21st February 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A pilot tutoring programme at Woodinville High School has received great support from those involved, and has been given a grant from the local rotary club. A report on the Woodinville Weekly tells how the programme is focused on tutoring students who are struggling with maths, and uses a peer system, where high achieving maths students tutor students in their own age group who are not performing well.
The Principal of WHS, Vicki Puckett explained that the tuition programme was introduced because of an unacceptable pass rate in the state maths exams. 30% of students received a D or an F grade in the exams held 6 weeks into the start of the academic year, and following the introduction of the tutoring scheme, this figure has fallen to only 8%. This was still too many students for Puckett, who successfully applied for a $5,000 grant from the local rotary club to support the peer tutoring.
The benefits of using a student’s peer as a tutor is well supported by Eric Clark, who is in charge of the programme at WHS. Clark says that the students appreciate having someone of their own age explaining the concepts in language that they can understand. Mikhaela Hatch, a Sophomore who makes use of the tutoring programme, said that it’s helpful to listen to a number of explanations from her peers, because one of them will make the most sense to her, and that’s the method that she will use. She added that she sometimes feels apprehensive about asking questions in class, and being able to talk to someone one-to-one is a much more comfortable setting. This is a point of view echoed by many of the students being tutored by their peers.