New Program pairs MPS Students with Volunteers to Boost Reading skills. Here’s how you can help.
New Program pairs MPS Students with Volunteers to Boost Reading skills. Here’s how you can help.
When 8-year-old A'aNilah Hamlin rides around Milwaukee with her grandmother, she reads aloud the passing signs and billboards. She knows the letters, and she can sound them out together in words.
When she started second grade last fall, she couldn't recognize most letters. Now she's starting third grade as an eager reader.
"I like to learn new words," A'aNilah said.
A'aNilah was one of 132 students who were paired with community volunteers last year for intensive reading tutoring at five Milwaukee public schools.
The students, on average, progressed through 1½ year's worth of reading growth in the last school year, according to results shared by Common Ground, which launched the Forward Scholars program as a response to the COVID pandemic.
The organization is expanding to serve seven schools this year and is looking for new volunteer tutors.
The tutors focus on students in kindergarten through third grade, on the premise that research shows students who can read by the end of third grade are more likely to graduate from high school, with reading being a foundational skill for success in all other subjects.
Are MPS reading scores declining?
Just 11% of third-graders in Milwaukee Public Schools scored as proficient or better in language arts on the statewide Forward Exam in the 2021-22 school year, the most recent state data show.
The results were better that year than the 2020-21 school year, when many students were learning remotely and most didn't take the state test, but worse than previous years. In at least the four years before the pandemic, at least 15% of MPS third-graders were proficient on the test each year.
"Post-COVID, there are more kids further below grade level," said Carrie Streiff-Stuessy, executive director of Forward Scholars. "Most of the kids (we tutor) were more than six months below grade level, more like a year to a year and half."
Trends are similar statewide. About 35% of Wisconsin third-graders scored as proficient or better in language arts in the 2021-22 school year, which was up from the previous year but down from years before the pandemic when it was over 39%.
What were the results of Common Ground Forward Scholars tutoring?
The Forward Scholars program uses a tutoring framework called Book Buddies, developed by reading professors from the University of Virginia and Stanford University.
Forward Scholars employs staff who coordinate the programs at each school, develop individual reading plans for each student, and coach the volunteer tutors. Each tutor is paired with a student, and they meet twice a week during school for 45-minute sessions. Students are selected for the program by school staff.
Streiff-Stuessy, who has a doctorate in language and literacy, said the students, on average, progressed through 3.3 levels of reading difficulty in one school year, using levels established by Fountas & Pinnell. She said two levels of progress would be considered standard for one year.
The program focuses on phonics, Streiff-Stuessy said, teaching students about the sounds certain patterns of letters make. She said it aligns with new state legislation that emphasizes phonics instruction.
The program cost $438,000 last year for 132 students at five schools, most of which was paid by Milwaukee Public Schools using federal pandemic relief funds. MPS has awarded Common Ground with a contract for up to $826,200 to expand the program this year to 180 students, again using federal dollars.
The federal dollars used for the program will expire after this school year. The organization is seeking funders to sustain the program in future years.
What's it like being a reading tutor at MPS?
Some of the tutors are members of Common Ground, a network of faith communities and other local organizations that mobilizes to meet a variety of community needs like affordable housing, safer driving and education. Other tutors found out about the program through word-of-mouth. Many are retirees, including some former teachers.
Janice Shands, a retired 401(k) manager, was paired with a second-grader who could make the sounds of each letter but struggled to sound out multiple letters together. He couldn't sound out words, so at first, he made them up.
"He would try to trick you; he would look at the picture and come up with a story," Shands said.
What that student needed was to know that it was OK for him to say he couldn't read something, Shands said — at least not yet.
"A lot of kids have been hammered and feel so bad about themselves," Shands said. "He didn’t trust that I would understand that he didn’t understand."
Eventually, Shands said the student started trusting her and would tell her when things didn't make sense to him. She taught him about how different patterns of letters make different sounds, and they practiced over and over.
"When it did click, it gave him a sense of power," she said.
Margaret Crowley, a retired principal and reading specialist, was paired with two third-graders who came into the program feeling defeated.
"I think by third grade, they had struggled so much that their assumption was, 'I’m not one of the kids that reads: There are kids who read and there are kids who don’t, and that’s how the world works,'" Crowley said. "I think they were hesitant to know they were going to be spending a lot of time on this task that had brought them a lot of failure and frustration."
Crowley said one student was particularly stubborn but made impressive progress after they built a bond. She started off not knowing what sounds some letters made, and by the end she was reading books.
"I got to love her so much, I would dream about her," Crowley said. "If we had a hard session, I would take those thoughts home with me and try to think of how to soothe her next time, or make it more fun."
Crowley also enjoyed being back in a school setting working on a team: "Here I was with this retired lawyer and retired minister and retired investment banker, and we were all working so hard to get these little people to be readers. I wish more adults could see the need and make filling those needs a societal priority."
How to volunteer as a reading tutor at MPS with Common Ground Forward Scholars
Tutors commit to two one-hour sessions each week, including 45 minutes of tutoring and 15 minutes of prep and note-taking — generally with the same student each session. Tutors can do sessions during school hours on Mondays and Wednesdays, or Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are given training and lesson plans.
The schools for the 2023-24 school year are: Stuart, Keefe Avenue, Lloyd Barbee Montessori, Forest Home, Vieau, Greenfield and Bryant schools.
Anyone can volunteer as a tutor. Contact Carrie Streiff-Stuessy at carriess@forwardscholars.org.
Learn more at commongroundwi.org/forward-scholars.