Dr. Walter Cooper Academy, Recovering from the Pandemic

RES News - Tutoring Team

The School Year is well underway. There are currently 367 students enrolled at Dr. Walter Cooper Academy, at nine levels; PreK3, PreK4, Kindergarten and Grades 1 – 6. The students attend in-person classes, five days a week (9:30 am to 4:00 pm). The DWCA Faculty are dealing with several challenges… For some of our students, PreK3, PreK4, Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade, this is the first time they’ve been in a classroom, with an in-person teacher.

Daily attendance has been troubling; 71 of our students have already missed two (or more) days of school. A student is considered “chronically absent” if they miss more than 10% (18 days) of the school year. Many of these absences are due to Covid-related disruptions of family, and parent job loss or displacement. Administrators are working with students and their families to help keep them “connected”.

The DWCA Faculty has completed its assessment of student academic needs so they can develop “catch-up” lessons for this year, and determine which students will need the extra attention that could be provided by an RES Tutor. We will be scheduling a meeting (virtually) between the Faculty and the RES Tutoring Team to discuss integrating the RES Tutors into a return to “normal” at DWCA.

Meanwhile, we are beginning to assemble our Tutoring Team for the 2021-22 school year. The classroom teachers will again provide each of our Tutors with a daily plan for each of the students with whom they are working. Tutors could be supporting teacher-conducted classroom lesson activities, working with small groups, or (more likely) working with just one student at a time, on a prescribed learning exercise.

Even just two hours a week of your time can make a big difference in the life of a Dr. Walter Cooper Academy Scholar…

Questions??? Reach out to RES Past President Lee Loomis and the RES Tutoring Team at…Rochester Engineering Society (585) 254-2350, or via website: www.roceng.org, or via email: leeloomis46@gmail.com, (585) 738-3079 (mobile & text).

Lee M. Loomis