Episode Transcript
Marlena Jackson-Retondo: Welcome to Mind Shift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Marlena Jackson Rotondo. It’s almost Winter break at Bellevue Elementary in Santa Rosa, California, and tutoring sessions for the school year have just begun. The schools to AmeriCorps tutors have gone through a crash course of training to prepare for the reading and writing support they’ll provide for the rest of the year.
Jackson-Retondo: AmeriCorps is an independent government agency whose volunteer members provide educational support and services to schools across the country.
Jackson-Retondo: On this morning, a small group of fourth graders reluctantly file into the room.
Jackson-Retondo: They’ve been pulled out of their classroom to spend 30 minutes with the tutors, Maya Nurse and Elena Zeoli.
Maya has the students get straight to work reading a story out loud from a workbook In unison.
Mya Nurse: We’re gonna start with our choral style of reading today.
Mya Nurse: Ready? Go!
All reading: My mother says to me, I choose a pretty paper fan with a picture of leaves and fireflies. I will keep my fan forever. When I grow up I will look at it and remember this night.
Jackson-Retondo: The tutors stop the students every couple of sentences to ask about vocabulary in the text.
Elena Zeoli: So what happened?
Elena Zeoli: What unexpectedly happened? The wet… they were warned about the weather. They thought the waves were only gonna get to how tall? Do you remember from the first page? Student: mmmm….
Jackson-Retondo: The students seem timid, and when they do speak up, it’s very quiet. And sometimes the students don’t answer the questions at all, but Maya and Elena, unfazed by the silence, move on.
Jackson-Retondo: This is normal student behavior for the first week of tutoring at Bellevue Elementary, but what isn’t normal is that the first week of tutoring has been delayed this year by more than two months. Tutoring was supposed to start in early fall. Last April, all AmeriCorps funding was terminated by the Trump administration.
Jackson-Retondo: This ended an almost three decade long collaboration between Bellevue Elementary and AmeriCorps.
These cuts happened immediately and without explanation.
Nina Craig: It was shocking how quickly it happened. Um, uh, literally felt like overnight.
Nina Craig: so it kind of felt like the rug was pulled out from us.
Jackson-Retondo: That’s Nina Craig Bellevue, elementary’s principal of 10 years. Before that, she was a fifth grade teacher and she recalls working with AmeriCorps members then.
Nina Craig: As a classroom teacher I remember them coming into my room and working with some of my students and having that partnership as a teacher
Jackson-Retondo: And because the AmeriCorps members were such an integral part of the school community, the cuts were difficult for Bellevue students too.
Nina Craig: The relationship with the kids that was established and for the kids to all of a sudden have these people gone that are such a vital part of our school.
Nina Craig: was really sad and really hard to explain, because they really do become a part of our school culture.
Jackson-Retondo: Through lawsuits. AmeriCorps funding cuts were reversed in June of last year, but by that time, schools like Bellevue Elementary were already behind for the next school year’s cycle of tutoring. Some schools across the district opted not to continue with tutoring and mentoring support from AmeriCorps members for the next school year.
Jackson-Retondo: This is because they had to make decisions about their funding and without the certainty of AmeriCorps services, they had to go without. And because programming was delayed, Bellevue students didn’t start tutoring until December instead of October.
Nina Craig: there hasn’t been any tutoring offered for our third through sixth grade students until now.
Nina Craig: So without AmeriCorps, those students aren’t receiving any type of tutoring or intervention. And unless the teacher’s able to carve out time within their day to provide that,
Jackson-Retondo: AmeriCorps members provide one of Bellevue elementary’s only forms of tier two support. That’s targeted support in a small group setting. In this case, it helps students who are struggling with reading.
Nina Craig: In years past, we’ve had literacy paraprofessionals that could support our tier two. Um, however, with budget cuts, this is our first year without having them.
Nina Craig: And so, um, we have one instructional aide. For the entire school
Nina Craig: But yeah, we’re very limited.
Jackson-Retondo: The two AmeriCorps tutors contribute greatly to Bellevue’s tier two manpower, but it’s still not enough. The school reduced the kindergarten day by one and a half hours so that kindergarten teachers could provide extra support for Bellevue’s first and second grade classrooms. On short notice, and with no wiggle room in their budget.
Jackson-Retondo: Bellevue Elementary had to make some hard choices. We’ll find out how they’re doing right after this break.
***Midroll Break***
Jackson-Retondo: When I visited Bellevue Elementary back in December, I spoke with Fonzi, a fourth grader, receiving small group literacy tutoring for 30 minutes per day, four days per week.
Fonzi: Dog Man and then I Survived.
Fonzi’s telling me about the books he likes to read at home.,
Jackson-Retondo: What was that one?
Fonzi: I Survived.
Jackson-Retondo: What’s that one about?
Fonzi: It’s um, there’s like different books.
Fonzi: There’s, um, a Titanic book that, um, sunk in the ocean.
Jackson-Retondo: So you read about different survival stories? Whoa, that’s pretty cool.
