TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – The Vigo County School Corporation is making efforts to reverse learning loss caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Teachers and students are taking part in a new after school tutoring program that’s funded by federal dollars. The tutoring takes place three days a week for about 90 minutes.
Serina Tackett is a 1st grade teacher at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School who participates in the after-school tutoring program. She said that she has seen the effects of the pandemic and that it did put the students back.
However, she’s working to reverse that. She puts students into small groups to focus on certain subjects. She said that getting that extra time in small groups is better for finding out what each individual student needs to work on.
“Having those smaller groups for tutoring makes it a lot easier to see who’s struggling with what and what we need to focus on,” Tackett said.
Benjamin Franklin Elementary Principal Tina Horrall said that students enjoy getting the extra one on one attention after school.
Horrall said that the feedback given about the program so far has been positive from teachers, students and parents. After assessing the return back to in-person classes, she said that reading is one subject that they’re putting an emphasis on. This subject is one where students fell behind.
“If you can read, you can do anything,” Horrall said. “What our new math adoptions and state standards are demanding out of math, that’s a lot of reading and not just numbers.”
Tackett agrees that reading is something that should be focused on.
“It’s difficult with all the technology that we have today to get kids engaged and interested in picking up a book and reading it,” Horrall said.
So far so good with the new program. Horrall said that she’s pleased to see that students are taking in all the information and there’s a noticeable difference in students’ performance in the classroom. She said it’d be great to see the tutoring program continue beyond this semester.
“They’re starting to pick up on it so it makes me really excited,” Horrall explained. “I definitely think this is something that we should continue.”
The after-school program will wrap up for the semester on April 13.
