“Our number one goal in school is to meet the needs of every student academically. If we’re not doing that, then we’re failing,” says Jim Clark, Principal of Emerson Dual Language Elementary School in Minneapolis. “Reading Corps has always allowed us to meet the needs of students.”
Clark just wrapped up his fourth and final year as principal at Emerson last month. After decades of working in public education – including a stretch as a Reading Corps internal coach at a different school – Clark is now officially retired. Just before his last week on the job, he reflected on the ways that Reading Corps has helped his students.
A Tight-knit Community
Emerson is a dual language school that serves both Spanish and English-speaking students, grades K-5. At the kindergarten level, teachers speak about 90% Spanish and 10% English, with the ratio slowly equalizing to 50/50 by the time students reach 5th grade. The combination of multilanguage instruction and integrated populations of language-speakers makes for a multifaceted approach to learning.
“The English-speaking students help the Spanish speakers learn English and the Spanish-speaking students help the English speakers learn Spanish,” says Clark.
While some might imagine that community is harder to build when serving such a diverse population of students, walking through Emerson feels familial. Hallways ring with ¡holas! and laughter. On a short tour through the school, Clark gets stopped a dozen times by students who run up to him for a hug. It’s a welcome interruption each time. Clark effortlessly switches between Spanish with the students and English for the visitors touring the school. Something that students from all backgrounds share is the occasional need for extra support when learning to read.
“We need all the help we can get in schools nowadays. We need more and more people that are working directly with students,” Clark explains. “Even the greatest teachers don’t have the time [for] the one-on-one help that some students need. But their Reading Corps Tutor does.”
A History of Success
Prior to Emerson, Clark worked at Windom – another dual language school – where he saw firsthand the incredible impact a Reading Tutor had on students. Four years ago, when he became principal at Emerson, he made it a priority to establish a partnership with Reading Corps.
“I’ve had a relationship with Reading Corps for a long time. At Windom, before I was principal, I was the internal coach for our tutor,” Clark says. Seeing the kind of impact that tutoring had on Windom students made a deep impression. “When I came here, I made sure that we continued with Reading Corps: I know very well that it works. It’s always been a very important part of what we do at the school.”
Emerson currently has one Reading Tutor, Cathy, who just completed her third year at the school. Cathy is half of an interventionist team at Emerson, alongside a full-time staff member. Together, they focus on identifying and assisting the students who need a boost to get up to grade level reading. A key part of their success is not only determining which students need support, but also what learning techniques will be most effective.
“The team works really well together to identify the students that would benefit the most from what Reading Corps has to offer,” says Clark. “They’re here late almost every night, just going over the data about students and looking at what needs to happen.”
By taking this type of collaborative approach, the interventionist team has seen students make incredible gains.
“There’s one student who started out this year who was maybe kindergarten or first-grade level in English, and Cathy took him for tutoring. From the beginning of this year to now, he’s reading at a fourth-grade level!” Clark says, beaming. “The most amazing thing is reading in English at that high level has actually helped his Spanish: he has moved up in Spanish reading also!”
Working Together for Students
Cathy’s collaborative success with the full-time interventionist is exactly why Clark places a tremendous value on integrating tutors into the school community. The greater the teamwork, the better results for students.
“Everybody, all the teachers value Cathy because they’ve seen how she affects kids and how students grow when they’re working with her,” he says. Though Clark is retiring, Cathy will be back at Emerson in the fall for her fourth year of service. “The skills that Reading Corps tutors have are so valuable in the school because they meet the needs of students.”
Clark is such a believer in the methodology that he doesn’t want it confined to tutoring sessions. At his suggestion, Cathy has shared some of the Reading Corps strategies with teachers. And the partnership doesn’t stop there. Reading Corps is committed to the professional development of our members and acts as a pipeline for developing future educators.
“We actually have a Reading Corps alumni who’s now a kindergarten teacher here!” Clark says excitedly.
The teacher, Gloria, was Reading Tutor back at Windom when Clark was the principal. Walking into her classroom, Clark is met with a shower of enthusiastic greetings and waves. The students all sit cross-legged on the floor wearing graduation caps made from construction paper. They’re celebrating the end of their time in kindergarten and moving up to first grade. Next year will be a big change for them and for Clark too: retirement means he will have time to travel in September for the first time ever.
Clark will leave behind a school in great shape to continue serving students from many different backgrounds and with many different learning needs, thanks in part to Reading Corps.
“I would absolutely recommend it to other schools,” he says. “Since I’ve become a principal, I’ve always had a Reading Corps tutor. That 15, 20 minutes daily makes all the difference in the world to students.”
Interested in making a difference at a school near you? Reading Corps is recruiting tutors for this fall! Learn more at readingandmath.org.