The former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and his wife Crissy have started a tutoring program in Tennessee to fight against the “summer slide” and to help students whose education has been interrupted by the pandemic.
The Tennessee Tutoring Corps (TTC) was created by the Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs in Tennessee, as well as other youth-serving organizations in the state.
“The ‘summer slide’ is a very real problem each year, and, with students being out of school for so long because of the coronavirus, this year could be more of a summer avalanche,” Bill Haslam said in a statement. “We know that younger students and low-income students are especially vulnerable to summer learning loss, and we want to help address the problem.”
The TTC will run from June to August and aims to recruit at least 1,000 college students to tutor students entering K-6 grade this fall. Tutors must be current college students, with a preference given to those with a 3.0 GPA or higher and who have completed their freshman year. The application deadline is midnight on May 29. Tutors will be given up a stipend of up to $1,000 for their work.
Recent research indicates that the pandemic caused by COVID-19 will worsen the summer slide, with student retaining only an estimated 70 percent of learning gains in reading and less than 50 percent of learning gains in math, the foundation said.
The program will also help college students who may have lost summer internships or jobs. The foundation said that as many as 30 percent of student have lost internship opportunities due to the pandemic.
“In creating this program, we hope to attract college students who care about their communities, about making a difference during this difficult time, and about helping younger students learn and grow,” Crissy Haslam said in a statement. “Many of these college students thought they would be doing something else this summer and have suddenly found themselves available. Both the college students and younger students will be in extraordinary circumstances this year.”
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Jordyn Pair is a reporter with The Tennessee Star. Follow her on Twitter at @JordynPair. Email her at [email protected].
Could this be a way of providing more Common Core like indoctrination? I do not trust Mr. Haslam one bit.