Tutoring Program Brings Out the Best in Students

In a crowded classroom at Peach Hill Elementary School, two boys crouch against a wall, staring hard at a book between them.

Ulises Jimenez, 9, slowly reads the page, occasionally stuttering when “Little House in the Big Woods” throws him a word he doesn’t know. But whenever Ulises stumbles, 13-year-old Sumeet Mitter jumps in, helping the younger boy sound out words and catch the full meaning of what he has just read.

Sumeet is one of about 30 students from Moorpark’s Mesa Verde Middle School who volunteer several mornings each week to tutor younger children at Peach Hill.

For the young volunteers, it’s a serious commitment of time and effort: They put in an hour’s work at Peach Hill before their own classes start, and tutor many kids trying to learn English as well as writing and math.

But most say they like watching their charges--separated from them by just a few years and a few inches--progress with their help.

“We started out this year with some Dr. Seuss books, and he got through those,” Sumeet said of Ulises. “He just needs a little help with English on the side.”

For teachers, the tutors are an extra set of hands, eyes and ears: a way to give individual attention to more students who need it. And unlike the state’s $771-million class-size reduction effort, which has similar goals, the tutoring program is virtually free.

“It doesn’t cost anything, and it’s very un-bureaucratic,” said Peach Hill administrator Kristin Deike, who supervises the program.

Although the Peach Hill program is new, started as an experiment last school year, the idea of older students helping younger ones is not.

For three years, students in grades seven through 12 have taught youngsters at Walnut Elementary School in Newbury Park, for example. Charles Weis, Ventura County’s superintendent of schools, said he participated in a study of such programs more than 20 years ago.

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Some elementary schools still lack tutoring programs, in part because the logistics of coordinating volunteers and arranging transportation between schools.

Walnut was able to make its system work, Principal Bradley Baker said, in part because Newbury Park High School is just two blocks away, allowing the older students to get to and from Walnut quickly and easily.

Some of Mesa Verde’s students, in contrast, live far enough away from Peach Hill that Deike had to ask Moorpark’s City Council to give the tutors a reduced fare on city buses.

Although details of the programs vary from school to school, all focus on giving younger students more one-on-one instruction. Students who need more time to grasp concepts that the rest of the class has already mastered can learn without slowing down their classmates, while those learning faster than average have someone to guide them through more challenging lessons.

The programs also help the tutors. With someone younger looking to them for guidance, tutors reflect on their own priorities and behavior and seem to grow up on the job, administrators say.

“They’ll put away the chain, take out the earring,” Baker said. “For 90 minutes in the day, they feel the obligation to act like an adult.”

At Peach Hill, some of the tutors are still learning English themselves. The process of teaching younger kids forces those students to review what they have learned, Deike said. And because their developing English language skills usually top those of their pupils, the tutors gain a sense of mastering the language.

“It’s building their confidence,” Deike said.

Not that some of the Peach Hill tutors lack confidence.

Teresa Calvario, 12, spent one recent morning working with four third-grade kids, patiently talking them through multiplication tables. “When they’re finished, I’ll show them some more math, and I’ll help them with their writing, show them how to write English better,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

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The teacher supervising Teresa’s work said she is amazed by her understudy’s enthusiasm. “She’ll come in, and she’ll say, ‘I’ve got nine minutes, is there something else you want me to do?’ ” said Jodi Tice. “The first day she did that, I just stood there, speechless.”

More important, Tice’s third-grade students seem to look up to Teresa and look forward to working with her. Victor Macias, 8, said Teresa had improved his math skills. Listening to his classmates review a table showing multiples of 3, he scoffed: “I already know that. Teresa already showed us that.”

Both tutors and teachers say elementary school kids sometimes relate better to older kids--who seem like big brothers or sisters--than to adults. To encourage that bond, Peach Hill teachers usually have their tutors work with the same kids throughout the year.

“There’s a real rapport,” said Jackie Pinson, who teaches third grade. “At Christmas, there were presents given.”

As a result, teachers say they have seen students’ skills improve and their confidence increase. Tice points out that Victor likes to brag about gold stars Teresa gave him on an assignment.

“He’s looking at the chart, and he sees stickers by his name,” Tice said. “He says he’s going to college. That’s what I like.”