Side by Side: Peer Tutoring to Empower Students, Teachers, and Schools

• In Event: Teachers Leading for Change: Reclaiming the Discourse and Practice of Teacher Leadership in a Neoliberal Context

Abstract

This paper challenges current methods for teaching underserved students that focus on standardized testing and are often delivered in a “one size fits all” model. In mathematics, computer programs are designed to have students “plug and chug” through formulas and mindlessly repeat steps until they can produce a high score. In writing, students are taught rote, unimaginative methods of response to bland writing prompts with the goal of churning out a neatly wrapped essay. This kind of teaching and learning reduces students and teachers to “completers of tasks” instead of engaged, accountable, and collegial partners in academic and personal growth (see, e.g., Cuban, 2013; Ravitch, 2010)

In this paper, we argue for a model of teaching and learning that honors collaboration, one in which students and teachers have the freedom and spirit to engage in meaningful experiments in problem-solving and creative and analytic expression. As co-authors of this paper, we pull from our combined 12 years of teaching experience in urban public and charter schools and action research projects carried out in spring 2013 to argue for the value of authentic interventions for students that focus on individual growth rather than standardized achievement and authentic opportunities for genuine student and teacher collaboration.

In 2007, Stacey Carlough founded a Writing Center at Freire Charter School, a Title 1, open-enrollment, public charter school in Philadelphia. In consultation with Stacey, Maeve O’Hara created a Math Center in 2012 at Bodine High School for International Affairs, a public magnet school in Philadelphia. To examine the impact of these Centers, we collected and analyzed data including students’ test scores and interviews with students, peer and adult tutors, and school staff and administration. Our analysis suggests that the peer-tutor model, with teacher supported test correction/writing revision, is effective in increasing the confidence and content knowledge of the students. These data also suggest that the Center model increases the engagement, success, and independent accountability of the teachers involved. Thus, teaching and learning is renegotiated as a collective and fruitful community endeavor.

A number of central findings emerge from the data. 1) Our Centers encourage high expectations for students, both by giving them opportunities to make mistakes and learn from then and by believing them capable of teaching and learning from one another. In doing so, we put the power to learn back in their hands. 2) Our Centers allow teachers to develop a sense of authority and “staying power” in the profession and own an authentic stake in the success of their students, legitimizing their stance as teacher-leaders. 3) Our Centers challenge the neoliberal model of teaching and learning in that they are public and collaborative, engaging participants to work for the good of their peers, their school, and their community (Schniedewind, 2011). By inviting students and colleagues jointly into this process we strengthen our success in narrowing the achievement gap and providing the equivalent of a “social safety net” in an efficient and collective manner.

Authors

• Stacey Carlough, Freire Charter School

• Maeve O'Hara, School District of Philadelphia