Posted on 08/12/2003 6:53:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
As students return to school after the summer break, the impact of funding cuts will begin to surface. Yet, there remains a largely untapped resource to enhance public education at little additional cost -- volunteer tutors.
In recognition of the challenge to help all students, including those who lag behind, the Spring Branch Independent School District has created a Volunteer Advisory Board, and has included the "developing, monitoring and evaluating campus volunteer programs" in its planning for each campus.
Selling the utilization of volunteers to all educators is not easy. There is a justifiable reluctance to bring untrained, lay people into the complex process of education. But where a working partnership exists between the campus and volunteers, Spring Branch ISD has seen measurable, positive results.
Volunteering is win-win. Most people who assist on campus in one-on-one tutoring find it extremely rewarding and fulfilling. The commitment of a reading tutor in an elementary school might be to meet with a student twice a week for about half an hour each session. With preparation and travel time, tutoring two students takes less than four hours a week and, ultimately, that one-on-one help may be the difference between a student continuing on to graduate from high school or not.
In one of our high schools, the volunteer tutor program involves a concentrated effort to help students who were failing the math portion of the TAAS (now TAKS). Over a three-year period, more than 150 students who were impacted passed the TAAS achievement test. Typically, this was achieved in two, one and one-half-hour tutoring sessions per student.
Some tutors are parents of successful students and want to contribute to the success of other children. Many are retirees who have the time and wisdom to positively impact the life of students, and others are employees of local businesses -- businesses that generously make available time for employees to volunteer in schools.
Successful volunteer programs are run at the campus level where tutors can be recruited to meet specific needs. Spring Branch ISD has developed guidelines for volunteer programs that include the campus organization, recruitment, training, support and recognition to both the students and volunteers.
Programs are not without cost. Background checks on volunteers are needed. Books, supplies and space must be provided, but the greatest cost may be the time of teachers and specialists who provide identification of student needs, training and monitoring of the program.
Yet, teachers love their children and are deeply concerned for those who fall behind. These dedicated educators willingly give of themselves to match student with tutor and to closely monitor progress. Some teachers even welcome the volunteer into a corner of the classroom if no other space is available for the one-on-one time.
Community interest and support of volunteer programs could include donations and grants for the purchase of books and supplies, tables and portable wall dividers, as well as salaries.
In Spring Branch, we are extremely fortunate to have an active community of volunteers willing to help in the education process. But we have only begun to tap the source of volunteers who could assist students through one-on-one relationships.
To those who seek to volunteer, I suggest that they not be discouraged when the school does not have an up-and-running program. Rather, they can be a part of the process and help get the program started, even if ever so slowly. As teachers and administrators begin to see how volunteers can assist them in helping the students, the programs will evolve. And we -- educators, students and volunteers -- become winners.
Katz is Superintendent of the Spring Branch Independent School District.
And, most important, the volunteers must not do/say anything that will make a union teacher, whose only personal objectives are minmizing work/effort and maximizing pay/benefits/pensions, look bad or like a bumbling, grasping, incompetent, public sector employee.
Yep, because these "untrained" people won't be in the unions and will probably do a better job than the teachers themselves.
Exacta mundo - perfectly said!
1. Teachers are uniquely qualified to impart knowledge based upon the programs in schools of education. [Knowing methodologies for presenting knowledge is good, but having a mastery of the subject matter is more important. Too many teachers know how to teach but do not really know what to teach. Tutors who are masters of the subject matter will show up this huge deficiency in our schools simply by being successful.]
2. Teachers are doing the best job possible of educating students. [If tutors who are not licensed teachers improve student performance, it will become obvious that teachers are not doing a very effective job of educating their students. While many "teachers" are doing their best, their best many simply not be good enough.]
3. Grades in too many schools are subjective in that those grades only tell parents how their children are performing relative to others in their class at their school. [Many parents are surprised when they move from school district to school district that their childrens' grade change more radically than can be explained solely by the stress of the move. Notice how hard the teachers' unions are fighting more objective measures of performance/knowledge transfer than grades.]
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