Thursday, November 6, 1997
Tutoring pays for college students
EDUCATION: Service learning program receives funding to employ
inner city school tutors
By Brian Fishman
Daily Bruin Contributor
Service learning — an innovative new concept in higher
education — may be the key to solving the drop in diversity in the
UCs, and may improve college education at the same time.
Service learning is work-study or curriculum-mandated community
work that benefits the student on an academic level. The concept
got a recent boost with the signing of Senate Bill SB 316, a $5
million program to employ college students as tutors in inner city
high schools, as announced by Senator Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) at
UCLA Wednesday.
"The gap between the educational haves and have-nots will only
widen unless there are thousands of California college students
performing this community service," Hayden said, at a conference on
the concept of distance learning.
Hayden, a proponent of Proposition 209, pushed SB 316 because,
"Volunteerism is great, but it’s not enough … It is an elitist
concept because it assumes you have time to volunteer."
So instead of relying on free labor, Hayden’s bill, co-written
by Senator Hilda Solis (D-El Monte), will pay students $10 an hour
working at impoverished schools.
Hayden feels that this type of outreach program might be more
successful at integrating colleges than affirmative action.
Already, nearly $150,000 of $3 million in work-study money given
out by UCLA goes to service-oriented programs.
"Work-study has been perverted," said Hayden, in no longer
centering on programs that encourage societal or spiritual
growth.
Hayden is hopeful about the future of service learning because
of the uproar over the end of affirmative action with Proposition
209.
"If the end of affirmative action means even fewer minorities
have access to higher education, that’s going to cause a major
political upheaval," he said.
Andrew Furco, Director of the Service Learning Research &
Development Center at UC Berkeley, was quick to say that service
learning "is not only community service." He stressed that the
academic benefits afforded to the providers of service learning are
impressive.
Ted Mitchell, Vice Chancellor of Academic Development at UCLA,
elaborated on the benefits of service learning for college
students. "It gives them a true sense of the value of their own
education," At UCLA, said Mitchell, "We have built our commitment
to service learning, sometimes without calling it that."
One of the obstacles facing service learning is that,
"understanding of the positives of service learning is
misunderstood among faculty." Mitchell said that many professors
believe service learning detracts from students’ "real work."
Every year 2,000 UCLA students participate in programs funded by
the Field Study Development Office, according to Judith Smith,
UCLA’s Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education. The Field Studies
office funds experiential learning programs, but is hampered by a
lack of funds. "This is something I have earmarked as very
important," Smith said about experiential programs.
All of these aspects were discussed at a public hearing held
Wednesday in the J.D. Morgan Athletic Center — which included some
participants in the program.
Nicole Presley is one UCLA student participant. She taught
tutorial techniques at Washington High in Los Angeles, where the
dropout rate was nearly two-thirds of all students.
"If you’re not engaged in what you’re learning, you get
graduation rates like that," she said.
"They don’t have textbooks. You can’t compete, trying to get
into college, with someone who can read the textbook all night
long," said Presley about the difficulties facing urban,
impoverished neighborhoods.
The movement towards service learning is state-wide. By 2004, 50
percent of Californian school districts will offer service
opportunities for each grade span, said Wayne Brynelson, Director
of the K-12 Service Learning for the state. He claimed that this
program, when implemented, will involve 60,000 students.
"College students will increasingly expect service learning as
part of their education," Brynelson continued .
The UC San Francisco Medical school has been praised for their
success with service learning. At Mission High School in San
Francisco only 10 percent of graduating seniors were attending
college 15 years ago.
UCSF started holding medical clinics for Mission students,
prompting much interest in nursing and medical school among them.
Eventually, UCSF held workshops promoting medical pursuits. In
addition to contributing to Mission High’s current 80 percent
college-bound senior rate, the Mission community asked the medical
school to organize a permanent clinic there.
The success of UCSF’s Mission program is viewed as a prototype
for the success of post-affirmative action programs.
"Prop 209 has ended affirmative action, but the gap in quality
between private and inner city schools remains as a serious
challenge," Hayden said. "If we are serious about equal educational
opportunity for millions of Californians, there must be a new
partnership between higher education and the public schools aimed
at improving quality preparation for California’s future."
KIT TARROZA
State Senator Tom Hayden preaches the benefits of service
learning, whereby college students learn through tutoring children
— which UCLA invests $150,00 in annually.