By Molly Tanenbaum
Mountain View High freshman Rose Serna removes the bracelets and rubber bands from her wrist and places them on the table for Crittenden sixth grader Aledi Roa to see. Serna explains to Roa that each bracelet represents 25, so altogether they add up to 150.
“It’s easier. That’s how I used to do it,” Serna assures Roa, who then heads to her paper and slowly draws out a chart to figure out a math problem about ratios.
The two girls are part of a new joint effort by the high school and middle school to close the looming math achievement gap experienced by both schools. For this new “math buddies” program, which launched Jan. 12, around 15 high school freshmen, and a few sophomores and juniors, travel to Crittenden every Thursday afternoon to tutor 30 sixth graders in math over the course of two four-week sessions.
The high school and middle school students were selected by their teachers to participate in the new program because they could use some more school time to improve their math abilities. Plus, the high schoolers get the added benefit of learning how to explain the concepts to sixth graders.
“When you teach something, you learn to do it better. It’s amazing,” said Crittenden principal Karen Robinson. “You have to learn it to explain it.”
The hope among the teachers and principals at both schools is that the experience will help raise students’ confidence in their math ability — and, in turn, the schools’ test scores, specifically among Latino and economically disadvantaged students.
The test in question is the Academic Performance Index (API), a 1,000-point test administered by the state. Right now, both schools have a 200-point disparity, give or take, between the scores of white students and those of Latino and economically disadvantaged students. Additionally, the math scores of Crittenden students in the same segments did not improve enough to meet federal No Child Left Behind standards for 2005.
As Serna and Roa worked through their problem, accompanied by about 14 other pairs of high school and middle school students, teachers from Crittenden and Mountain View High School walked around to answer questions and provide guidance when the students got stuck.
Crittenden teachers, such as Jackie Sullivan, develop the curriculum that the high school tutors work through with the sixth graders.
“The most important thing to me is that they learn multiple strategies,” Sullivan said.
During the 40-minute tutoring session, the high schooler reviews problems with the sixth grader that are similar to ones that will appear on the upcoming state test.
“I think it’s good to remember what it was like to struggle in math,” said Mountain View High teacher Jyoti Reid, who journeys to Crittenden with the high school students every week.
“It helps them realize what they do understand and explain things more clearly,” Reid said.
This model of allowing the student to become a teacher was the basis for starting the program, and is expected to boost the high school students’ self-esteem when it comes to math, and encourage them to take control of the subject.
“It gives them prestige in a role where they’re a leader,” said the high school’s interim principal, Keith Moody, one of the initial proponents of the new program.
The idea for the program came when Moody ran into Crittenden’s assistant principal Sanndy Charette at the county office. They began to talk about the possibility of tutoring, which Moody said is similar to a program at the school district in Clovis where he used to work.
At the high school, the math buddies program is just one of the new initiatives this year to get students up to speed — specifically in algebra, according Moody. Other ideas introduced this year include a seventh-period algebra support class — from which the tutors are chosen — and a summer algebra program to reinforce math skills. The summer class has already shown success in raising students’ grades in algebra.
Right now, the math buddies are working with pencil and paper, but soon they’ll be using computers donated to Crittenden by Mountain View High, and special software for practicing math problems.
This software, along with the upcoming state tests and a pre-test given to all participating students, will help teachers and administrators determine the program’s effectiveness later on in the year, Moody said.
Some of the high school tutors are former Crittenden students, and Charette can’t help but be proud when she sees them return to their former middle school.
“They come back and there’s a maturity about them — that ‘I’m here to help,'” she said.
E-mail Molly Tanenbaum at mtanenbaum
