Cincinnati State joins tutoring drive at Hoffman-Parham School

February 3, 2011

More volunteers welcome

Students and faculty from Cincinnati State Technical and Community College are joining in a tutoring initiative at Hoffman-Parham School in Evanston.

Cincinnati State’s partnership with Hoffman-Parham is part of a larger “Be the Change’’ effort by Cincinnati Public Schools to recruit at least 2,000 tutors by the end of the next school year to help elementary students throughout the district improve their math and reading abilities.

The Cincinnati State tutoring program began during the 2010 Late Fall Term when approximately 30 students and three faculty members signed up for a “Cincinnati Reads’’ training session put on by the Literacy Network of Greater Cincinnati. That session – held at Cincinnati State – covered the basics of helping students from kindergarten through grade three with reading, and included a free background check.

Many of the student tutors are from Cincinnati State’s Early Childhood Education program; others are Associate of Arts and Associate of Science co-op students who will receive internship credit for tutoring in both reading and math at Hoffman-Parham.

Whether it’s reading or math, the basic notion is the same: pair a child with a single tutor who will stay with the child until he or she completes their fourth grade proficiency tests. That way, the reasoning goes, the tutor and student will be able to build a relationship, learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses and figure out ways to grow. Educators say studies have repeatedly shown that such tutoring programs have dramatically improved learning and test scores.

Jayne Dressing, a co-op coordinator for the College who helped organize the tutoring program, said Hoffman-Parham Principal Stacey Hill-Simmons is still looking for more volunteers, even for the remainder of the current school year.

Dressing said she hopes there’s enough interest that Cincinnati State employees might be able to organize car pools or vans to Hoffman-Parham on their lunch hour to tutor at least one day a week, as happens with employees at some corporations in Greater Cincinnati. If there’s enough interest, she said, another training session with free background checks will be offered on campus.

For more information about the “Be the Change’’ initiative please visit their website, or contact any of those at Cincinnati State who are involved with the program. They include:

• Rayma Smith, Dean, Humanities and Sciences Divisions
  (513) 569-1616, email
• Crystal Bossard, Chair, Early Childhood Education
  (513) 569-4756, email
• Jayne Dressing
  (513) 569-4778, email
• Sandy Owen, Instructor
  (513) 569-1518, email
• Monna Beckford, Resource Coordinator, FamiliesFORWARD/Hoffman Parham School
  3060 Durrell Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45207
  (513) 363-2733, email