The Outreach and Education Center of Pueblo is offering free tutoring with volunteer tutors from Pueblo First Seventh-day Adventist Church. Our tutors began rigorous training in math and reading interventions in the month of August, allowing the first session to begin Sept. 6, 2022.
“God is at work among us, bringing students from our congregation and the surrounding community,” said Sherry Lee Hohrnbacher, coordinator of the O&EC.
Schooling for many students in our community has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the recently-published results from the National Assessment of Academic Progress, we are seeing the largest decline in math and reading proficiency since the assessment was first administered.
According to Hornbacher, the aim of the Pueblo Center is to address this achievement gap by offering effective intervention programs to students whose families may not be able to afford or may not have access to supplemental academic support. Both reading and math lessons are individualized, aimed to advance targeted skills and concepts. An initial diagnostic assessment is done prior to the first day of tutoring to ensure student’s individual academic needs are addressed.
The first tutoring session ended November 17, with a celebration of students and volunteers. After only 27 tutoring sessions, the participating students are already showing improvement.
All are anxious to continue the second round of tutoring in 2023. The tutors devotedly continue their training in both Math Recovery® and the Barton Reading & Spelling System©.
