Williams College Students Help Boost Charter School's Academic Programs
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Abi Ury was struggling academically when she met Gershwin Penn '11."I was having a lot of difficulties with math," said Ury, now an 8th grade student at the Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School (BArT) in Adams. "I really needed extra help."
For that extra help, she began attending an intensive after-school academic tutoring program where Penn and other Williams students volunteer regularly, as part of a "Williams/BArT tutoring corps." The tutoring corps, which involves roughly 25 Williams students, provides BArT students with five hours each week of extra instruction in targeted subjects. The program has been cited by the school as a critical part of BArT's impressive academic gains as measured by the MCAS and Stanford achievement tests, and has continued in this academic year.
"I found the tutoring really helpful," said Ury. "Gershwin showed me different ways of looking at problems. I started getting the answers right in science and math. I'm just really proud about that."
Ury isn't alone. Thanks to programs like the tutoring corps, BArT demonstrated dramatic growth in their 2009 MCAS results and other standardized test results. As a school, BArT met annual yearly progress (AYP) in both mathematics and English Language Arts and demonstrated significant achievement in all sub-categories. In English Language Arts 96% of all students at BArT earned a passing grade, and the percentage of students who scored in the proficient/advanced category improved 65% over the previous year. For mathematics, 70% earned a passing grade in mathematics, with a 90% increase in the percent of students scoring proficient/advanced. Using the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT 10) as a standard of measurement, the majority of BArT students at every grade level exceeded the national average of other students who also took this exam in both reading and mathematics.
"The Williams tutors have been extremely helpful," said BArT principal Ben Klompus. "From the start, BArT has worked to meet students' individual learning needs, and to growing a program where every student is able to excel. The Williams/BArT tutoring corps is an extremely important way for us to do that."
Many Williams students worked one-on-one with BArT counterparts. Penn, however, quickly moved from one-on-one tutoring to a larger group setting.
"It was definitely intimidating at the beginning," said Penn. "It was hard to figure out where each needed help and where they didn't. Sometimes it was hard powering through an hour and a half when they were tired after a long day at school. But it was also really fun."
Penn worked with students on specific math problems, breaking them down into parts. "Breaking it down allowed them to understand each step, which allowed them to then rely on themselves," he said. "Many of them seemed to need an extra push of confidence, so that they could confront a problem on their own."
Klompus says the Williams/BArT tutoring corps was modeled on a similar program in Boston.
"We had been searching for a tutoring model that provides students who need extra help in math classes with additional targeted instruction," said Klompus. "We saw a great model at the MATCH Charter School, which helped us to envision a similar program here. It's worked out terrific."
After seeing the MATCH program, BArT enlisted the help of Kaatje White, Director of the Williams Center at Mount Greylock, to present the idea to potential Williams volunteers. At first, ten students signed up for the program. Over the course of the year, the program grew to 25 students, who collectively came three days a week.
While the tutoring was in math, Williams students came from all backgrounds.
"I'm a sociology major," Penn laughed. "I've taken one math class on campus. But all of the math skills came back as I worked."
At the end of each tutoring session, BArT asked both students and tutors to evaluate the program and each other in a 360-degree evaluation.
"Our students are exceptionally enthusiastic about the program," said Klompus. "They appreciate the opportunity to work with college students. Sometimes, this is our students' first exposure to a college student. I think that they are amazed that these students travel from Williamstown just to help them learn math."
Williams students volunteer in many of the area schools. They can be found supporting students and teachers at Mt. Greylock Middle and High Schools, Williamstown Elementary School, Pine Cobble School, Hancock School, as well as assisting programs like the Williamstown Youth Center and A Better Chance. (And, Williams associate dean and registrar Charles Toomajian is a founding trustee and first chair of BArT.)
Penn says that he gets as much out of the program as he gives. "I'm a big fan of getting off campus, of leaving the purple bubble," said Penn. "We can build these walls around us, and never see what's here. But there are people here, kids, and we can learn things from getting to know them."
A native of Houston, Texas, Penn said, "it would be kind of sad if I traveled all this way and then never explored rural New England. Doing this is absolutely worth it."
