Heidelberg offers K-5 tutoring program

Heidelberg University, along with some local school districts, will come together to offer a tutoring program for students in grades K-5. Heidelberg will be partnering with Tiffin City Schools, Calvert Elementary School and Bridges Preparatory Academy in the endeavor. The program is meant to help students in math and reading for those whose instruction may have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic or other situations in particular. Heidelberg will use grant funding from the Ohio Department of Education's Statewide Mathematics and Literacy Tutoring Grants to offer the program. The university was among 33 colleges and universities to receive this funding. In total, the Heidelberg School of Education is to receive $288,000 to create the GAP program. It will be a two-year program pairing sophomore and junior education students to serve as trained tutors for elementary students. "GAP's vision is to implement a Genius Hour framework, an approach to learning where students are guided by their own interests, background knowledge and curiosity to learn," Stacey Pistorova, associate professor of elementary education and the grant's author at Heidelberg, said in a release provided by the university. The program is set to launch in September. Initially, there will be 15 Heidelberg tutors working with 30 elementary students from the area. For the 2023-24 school year, Heidelberg plans to have a minimum of 25 tutors working with 50 students from the aforementioned schools. Training for tutors will begin this summer. According to information provided by the university, data from the 2020-21 school year shows the major impact the pandemic has had on student learning in Ohio, especially in math. According to the Ohio Department of Education, the pandemic more significantly affected learning for Ohio's historically underserved students. "Ohio must provide intensive support to accelerate learning for students who have been impacted by the events of the past few years," ODE had said. "High-dosage" tutoring — which ODE says can produce "large learning gains for a wide range of students, including those who have fallen behind academically" — is a huge step forward. According to a report from the Annenberg Institute, "high-dosage" tutoring – more than three days per week or at a rate of at least 50 hours over 36 weeks – was found to increase achievement an additional three to 15 months of learning across grade levels, according to information provided through the ODE website. "This collaborative effort with Tiffin City Schools and Heidelberg University will offer our students the intensive intervention that is necessary for closing the gap," Michelle Tuite, Lincoln Pre-K director of Educational Program, said in the release. "This will also allow our students who have or currently dealing with incarcerated family members exposure to an environment focused on higher education." "Receiving the funding to put this into place is truly a gift to our children who need it at a time when they are most vulnerable," Tuite said. The university will also host professional development opportunities for program partners and families and caregivers, the release states. "The ongoing collaboration between GAP and the participating schools is a key component of this program," Pistorova said in the release. "This program is a win on many levels: for Heidelberg's student teachers but more importantly, for the elementary students who will, we believe, regain their lost learning achievement over the two years of the program."