Will Peer 2 Peer tutoring do the job in MOCO
Staff Writer
2011-02-01
.dmvblogspot.bloggieblog.com .
In MOCO(Montgomery County) county, Peer 2 Peer tutoring holds minds and futures of many of the county public school residents. Peer 2 Peer model is based off high school kids tutoring children in elementary schools and middle schools.
Rockville-based Peer2Peer Tutors has been selected as an academic service provider by Montgomery County Public Schools. This status prequalifies Peer2Peer as a vendor for future tutoring programs undertaken at MCPS schools, under the federal Title I program, or under private or public grants.
Peer2Peer Tutors engages and empowers top achieving high school students to tutor and mentor younger schoolmates in K-12 academic subjects while adult Management Operational Mentors (M.O.M.’s), largely former teachers and educators, schedule and manage the client and tutor interactions. Since 2004, more than 1,500 youth jobs have been created in the Washington DC metro area through Peer2Peer’s business efforts.
Founded in 2004 by then high school senior Erik Kimel, Peer2Peer tutoring has provided more than 10,000 hours of tutorial services to over 2,000 students in Maryland, Virginia and New York since its inception. The company is now expanding its efforts to serve underserved, low-income minority students through grant funded programs.
“Our goal is to make learning cool and to connect peers in a way that helps them succeed in school and in life,” says Kimel. We have been very successful as an education business and can now take the next step to ensure we fully meet our mission to help ALL students. Through our business model we create youth jobs and stronger communities. The students who most need our services, and our jobs, may very well be those who are unable to afford these services. To this end, we are continuing to expand our private tutoring efforts at a 50% annual growth rate in 2011, as well as developing our ability to serve and empower low-income, minority students in urban areas. Obtaining this pre-qualification from Montgomery County Public Schools opens the door for us to take this next step in meeting our mission.”
On a parallel track, the company is developing a record of serving the underserved. Peer2Peer has a non-profit partnership with the National Center for Children and Families; is a sub-contractor on a 21st Century Community Learning Center grant from the State of Maryland; , and now has been approved as a Service Provider in the Montgomery County Public Schools.
“This Montgomery County Public School System approval creates the right environment for Peer2Peer to provide services in low-income communities,” Kimel notes. “We look forward to collaborating with MCPS, our home school district and recent recipient of the Baldrige Award for innovation, to narrow the achievement gap in our schools and to create youth jobs where they are most needed.”