(upbeat music) Welcome to "At Issue," I'm H Wayne Wilson.

Thank you as always for joining us, this time for a conversation about the learning gap.

We know that some students fall behind in the learning curve, and the pandemic made that even more evident.

However, there's a program in place to help at least tackle that problem, it's called the Illinois Tutoring Initiative, and we're going to find out in the next half hour how it's going to help solve the problem of filling the learning gap.

And to have that conversation is the person who is in charge of the Illinois Tutoring Initiative.

She is Dr. Christy Borders.

She is the director of ITI, Illinois Tutoring Initiative, and is based at Illinois State University.

- Yes.

- [H Wayne] Thank you for being with us.

- Thank you.

- [H Wayne] Also with us is Chatea Green.

Chatea is the director of the ICC, or Illinois Central College, Institutional Partner Office.

We'll explain what that is in a moment, but, Chatea, thank you for joining us.

- Thank you.

- [H Wayne] And a tutor is with us.

Candace Quinn is a tutor in the Illinois Tutoring Initiative.

Thank you for joining us.

- Thank you for having us.

- And before we talk about ITI, how much of a need is there, Christy?

- There's a huge need, and our state students had a need for help with learning prior to the pandemic, but the pandemic really impacted learning for almost every child.

And in Illinois, I think if we could provide a tutor for everyone, we would.

There's so much need both academically, and socially, and emotionally right now.

- And we wanna be clear, the Illinois Tutoring Initiative isn't going to solve the entirety of the problem.

- That is exactly right.

We are approaching a little piece, and doing what we can to provide services for the students that districts select as the most in need of this program, but we can't solve it for everyone's.

We're gonna do what we can.

- I introduced you as the partner in this, because there are six regions in the state.

- Yes.

- And Illinois Central College happens to be the focal point for region three, which is the tri-county area going west.

- Yes.

- And you, how do you work with the other regions?

I mean, do you hear from the other regions?

- Yes.

- Do you hear from Christy or...?

- We meet regularly.

The other regions, we all meet on Tuesdays to collaborate, to help each other understand, work out some of the issues that we might have, share things that are working, not working.

And we also meet on Wednesdays as a whole, the whole region.

I mean the whole state meets on, statewide, we meet on Wednesdays with Christy, and we email with Christy quite often.

We have site visits, Christy comes to do site visits.

Christy also has individual meetings with us every week to make sure that everything is working well.

- Let me come back to Christy to the structure we've talked about, there's six regions in the state.

- [Christy] Yeah.

- Illinois State University happens to be region four.

- Correct.

- Which is McLean County going east, basically speaking.

- Correct.

- So how do you go about, let's start with the school districts first.

- Sure.

- We're gonna get to tutors in a minute, but how do you identify which school districts qualify for this program?

- Sure.

So that was really an inter-agency conversation with the Governor's office, the State Board of Education, the Board of Higher Education, and our community college board, that's really our state agency team.

And so when we were in design of this project, the governor's office and the State Board of Education started to think about "We can't provide to everyone, so how will we lessen the number of eligible districts so that we can provide?"

And they came up with some metrics that really took our 800 districts statewide and then made that a smaller number.

We looked at districts that have a high number of low-income students or students that are highly in need.

We looked at disproportionate COVID impact, which is actually a public health metric.

So were there large cases of COVID that happened during the pandemic that also impacted attendance in schools?

So how many schools were losing in-person instruction days versus remote instruction days?

And then we also look at the funding adequacy for a district.

So they kind of put all the districts on a list, and then it got whittled down to about 300 eligible districts statewide.

- But 300 are not being served right now.

- That's correct, so- - In your region, do you know how many school districts are being served?

- In my region, I have nine school districts.

- [H Wayne] Could you give, not all nine, but like an example?

'Cause it's large to small, right?

- Yes.

I have PEER public schools, I have IVC, I have Norwood, I have Marquette Heights, Dallas City, Riverview.

- Okay, so very small to District 150- - [Chatea] Yes.

- Peoria Public Schools.

And you're well-suited for this role because you actually were a teacher in Peoria Public Schools?

- I was a teacher for 13 years, and then I proceeded to do the professional development for the district for a few years, and then I moved into Title I Director.

So I was the director of special and federal grants, and then I became a principal.

So I tried everything.

- [H Wayne] And then to the Illinois Central College.

- Yes.

- So when this came up, you said, "Yeah, I could do this."

