In the fall of 2022, a tutoring program named Forward Scholars launched in five MPS schools. But the start of the program started before that when the non-profit, Common Ground, held a listening session with over 100 community members and asked them what they wanted to see done with local ESSER funds — the appropriated federal money during the early time of COVID-19. Resoundingly, the community said reading tutoring for youth.
Forward Scholars, once a part of Common Ground, is now a fully recognized 501C3, which still works with the larger organization to partner with MPS schools and provide “high dosage intervention” tutoring, or working one-on-one with students and creating individualized lesson plans.
“If kids are reading by the end of third grade they're most likely to graduate from high school,” says Executive Director, Dr. Carrie Strieff-Stuessy. “We really look at data at schools to make sure that we are getting into schools that might not necessarily have support already in place for those kindergarten through third grade [kids].”
This past year, Forward Scholars was in seven MPS schools with plans to grow to 12 schools for the 2024-25 school year. The process for figuring out which schools to partner with is twofold: first, building in schools that already have some kind of community partnership and then, finding schools that otherwise wouldn’t have access to this kind of tutoring.
Tutoring matters in Milwaukee
The goal of the program is to raise the reading levels of K5-3rd-grade students who’ve fallen behind. In Milwaukee, besides students falling behind during COVID-19, there was already an existing opportunity gap that disproportionately affected students of color.
Another challenge in Milwaukee, specifically with MPS, is that the district has over 70 elementary schools, and finding a high-quality, specialized reading teacher in every school is nearly impossible, experts say.
“What Forward Scholars does is partner with the district to work together to provide that expertise and to create a program that can fill that gap that's really challenging to meet when you're in a large urban district like Milwaukee,” Strieff-Stuessy says.
The other secret sauce: Volunteers
The program has site coordinators at every school that houses the program. These are paid, certified teachers who pre-assess students, anywhere from four to seven students in each class, monitor student progress and are responsible for writing individualized lesson plans each week for tutors to follow.
“I saw a kid really figure out how to channel his anger,” says Escuela Vieau site coordinator, Megan Miner. “I think that was one of the main reasons he was struggling with reading is because he was so emotional and hard on himself.”
Miner says the student was in third grade and reading at a K5 level upon entering the program. When the school year had ended, he was reading at a mid-third-grade level.
“I just feel so much more confident where he's at now,” says Miner.
The tutors are volunteers working one-on-one with students delivering instruction. For a lot of volunteers, this is their first time ever tutoring.
“I didn't know quite what to expect, but Megan, our site coordinator, was fabulous in helping us every step of the way,” says volunteer and tutor Linda Bunton. “I loved the little girl that I tutored. I'm gonna miss her next year, [but] it’s just fun to see the kids learning and that you're actually doing some good and you can see the results.”
Bunton plans on returning next year and says she's ready and excited to start working with two students.
The future of the program
The first two years of the program's existence was funded through those ESSER funds, but next year, with plans to expand, the terrain feels a bit more uncertain. Mainly because the financial picture of MPS is still anything but clear, but Strieff-Stuessy is confident the program’s results will speak for itself when it comes to budget time.
“After our first year … our students grew, on average, over a year and a half of reading in less than nine months of tutoring,” Strieff-Stuessy says. “Our data looks even better this year. At mid-year, kids had grown a full year of reading in less than a half of a year of tutoring.”
Forward Scholars say all of their work is results driven and that if they take action, there needs to be results. It’s yet to be seen if those results sustain the program in a school district struggling to be just as transparent.
If you're interested in learning more or becoming a tutor for the program, you can email Dr. Carrie Streiff-Stuessy at carriess@forwardscholars.org.
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