Program Development – Distance Learning Math and Reading Tutoring
By Jim Wambach
August 10, 2020
The 2020-21 school year is upon us, and it promises to be unlike any other we’ve experienced. Every day I hear from parents of school-aged children anxiously preparing their kids to begin the school year with distance learning. They are struggling to understand how school is going to function, assess their technology and connectedness, coordinate work schedules, and ensure that their children are able to thrive and be safe and healthy in a COVID-19 world.
Your support of Children Rising has allowed us to develop distance learning tools, so that eager children like Juliana can get back to grade level.
These are uncertain times. But what we do know is:
- Children returning to school this fall will have fallen even further behind due to the uneven access to technology and connectedness required for effective distance learning.
- Distance learning will be used exclusively for the first part of the school year. Oakland Unified School District is bridging the technology gap so that every student has the tools to learn and thrive, and maintain a safe and healthy learning environment.
- Children Rising and other trusted community partners will be vital to delivering effective learning opportunities for eager learners during what is likely to be a challenging year.
A trusted community partner prepared to serve
Children Rising has been working tirelessly to adapt and enhance our proven one-on-one Path2Math and Succeeding by Reading tutoring programs to incorporate online learning functionality. This important program enhancement is designed to support the children and their families outside of the school setting, and do so in alignment with our school partner’s distance learning and health safety guidelines. Our online delivery functionality leverages our years of tutoring experience and best practices, while serving as a compatible extension the district’s approach to distance learning.
We are pivoting so that we may continue to be a trusted community partner, nurturing and empowering promising children to rise to their potential in math and reading. We know the kids need the support of the community this year more than ever, and we stand ready to help.
Your companies and organizations, along with distance learning and online tools, helped CareerBridge interns participate in summer internships.
Long-term benefits
We believe the benefits of the new program delivery will outlive the pandemic and serve as an important complement to our in-person tutoring whenever that can be resumed. We will be capable of collecting richer quantitative data, which will guide our tutors and help us better track a student’s progress — and better report progress back to the teachers. And, with the potential for improved parental engagement, we will be able to extend a child’s learning opportunities beyond school hours. As always, our tutoring will maintain a focus on developing the special student-tutor relationship that has proven so crucial to the child’s development.
Our trained volunteer tutors — 178 of them tutoring before shelter in place — miss the children and are eager to help during this very important year. We look forward to providing you more information about our remote tutoring functionality in the coming weeks, and will continue to inform you as our programs and volunteer opportunities develop.
All the best as we begin the new school year!