- Yeah.

- So I wanna turn to the tutor side of this.

Before we talk to Candace, Christy, how do you decide, where do you find these tutors?

What kind of people are they?

- Sure.

One of the things that was really important to us was to leverage our institutions of higher ed, so are there college students that we could provide employment for?

But also are there retired teachers?

Are there community members?

So it was very important to us that it was open to a wide group of people.

So the only requirement is a high school diploma.

- And you're a community member.

- I am.

- And yet you said, "I will step forward, and-" - Absolutely.

- [H Wayne] "I think I can do this."

- Absolutely.

- What attracted you?

What made you say, "I need to help these students?"

- For me, it's just the passion of helping the kids.

When you're doing that close, intimate work with them, and helping to guide them, and you're pouring love and empowerment and belief into them and guiding them and giving them strategies, and you see their little eyes light up when they understand something and it clicks for them, that becomes the reward.

So making that type of difference with these young people is huge, and education is power, so- - [H Wayne] You weren't a teacher beforehand?

- I was not a teacher.

I have no teaching background.

I have been a substitute teacher for 20 years.

I've been implementing tutoring programs all over the community.

I've done tutoring in a variety of schools within District 150.

I really like being on the front lines with the children.

- I wanna turn back to Christy because, Candace, you seem like you're really engaged, you know how to reach these students, but what does a tutor need to do?

Because, in my mind- - Sure.

- You don't wanna go in and say, "Today we're going to be learning about adding fractions."

- [Christy] That's right.

- I think that would be a... - "Don't make me do more work," right?

So there is a really important piece to our tutor training that Candace would've engaged in that we focus on learning to build relationships with students.

That that's the first and most important thing that a tutor can do.

So all of our tutors are trained before they go out and tutor students.

They're trained in culturally-responsive tutoring practices, they're trained in how to make your instruction meet the needs of an individual student, and also just really how to build that relationship with a student.

- So, Chatea, this is basically developing a rapport before you talk about reading or math.

- Yes, absolutely.

- Let me turn back to Candace, because... And you do small groups, this is for one-on-one or for very small groups- - Right.

- It's two or three students.

When you first started you first group, how did you approach this?

What did you say to those students?

- Just expressing an interest, finding out about them, playing get to know you games, and talking about families and hobbies and simple things, "what's your favorite food?"

"What's your favorite game?"

"What's your favorite thing to do?"

"If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?"

Just getting to know them and helping them to understand you actually care.

And with young people, when they understand that you care, they buy in.

By caring, you help them to fall back in love with learning.

- Do you relate some of that information that you gather in the early days of tutoring to relate that to math or reading?

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

- An example of how that might work, I mean, someone might be interested in cooking or they- - Well, in math, in cooking you have to measure things out, or when working with fractions, we've got tools and games that we've been provided to keep learning fun.

So when working with fractions, we have pizza fraction games, and apple fraction games.

And you cater to what you think will get through to the student, and enable them to have fun without even realizing that they're learning.

- How many, Christy, how many students are benefiting from this right now?

- Sure, right now we have about 1200 students statewide across 41 different districts.

- And this is funded through... - It's federally-funded through the ESSER's relief dollars that came through the federal government to the states for COVID relief.

- And the tutors are, they're reimbursed or paid in some way?

- They are paid.

Our tutors are paid for... We deliver what's known as high-impact tutoring, so that means that it is also sometimes referred to as high-dosage tutoring.

So usually about three hours a week.

So they get paid for those hours of tutoring, but also get paid to plan, meaningfully plan, and thoughtfully plan what those sessions will look like.

So for each of these assignments that Candace referred to, she is paid for four and a half hours a week of tutoring.

- But the tutors have to be consistent.

I mean there's value to- - [Christy] Yes.

- [Candace] Oh, yeah.

- So high-impact tutoring really relies on a consistent adult over a period of time.

So when we designed it, we think, you... Generally, a semester's about 12 to 14 weeks long that Candace will work with the same students three times a week for 12 to 14 weeks.

And that really builds on the relationship piece.

- I'm going to ask you, I mean you've been doing this for a while - [Candace] Yes.

- Outside of the tutoring initiative.

- [Candace] Yes.

- Do you feel that you need to continue with these students sometimes?

Once, you know, a tutoring program ends, you say, "I need to help this young lady."

- Oh, absolutely.

I believe that learning is lifelong.