Jackson-Retondo: He feels like there’s less reading time when he’s in his classroom.
Fonzi: The things that are different is, um, we don’t like read a lot of books,
Jackson-Retondo: But when he’s in his tutoring sessions, reading time, one of his favorite things to do, is extended
Fonzi: At AR time, we um, read, we read books for 15 minutes.
Jackson-Retondo: Fonzi is part of a small group of fourth grade students who have been identified as needing extra support with reading. During a normal year, there’s enough time for two groups of students to cycle through tutoring support from AmeriCorps members. But this year, since tutoring at Bellevue started late, AmeriCorps members only have time to help half of the students that they normally would.
Jackson-Retondo: At sites like Bellevue, the AmeriCorps tutors have become a staple in the school community.
Nina Craig: There’s so many ways AmeriCorps impacts because of the tutoring, the recess playtime, the mentoring. It’s so much connection. You guys probably know more of the kids’ names than I do, um, at this point. And you just started
Jackson-Retondo: And for Maya and Elena who are just starting their careers, the program offers them a glimpse into their professional future
Maya Nurse: I know I want to do a job where I’m helping people and so I thought this was a great opportunity to, yeah, like, get some real life experience where I’m like serving others and I’m thinking of maybe doing something with social work.
Jackson-Retondo: The opportunity to work with students in a school setting also offered Maya something new.
Maya Nurse: I’ve never worked with kids, and so I was kind of like, I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. Like, I don’t know if I..
Maya Nurse: …If I can do this, at first, you know, I was a little timid, but then you kind of just jump in and, um, you start connecting with the kids.
Jackson-Retondo: When I spoke with the tutoring pair back in December, Elena was already feeling optimistic about her future.
Elena Zeoli: So far this job I feel extremely passionate about, which is, it’s just really nice waking up in the morning and I, I wake up early, like I wake up before my alarm clock ’cause I’m just excited to come to the school.
Jackson-Retondo: A couple months later, Maya and Elena felt comfortable in their roles,
Maya Nurse: I just like know what I’m doing a little more. I kinda have a sense of like, we have a daily routine. I have really like good relationships with students now, so I’m like so excited to see them every day and they’re excited to see me and yeah, it’s great. It’s really good.
Jackson-Retondo: And the AmeriCorps tutors have also noticed improvements in their students as well.
Maya Nurse: One of my students in sixth grade, in one of his tests, he was and like the 26th percentile for reading in like November. And now he is like in the 42nd percentile and I’m like, whoa, that’s so like rewarding and exciting that he’s like doing so much better and able to do that on his own now, like do it more on his own.
Jackson-Retondo: But the reality of having to work within the school’s limited resources has also sunk in for Maya.
Maya Nurse: Sometimes also it’s like really hard to see like how some students struggle so much in school or like, you know, and I can only do so much and help them so much in that 30 minutes.
Maya Nurse: yeah, just doing the best you can every day with what you have.
ambi: Cat was going to wait the cat, and then this could change to hundreds of bugs in one.
ambi: He called his keys and…
Jackson-Retondo: I walked into the tutoring classroom in February.
Jackson-Retondo: It felt like a transformed space with students who were relaxed and eager to learn.
Jackson-Retondo: Elena had also noticed a difference in her students too.
Elena Zeoli: I feel like they’re a lot more confident in answering questions and what to write down. So I feel like that’s. That’s like the biggest difference I’ve seen is like their confidence in what they’re writing.
ambi: So the door, what’s the door? Who does he know? What’s the door? It’s D, the OOR. Yeah. I thought it was E-D-O-O-O-R-H. What? All right.
Jackson-Retondo: Fonzi has also gained confidence in his reading abilities since December. He told me he’s reading three to four books a day and even tackling some chapter books.
Fonzi: When I first came in and reading groups, um, we started reading books and stuff and I kind of got into it and I started reading books every day.
Jackson-Retondo: The benefits of extra reading support provided by the AmeriCorps tutors at school has extended into Fonzie’s home life as well. He and his siblings made up a reading game that they like to play at home.
Fonzi: We guess, like, the book that they have. They don’t show the covers. And we, guess, and then if we get it right, the people that have the book that the people say, they’re eliminated.
Jackson-Retondo: Even though there won’t be enough time to bring in another group of fourth graders for tutoring this school year, Elena and Maya look forward to the rest of their time with the students that they are able to help.
Jackson-Retondo: Thank you to Bellevue Elementary’s faculty and staff who contributed their time to make this episode possible.
Jackson-Retondo: The MindShift team includes me, Marlena Jackson-Retondo, Nimah Gobir, and Ki Sung. Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Seth Samuel is our sound designer. Jen Chien is head of podcasts and Ethan Toven-Lindsey is KQED’s, editor-in-chief. We receive additional support from Maha Sanad.
Jackson-Retondo: Mindshift is supported in part by the generosity of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED, some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio artists. San Francisco, Northern California Local.
Jackson-Retondo: Thanks for listening.
