GLENDALE : Mentors Mainstay of Homework Program

Rosemont Middle School administrators will launch a homework tutoring program this fall to provide students with college-age mentors and give tutors valuable teaching experience.

The partnerships between seventh- and eighth-graders and students majoring in education from Glendale Community College, Occidental College and Cal State Northridge will help reach students who haven’t participated in other homework programs, said Rosemont Principal Lois Neil.

“These are the students having difficulty in not only one subject, but in a number of classes,” Neil said.

Other tutoring programs currently in place at Rosemont include peer-tutoring sessions, in which 12- to 14-year-olds help their friends out with assignments, and twice weekly homework clubs.

The new homework program is a logical extension of successful tutoring efforts already in place--some of which helped the 1,100-student school win a California Distinguished School award from the state, Neil said.

“One of the reasons we won this award is because we hound students to get their homework done,” she said.

As part of the new effort, 165 students and their parents will be invited to attend tutoring sessions.

Administrators plan to ask college students, who as education majors are required to observe classroom activities, to join the homework program to help them decide if they really want to become educators.

Middle school students will be able to look up to the college tutors as role models, giving them extra motivation to get good grades so they can go on to college, Neil said.

The homework program will be administered using a $2,000 Step Up to Support Education Grant awarded to Rosemont by Southern California Edison. The grant will be used to purchase a computer, calculators and dictionaries to turn the school’s library or cafeteria into a homework center.