You build these relationships with these young people, and, for instance, tutoring at Riverview, I will go to the girls' basketball game just to see the students that I'm tutoring play basketball.

Like it just doesn't stop inside the small area that you're doing this actual tutoring.

Once you come into a young person's life, you just, it's difficult to make an immediate exit.

You're bonded to them.

So it's more than just learning, it's lifelong.

- This is for what grades, Chatea?

- This is for third grade through eighth grade.

And what we have to remember, I wanna touch on what can Candace said, what we have to remember is that some students, it's gonna take longer than that 10 to 12 weeks.

And so we can recycle those students back through.

We are there to make sure that these students get exactly what they need for as long as they need it, as long as we're here.

So we wanna make sure we continue to get that funding.

(all laughing) - There's the pitch.

(all laughing) Somebody have first rings, call Chatea, (indistinct).

So third through eighth grade for math and reading, those are the two areas that you- - Those are the, yes, we focus mainly on, specifically on math and reading.

- And then in high school, is there a component for high school students?

- There is a separate component for high school students, and it is...

But we, ICC doesn't do it, it's strictly through ISU.

The tutors would apply through ISU, and ISU basically assigns all the tutors to the high schools.

- Well, expand on that if you would, Christy.

- So in the grades three through eight, we really focus on in-person tutoring, here in the local community.

For high school, we only focus on math, algebra one, geometry, and algebra two, but we provide that tutoring online.

And so rather than having each of our six institutions have to do hiring and placing for high school, we hire all of the online high school math tutors, and then we match them across the state.

- What are you looking for in a tutor?

- So for the math tutoring, it's a little bit different.

It's more than a high school diploma for math.

What it entails though, is that they have shown that they have strong competency in math.

So there's also a transcript review for a math tutor.

- And there, you alluded to this earlier, but there's a training program for tutors?

- Yep, yep.

So we require all of the tutors to go through pretty comprehensive training.

I think Candace could give us some more.

- Well then what did you go through?

What was it like to become a tutor?

Don't make it too complicated, because people won't wanna tutor, but what was the training like?

- But it was thorough, and that's what we needed.

So it's self-guided modules, it's all done online, and it's self-guided modules with the concepts of building relationships, and the concepts of the expectations, and providing you resources in how to accomplish those expectations.

And then it also, there's modules that review state mandates as well, because, as a tutor, we're state-mandated for reporting.

So we need to be aware of what we're seeing, if we're seeing any issues.

It's a simple, yet inclusive self-guided training system, and it was very thorough.

- When you, Chatea, look at the tutors, do you monitor them in some capacity?

Or how do you- - Absolutely.

We are starting soon to do fidelity checks, but even before the fidelity checks, we monitor the, we have a tutor supervisor who basically makes sure that sessions have been booked, tutors are showing up for those sessions, they're getting paid the way they should.

We do visits to make sure that the tutors are tutoring the way they should.

We haven't started doing all the visits because tutoring is just starting getting up and running.

So, but now we will, along with Christy, we will be visiting all those schools at least twice a week to make sure that tutors are tutoring properly, they're doing exactly what they should be doing with these students.

- When you say "Doing exactly what they should be doing," is this tied, is the tutoring tied to the what the student is doing in school at that particular time?

So there's a coordination between the topic that the tutor's addressing, and what's happening in the classroom?

- Well, we wanna make sure that the schools understand that this is not homework help, this is to focus on the deficits that the students have as far as reading and math.

So it may tie into something that they're doing that day at school or that week at school, but, for the most part, we're trying to go back and catch students up on their deficient areas.

We're hitting those focus areas that they're deficient in.

Some of our students don't know their times tables, some of our students need more phonics.

We're going all the way back to the basics to make sure they have that basic foundation so that they can move forward with whatever they're working on in class right now.

- Christy, earlier you... Chatea has been talking about one-on-one, basically in-person tutoring could be any hour of the day, depending on the tutor and the student's schedule.

- Yes.

Their availabilities.

- But there is some online component, and you work through Pearl.

- Yeah, so Pearl is our online platform, and they give us a couple different things.

They are where our tutors submit all of their paperwork about the tutoring session, how did it go?

The students also submit surveys related to how tutoring went, but it also provides us the ability to flip to online learning, instantaneously.

So I just was reading that a school in Kentucky closed this week because of so many students having the flu.

