Calling all tutors

Less than one-third of Minnesota students test at grade level for reading and math, according to state-wide data. And behind every statistic, there’s a student.
Reading Corps, Math Corps, and Early Learning Corps are AmeriCorps tutoring programs that put qualified tutors in classrooms across the state. When students are tutored, the individual attention they get helps them build stronger foundational learning skills.
Many schools in the Longfellow Nokomis Messenger readership area need tutors this fall. No teaching experience is needed to become a tutor, though applicants must be 18 years or older, have a high school diploma or GED, and be a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawful permanent resident. Tutors are fully-trained by AmeriCorps (think domestic Peace Corps), and serve on-site at neighborhood schools from 18-35 hours a week.
Tutors are paid a stipend equivalent to about $15/hour, plus they earn an education award of up to $5,176.50 annually based on the number of hours they serve each week.
Tutors 55+ may gift their education award to their child, grandchild, stepchild, or foster child to help defray the cost of college or to repay student loans. Tutors who work 35 hours/week may also qualify for additional benefits like free individual health insurance and childcare assistance.

Beyond statistics
Nicholas Abraham is on-staff with Ampact, a national nonprofit that manages AmeriCorps programs on the ground. He implements Early Learning Corps, Reading Corps, and Math Corps programs in Twin Cities’ schools. He is also a South Minneapolis resident with a child at Howe Elementary School.
Abraham said, “The pandemic definitely made the need for tutors greater. Nearly 800 tutors are needed across Minnesota this fall, and 300 of those are needed here in the Twin Cities. Of Minnesota’s 87 counties, 76 have asked us for help recruiting, training, and placing tutors.”
Reading Corps is a program for students in K-3 classrooms. Students who need extra reading help get 20 minute sessions one-on-one with a tutor five days/week.
Math Corps is for students in grades K-3 and 4-8 who test below grade level for math skills. Tutors in this area work with one student or, in some cases, a pair of students, for 40-minute sessions Monday-Friday.
Early Learning Corps is a pre-school version of Reading Corps and Math Corps, delivered to young learners who will turn five during the school year. Tutors in this setting are paired with a teacher, and are largely responsible for helping students transition between activities such as singing, learning rhymes, and word recognition.
Abraham concluded, “There’s a benchmark agreed upon by educators that if kids can’t read at grade level by third grade, they’re going to spend the rest of their lives trying to catch up. We’re doing everything we can to address that with the help of classroom tutors, by getting kids to read at grade level every year.”

Becoming a teacher through MNGOT
Kelly Collar graduated from college with an accounting degree in 2014. He went to work for Goldman Sachs in New York City, and was on a successful career path there until 2020. Having grown weary of the world of finance by then, he quit his job and moved to Minneapolis – following a hunch that education might be a better fit for him.
Collar served as a Math Corps tutor at Marcy Arts Elementary School in Southeast Minneapolis in 2020-21. In August 2021, he became part of a program called MN Grow Your Own Teachers (MNGOT) and was placed at Howe Elementary School in Longfellow.
Through MNGOT, tutors who already have a bachelor’s degree can earn a master’s degree and teaching license in two years while continuing to work as a tutor. Tuition for course-work is offered at a reduced rate, scholarships are available, and tutors are paid for their time in the classroom including student teaching. One of the goals of this partnership with the University of Minnesota is to increase the number of BIPOC teachers in Minnesota classrooms, but all students with a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college are welcome to apply.
Collar said, “After getting my master’s degree in education, I realized that being a fourth grade teacher is exactly what I want to be doing. I took a big pay cut to do this, but I just finished my first year of teaching at Howe Elementary and it went really well. The MNGOT program set me up to succeed.”

Chart a new course
Longfellow resident Wendy Johnson was an adjunct writing professor at Hennepin Technical College when COVID-19 hit. Her partner received a terminal cancer diagnosis at the same time; she left her job, and became a full-time caregiver for five months until he died.
She said, “I felt so isolated by the pandemic and by grief. I realized I needed a community around me where I Iived. When I learned about the Early Learning Corps at Longfellow High School, a high school for pregnant and parenting moms, I applied. I got a full-time job tutoring preschoolers 1.5 miles from home that I could walk to, and a great health insurance plan that meant I could ditch the expensive COBRA policy from my old job. I felt like I’d hit the jackpot.”
She continued, “You may be motivated to become a tutor because you want to help kids, but you’ll find that you’re helping yourself, too. Everyone who joins as a service member is in transition. You know at the outset that this commitment is temporary – that you can’t serve more than four years.
“I found a refuge in Early Learning Corps where I was appreciated, and where I could work with young learners is the most unpretentious occupation there is. The outcome for me was a new and unexpected sense of purpose. I hope to spend my remaining working years with an educational non-profit.”
To learn more about the need for tutors with Early Learning Corps, Reading Corps, and Math Corps in South Minneapolis, or to apply, go to: www.readingandmath.org. The deadline for application is Aug. 9, and the commitment to tutor is for the academic school year. There are also opportunities to begin tutoring in October and January.