Lansing tutoring program shows promise in closing the learning gap
LANSING, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Students who do well in reading also do well in life, and after a major learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Lansing in-school tutoring program is aiming to help bridge that academic gap.
"We are definitely seeing an impact," said Holly Windram, the executive director of the Michigan Education Corps. "Over three-quarters, 75% of our kids, meet or exceed their growth outcomes for their grade level. What does that mean? It means we're closing achievement gaps in reading and math for kids who need it."
Tutors, also called interventionists within the program, sit down with students for just 20 minutes every school day. This provides consistent and individualized support for students who need a little extra help.
For Bena Hartman, the literacy specialist with the program, this reading support sets students up to be lifelong learners and critical thinkers.
"When you have people who are against certain things or are choosing the books that students read, it really hurts our students," she said. "So it's about survival and teaching them how to live a literate life."
According to the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education, students who don't read at grade level by the third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. That's one statistic that the Lansing School District's superintendent wants to avoid.
"We have 10,000 kids. Everybody needs to be better at reading. So this is just one of the beginning stages of how we can try to expand this. We wanted everybody in the community to see how wonderful it was," said Ben Shuldiner.
Shuldiner said the challenge to expanding these sorts of programs comes down to money.
"I mean, always it's it's funding, but it's also finding the resources and finding the people," he said. "You know, labor market is tight, but the Reading Corps folks are wonderful, wonderful people, and we work with them very closely. And our hope is, of course, is we take this one program, which has been around for a decade, to expand it, and we're looking forward to the next ten years.
This type of tutoring is funded, in part, by grants from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's MI Kids Back on Track program. But Shuldiner says districts will need more to provide this kind of support across the state.