Teens’ summer job: Boosting SAT scores
Baltimore students taking free class — and getting paid for it
“But since I’m getting paid to come here and learn, it’s a win-win situation. I get to help my mother out and better myself.”
The first time Kolby Farrar took the SAT, he didn’t have a graphing calculator to use on the math portion of the exam. He scored 900 out of a possible 1600 points. That’s above the average Baltimore student’s score, but a couple hundred more points could make the difference on whether he earns the scholarships he’s eyeing.
So for the past month, Kolby, 17, has participated in a free summer class aimed at better preparing him for the college entrance exam. Eleven other students join Kolby each day in Baltimore Polytechnic Institute’s library.
The program, a partnership with the city’s teen jobs initiative, YouthWorks, not only provides the students with a SAT and ACT
crash course at no cost, but pays them minimum wage to be there 25 hours a week.
For years, YouthWorks has matched thousands of kids with summer jobs at local nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses. For the first time this summer, the organization teamed up with the CollegeBound Foundation and Streamline Tutors to give Kolby and other Baltimore public school students what they see as a fairer shake on the high-stakes exam.
Without the program, students and officials say, it’s unlikely all of these teenagers could access the kind of one-on-one, intensive tutoring they’re getting this summer — the kind that’s long been accessible to those from more well-off families.
Private SAT prep with companies like Baltimore-based Streamline can cost thousands of dollars and take dozens of hours, pulling kids away from other jobs they may