School is out and our first TutorSmart YMCA pilot program has come to a close. The data has been tallied and crunched and analyzed and crunched some more and we are ready to share our findings with the community.
First off- some context: this was a short, prove the model kind of pilot. It was not perfect but we used a data-driven, continuous improvement cycle to dial it in as we went along (and will continue to do so in the fall). We approached the pilot with a growth mindset and valued the learning opportunities that arose as much as we valued the successes. This is a small data set: 46 students for a maximum of 40 days of programming across 2 sites. We opened programming Monday through Thursday starting February 5th and ended the tutoring portion of the programming on April 30th. We had open, rolling enrollment so we took kids up until about the last 2 weeks of the program. If they had 10 days or less of programming we did not count their data. We closed for some weather in February (it actually delayed the start of programming) and the flu rampaged through both schools right after the weather started to cooperate. We served kids at Riverside and Spring Elementary Schools in 1st-7th grade and had 30 plus kids at each site by mid-March. This TutorSmart YMCA After School Learning Club devoted an hour to academic intervention and we broke it down into three 20 minute centers: 1:1 tutoring, MobyMax on the Chromebooks, and Homework Help. We began by conducting benchmark testing through MobyMax Assessments which fed individualized lessons to students based on what they needed to work on. Weekly formative assessment reports informed the tutors of what each student needed to work on from that week's lessons creating a weekly data cycle that adapted to the growth of each child in the program.
Below you will find our final report and we think you will see that a lot of learning took place in a very short period of time. Students learned. Tutors learned. We at TutorSmart and our partners at the YMCA Greater Toledo learned. We still have a lot to learn but we are proud of the work that was accomplished by all involved and are excited to continue working together in the fall.
On behalf of the TPS students (and families) at Riverside and Spring who participated in our program, TutorSmart and the YMCA of Greater Toledo would like to thank the Toledo Community Foundation for their support of this partnership. We would also like to thank Aspire, The United Way, and TPS for their continued guidance and support. Together we are making a difference and making every hour count for our kids. #TPSProud
