Detroit Jewish News

E ach week, nearly 600 local professionals take a half- hour out of their workday to read with a student — all without leaving the office. The employees from Quicken Loans, General Motors, Chase Bank, Comerica Bank, DTE Energy and many others are volunteers with TutorMate, a virtual tutoring program from the nonprofit Innovations for Learning. The program started in Chicago in 2005, expanded next to New York City and added Detroit as its third location in 2009. It's now in some 17 ele- mentary schools in the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) system and the goal is to include it in each of the district's first-grade classes. Dan Weisberg, TutorMate's national director, noted that by the time children are in the third grade, how well they read — or don't — is a strong indica- tor of their future success. "There is a lot of educational data that points to a strong predictive ability with third- grade reading scores and the likelihood of graduating high school," he said. "We support students well before they label themselves as non-achievers and emotionally check out of school, and that happens as young as third or fourth grade." TutorMate works almost exclusively with 6- and 7-year- olds struggling to read. A cor- poration or organization signs up and recruits 10 employees as volunteers. Each is paired with a student and the two share a half-hour on the phone every week, each viewing the same page on their respec- tive computer screens while reading stories and playing games that build fluency, compre- hension, phonics and spelling skills. "So phenomenal" is how Robyn Lederman, a trademark attorney at Brooks Kushman in Southfield, described her tutoring experience with a Detroit girl in the first grade. "You can tell that more likely than not, no one is reading with them at home, and you can really feel a sense of excitement and enthusiasm to be making progress and to be given the choice of what story they want to read that day," said the West Bloomfield resident. "You can feel how they prog- ress — it's palpable," added Lederman, who is also active in the Michigan Israel Business Bridge, the Jewish Federation's Mission Lab and Retooling Detroit, another nonprofit dedi- cated to improving literacy. "No teacher could spend that time with each kid individually." TutorMate has worked with individual principals in DPS, but Weisberg said he hopes the program will grow with DPS' new superintendent, Dr. Nikolai Vitti, who was familiar with it at his former post in Florida. "We expect to work more closely with the central office, but so far it hasn't been too dif- ficult because most teachers in Michigan realize the benefit of one-on-one tutoring," Weisberg said. "There's been a lot of research about it. It gives an emotional boost as much as it helps with skills. Many students are in home situations where they may not be getting a lot of encouragement to achieve at school." MAKING A DIFFERENCE Weisberg now lives in Palm Springs, Calif., but knows Detroit well. He grew up at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield and is the son of Lucille and Harvey Weisberg. "Both of my parents really instilled a lot of desire for tikkun olam to try to repair or mend the world," he said. "They certainly set that example." Weisberg met TutorMate's future founder, Seth Weinberger, when they were brothers at Alpha Epsilon Phi, a Jewish fraternity at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Weisberg went to work for him six years ago. Bradley Lutz, a tax adviser attorney with Ernst & Young, joined TutorMate last year though United Way's Emerging Philanthropists. It was inspir- ing, he said, to track the prog- ress his second-grader, Jaylen, made throughout the school year. "It was amazing. Early on, he was reading robotically and methodically. Then it got to the point when he was reading so fast that he was skipping words, but still getting 95 percent of them correctly," Lutz said. "So, then it was a matter of reining him back in. He was so enthu- siastic about increasing his proficiency." Lutz said he was struck by the challenges Jaylen faced, particularly how loud and ram- bunctious his classroom was. "Going to Bloomfield schools, the disparity between my experience and his was pretty disturbing. Reading about class- room sizes and budget strug- gles at Detroit Public Schools, and then experiencing it on the other end of the phone, brought those stories to life," Lutz said. "Sometimes after a session, I would be beaming with joy — but some weeks there was so much distraction that it caused me angst and anger. I don't remember ever having a sce- nario at school where I couldn't concentrate on my studies." ALL IN Weisberg oversees TutorMate in 26 cities around the country, and nearly 10,000 students are enrolled in the program, which is funded through grants and program fees. The Detroit area, he said, has been particularly supportive. "We have found the commit- ment and desire from the cor- porate community to help par- ticipate in the city's revitaliza- tion, which includes early-grade education, is higher in Detroit than in the rest of our cities," he said. "There is a certain spirit of Detroit, and that's more than just a catchphrase." Lutz, who now lives in the city and attends the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, called TutorMate "an absolutely worthwhile program." "Honestly, there were times when I was more emotional and stunned with the impact than I could have imaged," he said. "You can donate money to orga- nizations, but to have a system- atic and continued relationship with someone to watch them grow was incredible." • Learn more at innovationsforlearning. org/tutormate. A video explaining how the program works can be found at http://tiny.cc/tutormate. 22 November 23 • 2017 jn Through TutorMate, former Detroiter and local volunteers help Detroit Public Schools students. One-On-One JOYCE WISWELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER RIGHT: A student connects with a tutor via the phone and computer weekly for 30 minutes. jews d in the Bradley Lutz ABOVE: Former Detroiter Dan Weisberg with a happy student who participates in TutorMate sessions. Robyn Lederman ROBIN ARM PHOTOGRAPHY

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