We don't want students to miss out on tutoring because of a snowstorm or because the school is closed, so we can utilize Pearl as an online classroom, and we can just rebook all of Candace's sessions into an online classroom, and the students can log in and still receive their tutoring.

- I want to ask both of you, Candace and you, Christy, about how do you know this is working?

And I wanna start on the individual level first with Candace, and then if there's a way that you can look at the program and say "Yes, we're making progress."

Candace, how do you know... How many students do you have?

- Currently, I have nine.

- [H Wayne] Nine.

- Three groups.

- Okay, three different groups of three.

Do you see progress?

- [Candace] Absolutely.

- [H Wayne] Well, how do you know that.

- One of the things Chatea touched on is foundational learning.

So really getting back to the foundation, and I love that she said so many of our young people don't know their times tables.

And that's something that's challenging for teachers, they can't give that individualized attention, and ultimately have to give a times table chart or a calculator to keep kids up.

That is one of my favorite things to work on with these young people is times tables, 'cause you can make it fun.

We play multiplication Jenga, we play division bingo.

And, again, I take it back to where I talked about the student's eyes lighting up when they don't have to get out their scratch paper or figure out their tallies and they know the answer and can play and their little eyes just light up with excitement 'cause they knew the answer.

So, absolutely, as we progress and we continue in our tutoring, we take it a little bigger, we take it a little more challenging.

And each time you see that, that becomes the reward for the student, the learning it, the knowing it.

- Does it become a challenge when, if you're in a group of three students, and one learns seven times eight more quickly than the other learns seven times eight?

- For me, personally, it does not, because I have ways to provide a little more challenging for this student, modify down a little bit for this student.

The students that tend to be a little lower and I need to give a little more one-on-one guidance to and be right there, ready to write on their scratch paper, keep them closer to me.

The ones that are a little more advanced and self-guided, I give them the more challenging work.

So you just have to modify up, modify down.

You have to know your student, you have to know their capabilities, you have to be in tune with what you are helping them to learn.

- And, Christy, a similar question to you.

How do you know this program is making a difference?

- Sure.

So we look at a couple different things.

We always are gonna look at scores and numbers.

That's something that we can gather on a large number across a state.

So we do look at their benchmarking.

We know that in Illinois, our students take testing every Spring.

And so, but that number takes a long time to change.

It's a big, big achievement number.

So what we do instead is we look at the three times a year benchmarking tests from districts.

We also ask districts what they want to see growth in.

So we have several of our districts that not only give us the math and reading scores, but they're also providing social-emotional learning assessments because that is the most important metric for some of our districts.

Even attendance records where a district would say, "Can you also track attendance for these students?

Because they have had attendance problems."

- That's one thing we really haven't talked a lot about is the social-emotional component of this.

You can learn your multiplication table, but so often you need to start at the social-emotional learning level.

- Absolutely.

And the first thing after the tutors go through their initial training, we have an orientation slash training where our coordinator, our curriculum coordinator, gives the tutors tools to use to create a rapport with the students.

We have to tap into all those things that students are missing out on daily because they're so busy with the day-to-day school things, they don't get a chance to talk, and discuss things, and talk about their likes and dislikes, and things that they're going through.

So we're giving them a few social-emotional tips and resources to use with the students to build a good rapport and help teach the students how to communicate better.

- And if they have confidence, then they can do seven times eight.

- [Candace] Absolutely.

- [Chatea] Absolutely.

- For those who want to see, "I'm interested in maybe becoming a tutor," where would they go?

- Sure.

So, as you mentioned, we have six different regions.

They can either check the ISBE website, so isbe.net, and they can search Illinois Tutoring Initiative, or here in the Peoria region, or region three, they can search the ICC website.

- So they would go to icc.edu, and just search for adult... - [Chatea] High-impact tutoring.

- High-impact tutoring?

- [Christy] Yeah.

- ILSTU.edu, high-impact tutoring as well.

- Correct.

- Thank you so much for- - Thank you.

- The update on how we're trying to fill the learning gap.

It's called the Illinois Tutoring Initiative.

And we thank you, Christy Borders, who is the director of the program statewide.

- Yes.

- [H Wayne] And we thank Candace for being a tutor.

- Thank you.

- [H Wayne] And being on the program.

And also Chatea.

Chatea, thank you for coordinating everything through ICC for region three.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

- And we'll be back next time on "At Issue" with a discussion about ERA.

It's been 50 years since Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment, however, it hasn't become law.

We're going to talk about its future on the next "At Issue."

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