Details

Parent Category: programs

Category: Learning Is For Everyone (LIFE) Tutoring Program

The LIFE Tutoring Program has been in operation for 20 years and, over that time, has served hundreds of local students.  It provides students who reside in the South End and attend Springdale Elementary School with weekly tutoring from Pitney Bowes employees. The time the students spend with their tutor is invaluable as many of the students come from homes in which English is not spoken and their parents may be illiterate in their native tongue.

SPEF works closely with the school to ensure that the students arrive with homework assignments and a book for independent reading. A bi-lingual teacher from Springdale school attends the weekly sessions and helps address concerns the tutors may have about their student’s academic challenges.  The teacher allows us to connect the program to the classroom and to make sure there are academic activities that are age and grade appropriate.

LIFE helps improve the academic performance of low income, minority students who may be at the low end of the achievement gap.  The students are predominantly Hispanic and come from homes in which English isn’t spoken.  The 2011/12 LIFE Program is starting with 19 students and 30 volunteers.

Details

Parent Category: programs

Category: Learning Is For Everyone (LIFE) Tutoring Program

Did you know...

In the fourth grade, 77 percent of children in urban high poverty schools are reading "below basic" on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Currently, average black and Hispanic 17-year-old children have NAEP scores in math, science, reading and writing that are equivalent to average white 13-year-old children.

Since 1971, educational spending in the U.S. has more than doubled from $4,300 per student to more than $9000 per student, adjusted for inflation. In that same time period, reading and math scores have remained flat in the U.S., and risen in virtually every other country.

Eight years into No Child Left Behind, the U.S. has four years left to reach the landmark education act's goal of 100% proficiency in math and reading. Most states currently hover around 20 or 30% proficiency. 70% of 8th graders in the U.S. cannot read at grade level.

+WaitingForSuperman: Facts About Education in America