During the summer, Uplift partnered with FEV Tutor to provide high school scholars with free, school-sponsored, 1:1 online tutoring as a support resource to help them reach their academic goals. Scholars were identified based on their respective academic needs to receive tutoring for support in achieving their End of Course (EOC) exam goals, as well as access to a live tutor 24/7 for last-minute homework help and coursework support.
In addition to this, a select number of scholars were selected to take part in targeted in-person support. However, with that, came an additional hurdle to overcome.
While some scholars might have been motivated innately to sacrifice part of their summer in order to prepare for their EOC exams, others might have been more concerned with finding a summer job and making money during their time away from school.
To help incentivize scholars to participate, Uplift was able to secure funding and offered college scholarships of $1,300 to all scholars who were invited to attend the in-person EOC tutoring program. To earn the incentive, scholars had to meet certain criteria including 100% attendance, taking their assigned EOCs at the end of the program, completing all assignments, and staying actively engaged with their FEV Tutor and Uplift teacher at their assigned campus.
The program was a hit among scholars, and it led to exponential growth in their exam scores.
Yabisira Nema, 10th grader at Uplift Infinity, passed both his Algebra I and Biology EOC exams and saw his scores rise by almost 200 points and 500 points respectively.
“I’m proud of myself. Last year, I didn’t feel confident that I was going to be able to pass, but I did it.” said Yabisira. “I would definitely recommend it to other people who I know are struggling in their classes. This program would really help them out.”
Jason Chavez, a 10th grader at Uplift Infinity, not only passed his English I EOC exam, but did so by increasing his score by over 500 points going from “Did Not Meet” to “Meets”, skipping the “Approaches” level altogether.
“It really helped me because it helped me to stay focused,” said Jason. “I learned new ways and new strategies to take the exam. On top of that, college is expensive, and this scholarship is very helpful for families to help them be able to pay some of the costs.”
Samantha Alvarez, 10th grader at Uplift Infinity, had similar success, passing her Algebra I EOC exam and improving her score by 200 points.
“The program consisted of reviewing concepts we had learned before in our Algebra class, but it was more detailed and more personal because it was 1-on-1 with your teacher, so you could understand the information better,” said Samantha. “When I first found out about it, I thought it sounded fun and I was excited to relearn some of the material that I didn’t quite understand during the year. It was my first time in summer school, and it was a new and interesting experience.”
Both the scholars and the leadership team at Uplift Infinity were such big fans of the FEV Tutor program that they made the decision to continue their partnership with the program into the school year.
Uplift Voices 