the open windows of apartments on side streets, and children in uniform haul backpacks heavy with books to school.
But inside the third floor of a gray and white building, tutors have been at work for nearly four hours, sitting at their computers inside small, partitioned cubicles. A sign outside the door reads, "Growing Stars Infotech Limited: A subsidiary of Growing Stars Inc., California, U.S.A."
Bindu Sudheep, dressed in an embroidered tunic with a long, matching scarf draped around her shoulders, is about to start her third session of the day. A sandalwood dot on her forehead signifies her faith, and a red one, her married status. She closes her eyes to say a brief, silent prayer to the two framed Hindu deities on her computer keyboard, then adjusts her headphones and flips through a math textbook used by 10th graders in the United States.
"Darrow, how are you? Did you go through your questions?" she opens, voice soft but firm.
Nearly 9,000 miles away, in California, Darrow Feldstein, a music-loving 15-year-old at Beverly Hills High School, has just returned from school. He watches his computer as Ms. Sudheep scribbles a math problem for him, using whiteboard technology that links up their computers via the Internet so they can see the same screen.
For the next hour, tutor and student work their way together through a maze of high school math. Using a pen mouse and a writing tablet, Ms. Sudheep poses questions, guides Darrow in a calm voice when he makes a mistake, and praises him profusely when he answers correctly.
Welcome to the world of outsourced tutoring and the Indian operation of Growing Stars, a firm that now provides tutoring services to 350 American children.
India, home to a large population of educated English speakers and software engineers, has in the past few years positioned itself as an outsourcing center for American businesses. Call centers there now provide banking and medical transcription, among other services.
Firms like Growing Stars are taking the concept a step further.
Growing Stars opened last year and offers tutoring in math, science,...