Haslams hope to keep Tutoring Corps going after virus subsides
Former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and first lady Crissy Haslam visited a Nashville area Boys and Girls Club on Thursday morning to discuss the future of the Tennessee Tutoring Corps, which they founded in the spring to address summertime learning losses made worse by classroom closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program matches current and recently graduated college students with kindergarten through fourth grade students for individual or small-group tutoring, which experts have identified as one of the most effective ways to help struggling students get back on track. Although created to address students falling behind in school during virtual learning, Haslam said he hoped the tutoring corps would continue as an annual program long after the threat of COVID-19 subsides.
“The world keeps changing, so we’ll keep adjusting it,” he said. “But I think it’s our intention to keep going.”
Eric Higgs, CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee, praised the program as an excellent resource for younger club members.
“For me, I would love to see it continue. It’s great to have young people interested in helping young people,” he said.
Last year, the Haslams made it clear the tutoring corps would remain separate from state-required district programs to combat summer slide among Tennessee students. While meeting with tutors and students at the Boys and Girls Club, Haslam praised Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn’s work but confirmed he was happy with the corps’ decision to act as a complement to the state’s efforts.
“What we’re doing is kind of a little sidecar to the bigger issue that they’re doing,” he said.
Enrollment has remained steady from 2020, with about 2,000 students participating each summer at Boys and Girls Clubs across the state. However, the program has struggled to recruit tutors this year. In 2020, the corps numbered 430 college students. In 2021, that number fell to 200.
As pandemic restrictions ease and the economy reopens, young adults have more opportunities available and tutoring might seem like a less attractive option, Haslam said. To overcome this shortage, the program has started allowing tutors to work up to 24 hours, double last year’s limit, in return for twice their original stipend.
“We’re going to look at everything from hours to how do we recruit tutors. One of the things we’ve seen is that some of our most successful tutors are people who are former club kids who really get the need, and they just jump right in,” he said.
Gabrielle HunterDavis, a rising sophomore at the University of Memphis who joined the tutoring corps this summer, is one of those former club kids. Growing up, she and her sister attended a local Boys and Girls Club, where they were once awarded “Youths of the Year.” Last year, she became a youth development associate at the Cleveland site club, which is how she heard about the corps.
“You know, I’ve never really considered having an educational career or anything like that. But it was something new to get me out of my limits and test my leadership skills,” she said.