Tutoring Initiative Gives Metro East Students a Boost Against Pandemic Learning Loss

Close to 100 students at three elementary and middle schools in the East St. Louis school district are taking part in a tutoring effort aimed at helping them recover ground lost during the pandemic, according to reporting by St. Louis Public Radio.

The effort is known as the Illinois Tutoring Initiative. Illinois directed $25 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money to state universities, which in turn train tutors to help students rebuild skills in English and math. Besides East St. Louis, the districts involved in the Metro East area are Cahokia Heights, Collinsville and East Alton.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville hired and trained 50 tutors to serve the four districts. Tutors can be college students, retired teachers or community members, though nearly half are full-time teachers, said Amy Wilkinson, who coordinates the program at SIUE. She described it as "such a positive influence on the communities that we work with, as well as the students."

Each district picked the students it judged to have fallen behind because of the pandemic. The program began only last year, but Wilkinson said early figures suggest that students who chose to take part are doing better than classmates who did not. "They're just achieving more steady gains," she said. She added that program administrators plan to watch closely when the next round of data is released later this year.

East St. Louis School District 189 chose an afterschool format. Small groups meet Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for 90 minutes, said Antionette Johnson, the district's director of curriculum. "So far, it is going well," she said.

Johnson pointed to the three-to-one ratio of students to tutors as the program's best feature. Children receive small-group or individualized help, she said, and "don't have to worry about being overlooked, or just too many kids in the classroom."

Johnson, a former high school English teacher, also highlighted the bonds forming between students and tutors. Because tutors come from varied backgrounds and are not always viewed strictly as teachers, they can connect differently with children. "Sometimes, that's what a kid needs: a trusted adult to help build that confidence," she said.

Kiyara Conrad, who teaches sixth- and seventh-grade social studies at Lincoln Middle School in East St. Louis, has served as a tutor for the past few months. She said she saw clear setbacks in students' behavior and academics after they returned to in-person classes. "Definitely a gap, lack of attention, you know, students not engaged in learning when we came back into the classroom," Conrad said.

As a tutor, Conrad has been working on math and reading, which fall outside her usual subject. She uses a couple of novels that connect to her social studies background. She said she can see her students progressing and that they appear to enjoy the sessions. "I think it's working, and it's something that I'm hoping we can keep around to continue to bridge the gap," she said.