By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent
About two dozen volunteer tutors, who are helping to make sure that “no child is left behind,” greeted Seattle Schools Superintendent Joseph Olchefske at an informal reception, March 29. The tutors are all part of the “Study Buddy” program, sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and B’nai Brith.
The program provides volunteers to work mostly one-on-one with children in eight Seattle schools, as well as all the schools in the Bellevue district.
Study Buddy is Seattle’s contribution to the 100,000 Jewish volunteers promised in 1996 by Dr. Leonard Fein, founder of the National Jewish Coalition for Literacy in answer to former-President Bill Clinton’s call for one million literacy volunteers. Tutors spend at least an hour a week with their kids, helping them learn all subjects. The Study Buddy program provides some training and support, and works to match people to schools and students in ways that work for everyone. In addition to the school-based programs, which may happen before, during or after regular school hours, Study Buddy volunteers are also engaged in after-school programs in the area’s Boys and Girls Clubs.
Olchefske, though facing low confidence from parents and the school board, gave an upbeat assessment of Seattle’s schools following a six-month struggle to rectify a multi-million dollar budget gap that surfaced last year. He said grades and test scores, including the high-stakes WASL scores, have been moving upward throughout the district in the past few years. Moreover, he said, the district has seen a decline in the numbers of dropouts and a turnaround in SAT scores.
Before Olchefske made his appearance, some of the volunteers spoke about their own experiences and shared their personal takes on the programs they are involved in.
When Renee Alkoff volunteers at Bailey Gatzert Elementary School in the Central District, she helps several students with homework instead of the regular one-on-one tutoring sessions
“I go there and help them with their homework — but you have to know your times-tables,” she said. “They ask me questions about things that I haven’t thought about in years. I love that school,” she added. “I was impressed that kids are learning reading, writing and arithmetic – basic things” which she said she thought schools had abandoned.
Lauren Adler, who helps students in a seventh-grade math class at the Alexander Hamilton Middle School in Wallingford described the moment she knew she was having a positive effect:
“I ended up sitting down and helping one group [of girls] there for about 10 minutes, she said. “The next thing I hear, these other two girls who are very disruptive in the class and don’t pay attention called me over for help, and I sat down with them for a while.”
“I teach at Deerborn Park Elementary. I have two kids and each of them gets a half an hour,” Joy Pocasangre said. “One of the things I do in the reading department that I really enjoy and the kids really enjoy is that we only do nonfiction….One kid said he wanted to know how money was made and where it came from.”
Shortly before she took a trip to Italy, she said, one of her children asker her about volcanoes, so she made a point of bringing back a book about Pompeii, with color overlays showing life in the ancient city superimposed over images of how it looks now.
“I don’t think we all will fully realize how influential you are being today until years pass,” Olchefske told the volunteers. “I remember my third grade teacher being very influential. I don’t remember her thinking she was influential when I left third grade. It’s only now as an adult that I realize how influential she was.
“I think the same phenomenon goes for the mentoring and tutoring you do in schools. As these kids go on and grow, these kids are not going to be dropouts. These kids aren’t going to be truants. These kids are going to graduate from high school,” he continued. “It’s the work that you’re doing today that’s really connecting. It’s making school fun for them; it’s making school meaningful for them and really rewarding them for the type of work that they’re going to need as they go forward academically.”
Jennifer Mendelson, who administers the program for the Jewish Federation, said the approximately 100 volunteers in the Study Buddy program range in age from 19 to 75 years old and help children from kindergarten through eighth grade.
The importance of the one-on-one time in the children’s lives cannot be overemphasized. While a child growing up in a typical middle class home will have been read to for 1000 to 2000 hours in their first five years, the average for low-income children can be as little as 25 hours or less.
“This generation of kids probably has the greatest opportunities of any generation of kids,” said Olchefske. “And, simultaneously, they have, probably, the greatest challenges. If you look at the opportunities for my third grade daughter at home,whether she wants to be an artist or a scientist or a politician or a writer or a mom or a teacher, the breadth of the lives that she can choose are really unprecedented in our history. Simultaneously, all you have to do is pick up the morning paper and see the challenges: whether it’s the war or the threat of terrorism, issues of AIDS and other health issues. The incredible levels of poverty this generation of kids experience is really daunting – single parent households, dysfunctional families,” he said.
“I also know that as much as the kids benefit, I also know that the Study Buddies themselves benefit greatly. I really hope that you’re getting a lot out of this. It is a great experience to be spending time with these kids,” the superintendent said.
For more information on volunteering with the Study Buddy program, contact Jennifer Mendelson at the Jewish Federation of Seattle, 206-774-2276 or email her at [email protected].