Education in Minnesota is a priority. Unfortunately, there is little consensus on the best policies for helping students learn. Tutoring in an inner city school has brought me new insights on what we must do.
Minnesota has emphasized spending on education and implemented many policies with good results. Our state is a national leader in educational achievement as evidenced by ACT scores.
Unfortunately, too many students, primarily diverse students, are not learning at an acceptable pace. I thought I understood what should be done about this underachievement until I became a reading tutor at Cityview Elementary School in north Minneapolis.
Cityview has 306 students, 94 percent minority. Nearly the same percentage qualify for free/discounted lunch. Reading scores on standardized tests indicate that only 9 percent are proficient.
I began tutoring a year ago at Cityview through a superb nonprofit, Reading Partners. This year, I was assigned two students for an hour apiece once a week: Isaiah, a third-grader, struggled with basic reading; Joshua, a fourth-grader, read at the third-grade level. (These are not their real names.)
My time with Isaiah was short. After refusing to do much of anything in our sessions, he was dismissed from the program. I keep wondering what is going to happen to this boy who refused to concentrate on improving something as fundamental as reading. What was causing this behavior? Where will he end up?
I was assigned another third-grader I'll call Jamir. He struggled with his phonics, much less with reading at grade level. Sometimes he would come and work with me, and other times he refused. The Reading Partners onsite coordinator tried to help, but had equal difficulty. On one occasion when I was urging him on, Jamir broke down crying. He couldn't express what the problem was but it seemed far deeper than just his reading.
Students being tutored are encouraged to take home a free book to read with their parents. Jamir never wanted to take a book home. How much reading aloud occurred in his home?