TutorSmart Toledo has been busy this summer aligning with Toledo Public Schools, Aspire and some amazing new partners providing after school programming to the children in our community. Working in alignment with TPS and Aspire Toledo, TutorSmart has been presenting to both community partners and building leadership to help build a stronger connection between after school providers and schools. Although TutorSmart is set to work with after school providers at 13 sites this year, we are also very excited to be a supporting partner in the Alignment Project.
The Alignment Project was created to support improved student outcomes for youth in Toledo Public Schools (TPS), through quality after school expanded learning programming over the 2019-2020 school year. Utilizing the continuous improvement cycle will allow the team the ability to assess and inform on the effectiveness of the programming, resulting in alignment of the programs and ensuring a better response to community needs.
Key Partners and Roles
Throughout the Alignment Project, Aspire Toledo, TPS and TutorSmart will offer support and direction to the participating Community Partners. This will ensure best practices are identified and incorporated into the participating programs in order to improve practice during the project.
Aspire Toledo will serve as Lead Project Evaluator of the Alignment Project. In this role, they will provide data support, monitor the program quality through their Program Assessments, and will provide ongoing feedback to the key partners and participants. Aspire Toledo will be managing and running the Comet system and will continuously identify growth areas for community investment.
Over the course of the project, TPS will maintain Partner Agreements, will share continuous feedback and input to partners and participants, and will direct partner coordination and communication. They will provide access to teachers as tutors (as identified by TutorSmart), access to student participants and will identify facilities as needed. Additionally, TPS will provide student data via the Comet system.
TutorSmart will provide data support and training to the Community Partners providing after school tutoring. Through this process, TutorSmart will provide accountability, support and will ensure every school participating in the Alignment Project has access to high quality after school programs. TutorSmart will continue to lead the after school Collaborative Action Network (CAN) and will provide ongoing feedback and reporting to Community Partners and TPS.
The expectations of the Community Partners during the Alignment Project are to provide high quality after school programming in Northwest Ohio and to fulfill Partner Agreements with TPS. This includes steps like completing Partners with Purpose, create and review of a logic model, submit organization data twice yearly, participate in an annual Program Assessment and the Annual TPS Partner Orientation, submit program rosters to Comet twice a year, and actively participate in a CAN (collaborative action network).
We are very excited to be supporting TPS and Aspire in this important work. When everyone aligns for the greater good of the kids, the kids win! If you have any questions regarding the Alignment Project, please contact any one of our team:
Aspire: Kristen Kania at kristen@c4npr.org
TPS Community Liason: Gayle Lake at glake@tps.org
TutorSmart: Tiffany Adamski tadamski@tutorsmart-toledo.org