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| Joaquin Alatreste, eight, reads with tutor Ottavio Savina, who volunteers at the East Side Learning Center once a week. Savina is a retired social studies teacher. |
| When I asked three students why they seemed so excited for their tutoring sessions, each of them replied simply: 'because I like to read now.'
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From 19 to 190: ESLC becomes one of the largest, most-successful after school programs in the Twin Cities
Caleb Jonas
Project Assistant - East Side Learning Center
Early this decade, a group of concerned citizens on the East Side met to consider how to close the education gap that seemed to plague their neighborhood. This group's formation was spurred by the revelation that the East Side was one of the lowest-performing neighborhoods in Minnesota, according to standardized test scores.
Following a community meeting, one of the group's members approached the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a Catholic community famously devoted to education. The Sisters acknowledged the plight of education on the East Side, but lacked the resources and desire to open a school in area. Instead, they arrived at the inventive notion of coordinating a rigorous literacy tutoring program for struggling students.
After considering the issue, Sister Audrey Lindenfelser, the project's leader, met with Lynell Theile, who coordinated community outreach efforts for the recently-opened John A. Johnson Achievement Plus Elementary School. And so the East Side Learning Center was born.
In 2001, its first year tutoring students, the East Side Learning Center occupied an unused classroom at Johnson. The program served 19 students, with the help of 19 volunteer tutors. The students seemed to be benefiting from the help they received, so the program was expanded, first to Trinity Catholic School in 2002, then to Bruce Vento Elementary in 2004. With the help of a new volunteer recruiter on staff, the ESLC devoted itself to meeting the needs of as many East Side students as it could reach.
Today, the ESLC is one of the largest and most successful after-school academic programs in the Twin Cities. This year, over 160 students have participated in the program so far, receiving instruction from over 100 volunteers and a few part time professional tutors. Students in grades K-4 who are below grade level at John A. Johnson and Bruce Vento receives tutoring four days a week, and students at Trinity meet with a tutor three times per week. All in all, the ESLC will provide more than 6500 hours of tutoring to students on the East Side this year alone. Furthermore, a Wilder Research evaluation confirms the positive impact the program has on its students. The study confirmed that ESLC students "made significant progress on.total reading, vocabulary, and reading comprehension, and was particularly effective in improving comprehension levels.
Despite its wide reach and broad effectiveness, however, the ESLC's success rests on the foundation of a one-on-one relationship between a student and tutor. Mary Riehle, a 34 year resident of the East Side, has been a tutor at ESLC since its inception. A medical condition forced her to retire from her teaching job at St. Pascal's, and she now tutors students for about 12 hours a week. Her passion for her students is immediately evident. She likes to tell a story about a student in first grade she has been working with for several years.
"When he first started coming, Mary explains, "this boy was absolutely scared of books. He thought he couldn't read, and I just kept encouraging him and working on improving his literacy skills. After working hard every day every day, he's now excited to come and read with me. Just before Thanksgiving, this same student became an older brother. A few days later, he came running in for a tutoring session. "Mary,î he said, "can I have a book to take home? I want to read a bedtime story to my new sister.î
Each tutor receives a personalized daily lesson plan for each of their students, designed by a licensed teacher. The hourly sessions are generally composed of a mix of activities: a rereading of a familiar story, a new book, a reading comprehension activity, or a game designed to impart specific literacy skills. The individualized activities are an product of assessments that participating students receive three times a year. Students are encouraged to read books and select activities that they enjoy, causing them to become more.
There is a great deal of scholarship that confirms the importance of developing early reading skills, but Mary Riehle sees a deeper purpose in her work with students.
"It's like the story about fishing," she explains. "'Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man how to catch fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime.' If we teach a student to read while they're young, just imagine all the things that can lead to in school and in their lives," she says.
A visitor to the ESLC need only watch a student at work with a tutor for a minute to see how invested these young people are in their activities. When I asked three students why they seemed so excited for their tutoring sessions, each of them replied simply: "because I like to read now."
The ESLC offers free tutoring to all students who live or attend school on the East Side, and are always seeking volunteers willing to work with a student for one hour a week. For more information on becoming involved with the program, contact Jana.Roberts@spps.org.
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