300 Tutors, Working With Students 2 Hours a Day: One School Network’s Investment in Personalized Learning
New York, New York
In a conference room at New York University, around 300 future tutors gathered to receive training from the Great Oaks Charter School Network, an organization that believes in the power of growth and resilience. To convey their message, they used an unconventional image: a tattoo of a tree with twisted roots wrapped around an ankle and an intricate, dark eye peering out from the branches that climbed up a leg.
Every time the image of the tree tattoo appeared on the screen, the tutors chanted, "Root, root!" in unison. This symbolized the importance of establishing strong foundations, just like a tree with deep roots in a community. Great Oaks Charter Schools aims to cultivate these roots by investing in tutor housing, collaborative partnerships with local youth programs, and innovative school buildings that rejuvenate neighborhoods. These roots are especially crucial because there are systemic roots of segregation and discrimination that have been deeply embedded for many years.
Michael Duffy, the president of Great Oaks, emphasized the significance of these roots in his speech to the room full of tutors. He acknowledged that the work of overcoming decades, or even centuries, of discrimination would not be completed in the upcoming school year. However, he believed that it would be greatly diminished by the collective efforts of the 300 individuals in that room. Duffy stressed that true change begins with each person present.
The Great Oaks Charter School Network consists of four schools in urban areas across New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Delaware. Over the past six years, they have enrolled 2,500 students, the majority of whom come from low-income backgrounds and belong to minority groups. The network’s approach revolves around preparing all students for college through personalized, intensive tutoring. Regardless of their academic performance, each student receives two hours of tutoring every day.
Duffy described this tutoring model as an early form of personalized learning, wherein each student’s needs are addressed with the support of an adult tutor. These tutoring sessions are led by nearly 300 individuals who serve Great Oaks through AmeriCorps. Recent college graduates, these tutors work with groups of three or four students who possess similar academic abilities. They receive daily instructions on how to supplement the math or reading lessons of the day and also provide feedback to the teachers regarding student progress.
Each tutor commits to one year of service and receives a stipend of $12,630, along with accommodation provided by Great Oaks. The network takes pride in its diverse group of tutors, who collectively speak nearly twenty different languages. In the previous year, 45 percent of the tutors were black, 33 percent were white, 14 percent were Latino, 5 percent were Asian, and 3 percent were mixed-race.
Many of these tutors were inspired to work in the communities where they themselves faced the challenges of an unequal education system. They observed that resources were unequally distributed, with wealthier suburban students receiving more opportunities compared to their disadvantaged urban counterparts.
Jaylah Pickett, who grew up in Newark and attended public school there, will be working at the Great Oaks school in her hometown. Pickett understands firsthand the achievement gap and the lack of resources in urban areas. She believes that she could have benefitted from tutoring during her own schooling and plans to pursue a career in education policy after completing her year of service.
Walline Alphonse, another tutor in Newark, plans to go to medical school after her gap year. She was attracted to the tutoring program because it provides urban students with a resource that is usually accessible only to their wealthier suburban peers. Alphonse, who also grew up in New Jersey, wishes that tutors had been available when she was a student to serve as role models and mentors.
The Great Oaks tutoring program not only provides support to students but also serves as a sustainable training ground for local educators. Approximately one-third of the tutors choose to stay in their respective communities after completing their year of service, and nearly 90 percent of them continue working in the education field.
Great Oaks is committed to creating sustainable community development through responsible building practices and tutor housing. For example, the Bridgeport school in Connecticut is relocating to a new space this year that replaced abandoned warehouses as part of a broader city revitalization effort. In Wilmington, Delaware, the school shares its premises with another charter school within a former Bank of America building. Additionally, the Newark school provides housing to its tutors in Teachers Village, a complex that includes affordable living spaces for hundreds of educators across the city, as well as three charter schools and a day care center.
Duffy highlighted the positive impact of these initiatives, explaining how the presence of the Great Oaks schools is breathing new life into streets that were previously filled with parking lots and abandoned buildings. He emphasized that their approach focuses on appreciating the assets already present in the community, rather than dwelling on what is lacking, as is often the case.
Photo: Kate Stringer
Your task is to paraphrase the given text, using improved vocabulary and natural language while maintaining the same meaning. The entire output should be in English. Here is the text to be rewritten:
Original text: "The cat is sleeping on the mat."
Rewritten text: "The feline is peacefully resting upon the floor covering."
