Tutoring program approved by Stamford schools on third try

STAMFORD — The third time was the charm for a high school tutoring program that has been criticized by some Stamford Board of Education members for being too pricey and ineffective.

Administrators, on the other hand, have repeatedly touted the tutoring service for delivering impressive results and being worth every dollar.

On Thursday night, during a special meeting of the board, members approved a $574,000 contract with nonprofit Stamford Public Education Foundation to provide the course to struggling high school students.

The final vote was 6-2, with Jackie Pioli and Becky Hamman the two “no” votes. Member Fritz Chery was not present for the vote.

The same contract was before the board on Tuesday, but failed to pass after members were deadlocked in a 4-4 vote with member Jackie Heftman absent.

That left students who had signed up for the course in limbo with less than a week before school begins.

The tutoring program is actually a class built into a student’s schedule and about 150 high school students are enrolled in it for the upcoming school year, which begins Monday.

“School starts on Monday,” Lucero said Tuesday night. “These students are expected to be in these classes with support systems ... and now we’re scrambling a few days before school starts to get the supports these students need.”

The tutoring program was created about seven years ago to help students who are struggling pass the critical Algebra I course. The SPEF service has been offered to low-performing students at Stamford High School in years past, but the contract will expand it to Westhill High School as well.

The contract was first debated late last month and did not garner enough votes to pass when member Andy George was absent.

It was brought back for a vote on the board’s Teaching and Learning Committee earlier this month, and passed with three votes in favor from George, Jackie Heftman and board president Jennienne Burke, and two abstentions from Pioli and Hamman. That brought it back to the full board Tuesday night, where it failed to pass yet again.

Pioli, Hamman, Chery and Mike Altamura voted against the contract Tuesday night. In favor were George, Burke, Dan Dauplaise and Nicola Tarzia.

At the Tuesday meeting, Pioli said she voted against the program because the tutors who provide the service are not trained teachers, nor are they certified specialists. Students in the SPEF tutoring program are deemed “Tier III,” meaning they require the most intensive support, often from a scientific research-based intervention specialist, or SRBI.

Pioli referenced state guidelines that call for specialists or trained teachers to work with Tier III students. Since the tutors do not qualify as either, Pioli questioned the legitimacy of the program.

Michael Fernandes, associate superintendent for intervention and student intervention, said on Wednesday that state officials are well aware of the SPEF program and endorse it.

“They support this program, and actually, state and (federal officials) have recommended this model as a preferred model for intervention for students,” he said.

And while the tutors themselves are not teachers, they are supervised by a certified teacher, Lucero said on Thursday.

The SPEF tutoring is meant to target students who score lowest on middle school math metrics and to provide free support for many families who cannot afford it.

Students in the tutoring program in the 2018-19 school year performed better than all other students on class tests by a difference of about 10 points, administrators said. The passing rate for the tutored students in 2018-19, according to a document prepared by the school district, was 82 percent. In comparison, about 72 percent of students not in the program passed the course that year.

The numbers were similar for the final exam, where 77 percent of the tutored students passed the Algebra I final test, compared with 68 percent of the general population of the school.

On top of that, students surveyed about their experience in the tutoring class were overwhelmingly positive about it, with 100 percent saying they felt the tutors cared about them.

Data from the last year, however, showed more than 50 percent of the students in the program still scored a D or worse on their year-end grades, but Fernandes said last year’s results do not paint an accurate picture because of the challenges presented by COVID-19.