Since the Buffalo Board of Education announced it would eliminate 433 teacher positions from the district beginning Dec. 1, administrators of public school tutoring programs at UB say demand for their services is greater than ever before.
"We have schools that call us all the time," said Elfreda Blue, associate dean for urban education and program development of UB's Graduate School of Education and coordinator of UB's chapter of the America Reads program. "They all want tutors yesterday."
District administrators cut the teacher positions, along with 124 other jobs, to help meet a $28 million budget gap caused by expected state aid that was not awarded due to the attacks on New York City. The decision to release more than 500 members from the district's payrolls came only one day after the state released the previous year's math and reading proficiency results, showing that the majority of Buffalo's eighth graders failed the exams, according to an Oct. 25 Buffalo News article.
Blue said that although increased requests for tutors are difficult to meet, her program is expanding in anticipation of the chaos expected as public school classes merge and students are shifted. UB's America Reads program employs about 60 tutors, primarily undergraduates, but Blue hopes to add at least 20 by the end of the year.
The federally funded, national tutoring program, conceived by the Clinton administration in 1996, began at UB in 1997. It currently sends tutors to several Buffalo schools, including the early childhood development center at Public School 36 and seven after-school programs.
UB's linguistics department has also adapted its operations to aid Buffalo's ailing schools. It offers a tutoring internship, previously available only to linguistics majors, that has been expanded to include all majors in response to the Buffalo school system's shrinking workforce.
"A lot of us feel really frustrated," said associate professor Jeri Jaeger, director of undergraduate studies for linguistics and cognitive science. "I thought this was something I could do for Buffalo."
Linguistics interns work to help boost math and English test scores in local schools such as Bennet High School, where 93 percent of the students are minorities, and Grover Cleveland High School, which has a large refugee population, Jaeger said. Their 43 interns function as teacher aides and individual tutors.
Jaeger described the linguistics program as a win-win situation for UB students and the school system.
"I've had such a great response from students and Buffalo teachers," said Jaeger. "I'm going to leave it open so we can keep having this kind of relationship with the community."
Student tutors can earn three or six hours of upper-level linguistics credit per semester based upon the number of hours spent in the classroom.
A similar internship offered by the mathematics department has been in effect for some time, said associate professor Richard Vesley, but has just recently become available to non-mathematics majors.
"In response to the current serious need for help with mathematics instruction, we are expanding our program for spring 2002," stated Vesley in an e-mail. "We will be sending at least five majors to work eight hours per week."
The internship offers three credit hours to its tutors who work in several Buffalo schools from elementary through high school levels, including Bennett High School. Applicants must have earned a minimum grade of B in Mathematics 142 to be eligible for the program.
America Reads volunteer positions are open to all undergraduate students eligible for work-study and in good academic standing. Graduate students and those ineligible for work-study can participate as volunteers.
Additional information on the America Reads program can be obtained in 372A Baldy Hall, and information on the linguistics internship is available in 618 Baldy Hall. Further details on the mathematics internship can be found in the mathematics undergraduate office in the Math Building, room 233.
