Rising up: Tutoring snapshot, ASSET “PALS” program - Antoinette Ralph, parent

2022 | Written by Faith Schantz, Report Editor

Antoinette Ralph lives in Chartiers City, in Pittsburgh’s West End. Her twin daughters, NyLah and Nylee, are 4th graders at Pittsburgh Allegheny PreK-5, a magnet school located in Allegheny Center on the Northside. Ralph owns a face-painting business, and both girls love the arts, enjoying painting, singing, and above all, dancing. At the age of ten, their future plans are somewhat fluid, but this summer NyLah wanted to be a nail technician and a preacher, and Nylee hoped to sing professionally.

The girls transferred to Allegheny last year, Ralph says, from a Pittsburgh public school that was less rigorous than Allegheny. The previous year, when classes were online, they’d had trouble focusing on school. At times, Ralph would step out of the room for a moment, and return to find “somebody’s looking out the window.” Both girls need support with reading comprehension, though they read aloud fluently, she says. Their mom can read with them at home, but when it comes to math, she often feels at a loss. “I’m saying ‘long division’ or something, and they’re looking at me like, ‘What?’” she says. “We weren’t taught the same way, so it’s really difficult.”

Teachers at Allegheny were patient with the girls and reassuring with her, Ralph says. “Everybody’s a little bit behind because of Covid,” they told her. “Just give them a minute to catch up.” She continued to ask questions about where they needed support, and encouraged the girls to advocate for themselves by telling their teachers what they didn’t understand. Both took the opportunities teachers offered for individual help when other students worked at computers or in small groups. Still, the pace of whole-group lessons was often simply too fast.

Ralph began searching for a tutoring service. The least expensive one she could find charged $40.00 per hour, which was unaffordable for her family. The girls attended an after-school program at H.O.P.E. for Tomorrow in Sheraden, and Ralph asked Executive Director Keysha Gomez if she knew of anything that cost less. As it happened, H.O.P.E. for Tomorrow was about to participate in a virtual tutoring pilot created by the local nonprofit ASSET (Achieving Student Success through Excellence in Teaching), in partnership with the A+ Schools, Duquesne University, and the Pittsburgh Learning Collaborative. Ralph signed the girls up. “I couldn’t believe it was free,” she recalls.

The goal of the pilot program, called PALS (Partnerships to Advance Learning in STEM), was to meet two pandemic-related needs. ASSET staff wanted to help both K-12 students who needed one-on-one learning support, and education majors at colleges in the region who would not be able to get teaching experience in the classroom. To match future teachers to students who needed help, they recruited out-of-school-time providers to host tutoring sessions virtually. Students in the program could also schedule tutoring from home, or participate during drop-in hours from any location. (Click here to read more about the PALS program.)

Ralph asked NyLah and Nylee’s teachers at Allegheny to give them extra work in areas where they needed support, and the girls logged onto PALS from home on Saturdays. At first, they were not enthusiastic about the prospect of more schoolwork. But soon after they started, Ralph says, their attitudes changed. They met with the tutor separately, rather than being treated as a single unit, as is often the case with twins. They chose what they wanted to work on from the materials teachers had sent home. Like many students, they learned better one-on-one. Success, in turn, boosted their confidence. At the end of a session, “they felt accomplished,” Ralph says. “Like, ‘Look, I got it done!’”

Since they participated in PALS, she has noticed another change. Both girls are more willing to say, “Wait a minute, Mom, hold on. I didn’t understand that. What does that word mean?” she says. Knowing “it’s okay to ask for help” is key to eventual success, she notes. Perhaps that’s true not only for Ralph’s daughters, but also for a parent looking to support her young learners with the resources Pittsburgh can provide.

For information about PALS tutoring, email info@assetinc.org.