Who+We+Are


 * Streets, Avenues, and Directions:** A brief history of Tucker Tutoring and what we are all about

By: Madison Addison Papir, class of 2013

Ransom Everglades has spent the past two decades building a rich partnership with the West Grove. “There are two principal streets in the historic Coconut Grove: Main Highway and Grand Avenue, “ said Head of School, Mrs. Ellen Moceri. “They often can represent very different worlds, both socio-economically and culturally. It is the aim of Ransom Everglades to help those two streets intersect.” RE has paved a connecting avenue to its neighbors through a tutoring program in F.S. Tucker Elementary in the West Grove.

RE student Chris Brown, class of 2001, with some help from Summer Bridge (a nationally recognized service organization focused on improving educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth in Miami, later called Breakthrough) laid the groundwork for a program in 2000, naming it “Tucker Tutoring.” After Brown graduated to attend Princeton University, the program was implemented in 2004, by the school’s Volunteer Service Organization (VSO), coordinated by former faculty sponsor, Ms. Jennifer Nero. The organization reconnected with F.S. Tucker elementary through the help of Mrs. Moceri and the school board administration’s work with the Miami-Dade school system. The following year, under VSO’s current faculty sponsor Ms. Laurie Miller, Tucker Tutoring was put into practice for the first time. Ransom Everglades students from VSO organized a group a student tutors from the Upper School to go to F.S. Tucker in the West Grove after school, three days every week.

Tucker Tutoring is a program that focuses on preparing the Tucker elementary students for the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test), an annual exam administered to all public school students throughout the state from grades three through eleven. According to the state’s Department of Education 2003 scores report, F.S. Tucker’s FCAT scores, primarily in Math and Reading, plummeted to an all time low. In order to graduate to the next grade, students must reach minimum score requirements or repeat the grade until they pass. More students were being held back then ever before.

Since the program began, RE students have been tutoring Tucker students in grades two through five on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays after school. Using Houghton Mifflin preparation books, the RE tutors work one-on-one or with groups of three to four Tucker students. Since its first year in action to 2009, F.S. Tucker’s annual FCAT score report increased its mean scale scores by approximately 35%. All Tucker Students who have entered the program have passed on to the next grade.

In addition to FCAT preparation and homework help, RE students and Tucker students take educational field trips twice a year after the exam to celebrate, including trips to the Miami Metro Zoo, Miami Museum of Science, and Miracle Theater.

3rd grade Tucker student Luisa Fernanda Torrez, and second year member of the program said, “Tutoring helps me so much. When I get better at the questions, I feel like a rock star!” As much as the program works to improve the scores and confidence of the Tucker students, it is a life-changing and bonding experience for the Ransom Tutors as well.

On a personal note, as a third second year Tucker Tutor and director of the program, I feel I have discovered one of the most incredible niches of our extended RE community. I have built bonds with students both inside and outside of the classroom. Sometimes, when taking a look at our RE tutor and Tucker student sessions, it is difficult to say who is learning more. Like our school’s partnership with the West Grove, it is evident that the Tutor-to-Student relationship is also a kind of partnership. We are a team, working together to accomplish something great. The avenues and streets are our roads and paths to a brighter future. These are our neighbors, our friends, and we feel so incredibly fortunate to get to work with them on a daily basis.