Vanderbilt and the Metro Nashville Public Schools announced plans to establish a lab school at John Early Middle School this past April to enhance the school’s educational quality and provide more support for its students. While the complete implementation plan includes training and other phases spanning three years, Vanderbilt students began involvement this fall.
The program represents the newest opportunity for undergraduate students to get involved in Vanderbilt’s partnership with the MNPS by tutoring. Per Heather Johnson, program director of secondary education and head of partnership with John Early, students may tutor to volunteer or receive credit for their time if they are taking a class that allows it.
“This is still a learning year. Things might change,” Johnson said. “I can imagine different instructors wanting to work more closely with it in different ways in the future.”
Sophomore Caiawynn Lakey visits John Early twice per week to assist in a classroom with students with special needs. On most days, she said she works with one to two students.
“They call it high-impact tutoring. It’s about building a consistent relationship with the child, which motivates them to come to school more often,” Lakey said. “Providing that one-on-one instruction is really beneficial, especially for students who are already behind in the ‘behind’ class.”
Lakey tutors at John Early as a volunteer, but she receives credit for her work in another MNPS school toward her major. She is one of about 50 students from Vanderbilt who tutor at John Early weekly, however, students reported some logistical constraints standing in the way of their involvement.
“The biggest concern is getting to the school since a lot of students don’t have a car. I drive two other freshmen on Monday, and I drive my roommate, a master’s student and another sophomore on Friday,” Lakey said. “If you’re trying to volunteer on a day and no one is able to carpool with you, that’s a pretty big issue because public transportation is not really feasible.”
Johnson said she is hopeful for the future of the partnership despite its challenges. Given the current uncertainty facing the program, she said she views the current stage as a time of learning for both parties.
“I’m really excited about this collaboration, and I think it has a lot of potential,” Johnson said. “But there’s just so much we don’t know yet. I’m hoping this year we can learn a lot about each other and grow this collaboration into something really strong.”
Runmeng Wang, a Peabody graduate student in secondary education, goes to the school three times per week through a mix of work for class and volunteering. She said working with the same class on multiple days allows her to develop trust and build relationships with students.
“You can tell the students are getting more familiar with you because they’re more willing to ask for help,” Wang said. “They can feel achievement from that.”
In the next few weeks, tutoring support for regular education classes is planned to change from general classroom support to one-on-one partnerships in certain classrooms. However, this structure is only determined for this fall so far.
“Because this is the first semester Vanderbilt and John Early have this tutoring partnership, there are lots of opportunities,” Wang said. “If they continue to have this, I would want to go.”
