Community-School Partnership takes off in Washougal

Program matches struggling students with community volunteers

By Doug Flanagan
September 21, 2023 12:47 pm
Latest News, News, Schools

Community-School Partnership volunteer John Neumann works with a small group of Washougal High School freshmen in 2023.

Barb Seaman began to think about the possibilities of a community volunteer tutoring program for Washougal High School students several years ago after one of her sons failed his algebra class. Knowing he would have to pass the class in order to get into college, she asked him to take the class again, but knew that he’d require more support to succeed the second time around.

“My husband would come home from work every night and sit down and do (my son’s) homework — that took an hour or two — and then he would sit with my son and they would do it together,” Seaman said. “My husband would explain it to him in a meaningful way, outside of school, because whatever was happening in school just wasn’t working for the way my son learned.”

Seaman is now helping many other Washougal High students receive the same type of assistance her son received.

The East County Citizens Alliance (ECCA), a Washougal-based nonprofit organization that endeavors to support and protect East Clark County communities and public institutions through relationship-building, education, advocacy and volunteer initiatives, and Washougal High launched a program to match community volunteers with academically struggling students in November 2022.

The program, known as the Community-School Partnership, succeeded immediately, both in terms of the number of participants and the results that it elicited. Between November 2022 and June 2023, 12 volunteers worked with 125 students, the majority of which saw an increase in academic performance.

“Our goal was to bring in volunteers from the community to help students catch up after the pandemic. Learning loss and stagnation has been a problem everywhere, including here,” ECCA founder Melanie Wilson said. “While volunteer programs like this are somewhat common in elementary schools, they’re far less common in high schools, and this was the first time Washougal High had collaborated with a civic group in this way. We’ve worked hard both to develop the program and to evaluate its impacts. We’re pleased to say that it’s been a success.”

That success caused Washougal High and ECCA leaders to plan an expanded program with more mentors and additional subject expertise for the 2023-24 school year, which began Sept. 5.

“Part of (the planned expansion) is recruiting volunteers, especially (in the areas) algebra and bilingualism — Spanish and Russian, specifically,” said Washougal High associate principal Mary Andreotti. “On our end from the academic side, (we’re asking), ‘How do we provide the instruction to mentors sooner so they feel more confident with it? Just like a kid wants to feel confident in what they’re doing, the mentors also want to feel confident coming in, so we’ve got a couple of things in the works based on that feedback from the mentors and students. But the starting point is more mentors coming in to be able to support more students.”

Seaman, a library media instructor at Washougal High and ECCA volunteer, approached Andreotti with her idea at the start of the 2022-23 school year.

“We just started talking about ways we can support students,” Andreotti said, “and we ended up talking about how elementary schools have community members come in and parents come in and (tutor and mentor students), and she wondered what that would look like at the high school.”

Seaman took the idea to Wilson, who organized a recruiting effort to gather volunteers.

“Students sometimes need more support, or they need different kinds of support than what’s offered in the school,” Seaman said. “When the ECCA group came together and I began talking with a lot of the people there, they were looking at what things they could do to support the community, projects they could do to bring people together and support public education. They were asking, ‘How’s it going in the school? What kinds of things could we do to support the school?’ It just sort of happened organically. There were a lot of moving pieces, and we gradually learned how to put them all together from week to week as we went through the year.”

Andreotti and Seaman compiled a list of students who could potentially benefit from such a program by establishing lines of communication with the school’s counselors.

“Part of the process we’re (using to help) students be successful is working through their counselors and doing grade checks,” Andreotti said. “Counselors check in with them and say, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ And if a student says, ‘I’m struggling in this class,’ a counselor might say, ‘I noticed you’re struggling. What do you think about this mentoring program?’ The counselor would then talk with the teacher, and if it’s agreed upon as a team that, yes, this is going to be successful, then we would refer the student to the program and match them with a mentor.”

The volunteers help the students with more than just academics, however. The program has become “relationship-based,” with bonds forming between mentor and mentee, according to Andreotti.

“That wasn’t the specific goal, but it just sort of happens naturally,” Seaman said. “That’s one of the more wonderful things about this. Some students don’t have another positive adult in their life to give them just a small bit of guidance, so when a volunteer comes and helps them with their schoolwork, they get to know each other a little bit better. I think it’s really helpful for (students with) young, growing minds to have a variety of people in their lives who can set that example for them.”

The program had “two major impacts” on the students, according to Andreotti.

“One was the test scores,” she said. “Our students would work on specific skills and go back and either reassess or take their next assessment, and we were seeing passing grades rather than failing grades, and if they had Ds, they would move up to Cs and Bs, so we did see an academic impact.

“But then we also saw an engagement or social impact. The student would come to school and be like, ‘It’s Wednesday. I get to go to mentoring,’ or ‘Hey, can I do that? That’s one of the reasons I’m passing.’ We saw a greater engagement, and we actually had an increase in Wednesday attendance for our students that were in the program who may have been struggling with attendance.”

Eighty-eight percent of participating students who completed an end-of-year survey said the program helped them understand their classwork better, and 79% said it helped them improve their grades, according to the ECCA website.

“I noticed that several of the students (liked to) have a chance to think about the material in a different place besides in the classroom, which is sometimes very hectic and loud,” Seaman said. “To work with somebody new, a community member, who maybe helps explain (the material) in just a slightly different way, or just maybe reinforces what the student has already learned, makes the light bulb go on a little bit more, (is beneficial). When they go back to class, they’re a little bit more confident, and they feel a little bit more capable.”

Teachers also approve of the program.

“I had two different tutors, and both were fabulous to work with,” Nicole Simek, a Washougal High personal finances teacher, said on the ECCA website. “Data alone shows the drastic improvement this program had on my students. It was as if a light was switched.”

Volunteers don’t have to have teaching experience or possess expertise in any academic discipline, according to the ECCA website. ECCA provides volunteers with training, as well classroom materials and assignments in advance.

“In general, the teachers would supply the assignments along with the (answer) keys to our volunteers ahead of time,” Seaman said. “A lot of them spent every Tuesday night ‘doing their homework,’ sitting down with the assignment and refreshing their memories. They weren’t going in and teaching the material, but rather they taught the students how to process the information and how to get it down on their own paper. They found examples from real life and helped the students connect with the material, and set an example on how to learn. That was really huge.”

To sign up as a volunteer, visit forms.gle/Q8x2Wsjk2ipGhqCB6 and fill out the form provided. For more information about the program, visit eastc ountyvoices.org/projects/community-school-partn ership-program; email Wilson at eastcountycitiz ens@gmail.com or Seaman at barb.seaman@washoug alsd.org; or call the Washougal School District office at 360-954-3000.

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