| Schools of Hope: closing the achievement gap by Uyenthi Tran |
| "Go to law school. Be a lawyer." "Your aunt says your cousin is doing very well after she went to pharmacy school, you know." "What about your friend Ammu? Go to medical school like her." Like many mothers, my mom has (unsuccessfully) tried to give me career advice for many years. Despite all her suggestions, I am not a lawyer, a pharmacist, or a doctor. I'm not even a journalist, despite my degree in journalism and mass communication from UW-Madison. Instead, I'm an AmeriCorps VISTA -- or Volunteer in Service to America. |
| More specifically, I am a volunteer coordinator for the Schools of Hope Literacy Project in Madison. The project places volunteer tutors to work with K-5 students on reading, for at least an hour a week for a semester. As a VISTA on this project, I coordinate volunteers at two schools: John Muir and Falk Elementary Schools, both on Madison's west side. I am one of 13 VISTA volunteer coordinators, and together, we recruit, train, and place volunteers at 24 Madison elementary schools, two schools in Sun Prairie, and four schools in Verona. Schools of Hope is rooted in a 1995 civic journalism project between the Wisconsin State Journal and WISC-TV. The journalism project studied critical issues in Madison, and identified the achievement gap between students of color and their White peers as a focus for community involvement. A new approach to closing this gap involved a combination of smaller class size, teacher training in reading instruction, and tutoring. In 1998, with a grant for VISTAs from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Schools of Hope and its community-based tutoring effort began. Now managed in a partnership among RSVP of Dane County, Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), and the United Way of Dane County, the project places VISTA volunteer coordinators in schools with the highest percent of low-income children and the lowest standardized test scores. Last year, over 500 volunteers worked in concert with classroom teachers to tutor 3,000 K-5 students. These numbers of tutors and students are impressive, but the numbers relating to test scores and the achievement gap are more telling. Between 1998 and 2005, the number of Madison third grade students scoring at a minimal performance level on the Wisconsin Reading Comprehension Test decreased to 1.5 percent, down from 6.2 percent in 1998 (the year Schools of Hope began.) This reading test is a key indicator of literacy among young children because until the third grade, children learn to read, but after the third grade, children read to learn. The statistics reflect an improvement in scores across racial and ethnic groups. Between 1995 and 2005, the last year this reading test was administered, scores for African American students at the minimal performance level fell from 28.5 percent to 5.5 percent, Latino/Hispanic students from 9.7 percent to .6 percent, Southeast Asian students from 22.5 percent to 0 percent, other Asian students from 1.7 percent to 1 percent, and White students from 4.1 percent to .3 percent. MMSD Superintendent Art Rainwater has credited the efforts of "hundreds of volunteer tutors in the Schools of Hope initiative" as among the reasons for this improvement in test scores. Muir kindergarten teacher Linda Smulka has had the same volunteer tutors return to her classroom year after year, and she says they have a "tremendous impact" on her students. / "I put the tutors with the kids who need the most help. They start the year working on the ABCs, and by the end of the year, [the kids] are just sailing," said Smulka, sitting in her class on a recent Monday afternoon. "It's like having another teacher in the classroom." Smulka explained why she loves having the same volunteers return to her room each year. "The skills that they work on really support what we're doing in the classroom. It gives the child the chance to work one-on-one without the pressure of other peers watching," she said. Not only do tutors provide academic support, but they also provide emotional support by spending time with students and returning week after week to work with the same children. "These kids would not make the gains that they do without the extra support that the volunteers give them. They're an integral part of learning for these kids. They're not just a supplement." It's hard to explain to my mom why my job is important. For my well-meaning mother, "My daughter is a volunteer coordinator!" doesn't have the same ring as "My daughter is a doctor!" But I can tell her that I coordinate over fifty volunteers (and counting) at my two sites. I have students who anxiously await the arrival of their tutors, and teachers who ask for the same tutors to return at the beginning of each school year. Volunteers never tire of excitedly telling me what their students are working on, or what progress the students have made. I might not be on my way to performing operations, or winning important cases. But I'm convinced that I am matching tutors with students who will become groundbreaking doctors, lawyers, pharmacists ... maybe even volunteer coordinators. The Schools of Hope Project welcomes new volunteers for preschool through middle school programs throughout Dane County. Please call 441-7895 for more information about exciting opportunities to connect with children and youth. Next volunteer training: February 6, 2007) |
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| Author at the Schools of Hope booth, Chinese Culture Day celebration, Wisconsin State Capitol steps (September '06) |
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