1. Mentoring Students in Mathematics to Increase Test Scores of a Title I Elementary School through America Counts Hilina Tarekegn College Park Scholars – Science & Global Change Program Letters And Sciences htarekeg@terpmail.umd.edu Twitter: @HilinaMT College Park Scholars Academic Showcase May 3, 2013 Introduction: America Counts is a program that was founded in the 2000-2001 school year that catered to tutoring fourth graders from public elementary schools nationwide in mathematics. The tutors, or mentors, are usually volunteers from neighborhood Universities. The America Counts program at the University of Maryland focuses on improving Prince George’s County public schools test scores in mathematics. Acknowledgments: A special thanks to Ali Barlow – AR*AC coordinator at the University of Maryland. Douglas Welcome – America Counts coordinator. Katlin Meissinger & Andrea Herrera – Adelphi team leaders. Dr. Thomas Holtz & Dr. John Merck – Science & Global Change program directors. Issues Confronting Sites: Some of the mentees were out of control and they would always misbehave. It is difficult to help these kids because it is hard to get them to follow your directions. Also for some mentees there was a language barrier so it was hard to get them to understand when explaining something to them. Site Information: Adelphi Elementary School 8820 Riggs Rd, Adelphi, MD 20783 Site Leaders: Katlin Meissinger & Andrea Herrera Mission: The mission of America Counts is to improve the test scores of Title I schools. Adelphi, just like other schools in Prince George’s County, are Title I schools, which means that these schools have low poverty levels and the students are behind academically or at risk of falling behind. America Counts focus on helping Title I schools meet adequate yearly progress (AYP). AYP is the requirement under the No Child Left Behind legislation for schools to meet a minimum score on a statewide standardized test that tests students in reading and mathematics. Activities: At the beginning of the semester each mentor is assigned to 2-3 kids. The mentors spend an hour and a half with the students twice a week. Once the mentors arrive at Adelphi Elementary School the kids are brought to the schools library and they sit with their assigned mentor. For the first 45 minutes the kids work on homework and their mentors help them with anything that they don’t understand. Then the kids take a 15 minute break where they are provided with a free snack. For the last 30 minutes we did an activity called Center. During Center the kids played a math related game to make practicing their math skills fun. Everyday there was a different game so that they wouldn’t get board of Center. Impact: Mentoring fourth graders in math was very rewarding. Working for America Counts enriched the learning opportunities of elementary school students. I gave my mentees the help and the attention that they otherwise would not receive without this program. Watching them improve their math skills and problem solving skills over the course of the semester was very rewarding to me. Future Work: Adelphi made AYP this school year however the school met AYP last year and there wasn’t much improvement in test scores from last year. America Counts will continue the mentoring program at Adelphi to improve the test scores. The goal of America Counts is to help Title I elementary schools to improve math test scores and to reach 100% proficiency. I plan to continue working for America Counts as a mentor to help Title I elementary schools in Prince George’s County meet AYP and to become a better learning environment for students with low income families.