Governor Glenn Youngkin announced a tutoring partnership between four Richmond and Hampton Roads-area historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to employ their students as tutors and mentors for high school and middle school students.
“Sadly last Monday, Virginians woke up to the next of many alarm bells that were ringing as Virginia’s NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress] scores came in. What we saw in those NAEP scores was something that we had seen repeatedly in our SOL scores over the last couple of years: that learning loss was catastrophic; that learning loss was broadening an already existing achievement gap,” Youngkin said during an appearance at Norfolk State University (NSU) on Thursday.
The program is a partnership between the Urban Leagues of Hampton Roads and Greater Richmond, and Norfolk State University, Hampton University, Virginia State University, and Virginia Union University. When fully implemented, the program will be able to support 1,300 students in Petersburg, Portsmouth, and Hampton with 175 tutors, but Youngkin said that was just the beginning.
“We are going to inspire others to replicate, expand, and touch lives across the entire commonwealth,” he said.
NSU President Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston said in a Youngkin press release that the student tutors would be paid.
“This is a great start to begin closing the learning gap that occurred during the pandemic and beyond. We are excited about the possibilities this partnership will bring,” Adams-Gaston said.
Urban League of Hampton Roads President Gil Bland said in the release, “The collaboration of the Urban League and our HBCUs represents a coalition of monumental historical context of organizations that not only had the lens of viewing Black history in America but were catalysts in the shaping of that history. As former Governor Doug Wilder and others have advocated for greater HBCU funding, we hope this initiative will give rise to more such efforts to assure that every Virginia student is provided with a quality education that prepares them to enter the global workforce and help grow Virginia’s economy.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
