New Haven Tutoring Initiative

OVERVIEW

Reading and math are fundamental academic skills that are essential to our students’ success in school, in their careers and in life.

In 2022, 84% of New Haven third graders read below grade level and 88% are below grade level in Math. These statistics are troubling and indicative of a broader set of longstanding challenges concerning our children’s education, which were further exacerbated by the pandemic.

We also know that the lack of equitable access to academic and enrichment opportunities after school and during the summer makes it harder for kids who need that kind of additional support to catch up. Addressing these gaps will require significant interventions in school, in the community, and in support of families.

The New Haven Tutoring Initiative is a response by the City of New Haven, New Haven Public Schools, and a group of youth serving agencies who came together to design a way to help address these challenges. The goal of the initiative is to increase literacy and math skills by providing coordinated opportunities in summer and afterschool programs for students to learn critical literacy and math skills, build home libraries, and develop an enjoyment of reading and math.

These efforts are also designed to complement the instruction at New Haven Public Schools, which recently piloted and adopted a new early literacy curriculum anchored in the Science of Reading that will be implemented districtwide in the upcoming 2023-2024 school year.

NEW HAVEN TUTORING INITIATIVE 2023

The Tutoring Initiative will launch a pilot program in the summer of 2023, and there will be an official launch for the academic school year in the fall of 2023. The Tutoring Initiative will have three strategic focus areas:

1. After School & Summer Programming: Implement high quality literacy and math enrichment and tutoring, based on scientifically proven instruction methods, through after school and summer programs.

2. Community Engagement: Build a culture of commitment to literacy and math across our city through broad community engagement and a powerful communication initiative. Use these tools to recruit volunteers and facilitate literacy and math focused events engaging civic organizations, academic institutions, libraries, the business community, older students, seniors, faith institutions, arts organizations, and other partners.

3. Parents & Families: Supply parents with information, training, and materials to support them in providing literacy and math activities for their children at home. This will be inclusive of those for whom English is not their first language.

PROGRAM COMPONENTS

Youth agency partners will integrate literacy and/or math tutoring activities into their traditional summer and/or after school programming a minimum of 2 days per week for 60 minutes per day. Literacy coaches from New Haven Reads and math tutors from New Haven Counts will work with youth agency staff to plan and facilitate activities, as well as to support implementation.

FOR PARENTS

Students registered for summer programs with the listed Summer Pilot Partners may be eligible to participate in the Tutoring Initiative. Sign up to receive updates about these summer offerings as well as to learn about after school tutoring opportunities for the next school year. Parents can also visit the websites of the listed partners directly to register for summer programs.

There will also be community-wide events open to all families to spark a love for reading and math at home and to support families to build their own libraries and skills. Sign up to receive announcements about these citywide family events.

FOR VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers will be needed to support literacy and math tutoring this summer and during the academic school year. There will also be a need for volunteers to help support community literacy & math events and to donate gently used books. Sign up to receive updates about volunteer opportunities and you can choose to volunteer for a specific youth organization or to be matched to a program with the greatest need for volunteers.

FOR BOOK DONATIONS

Another way to contribute to this initiative is by helping to expand the home libraries of families by donating your gently used children’s books. You can make an appointment to drop off your donations to the New Haven Reads Book Bank by emailing books@newhavenreads.org or calling (203) 752-1923.

FOR FUTURE YOUTH AGENCY PARTNERS

Youth agencies serving children in 1st - 5th grades in after school programs that are interested in becoming a tutoring partner for the 2023-2024 academic school year, can sign up to be informed of the release of a Request For Proposals (RFP) later this summer.