August 9, 2002, Friday

NATIONAL DESK

For the Summer, at Least, an M.I.T. Education

(NYT) 723 words

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 7 -- There are no formal classes in this summer school, nor any teachers per se. There are instead 60 college students, and each instructs one or two youths.

In a program described by its creators as the nation's first one-on-one summer school developed in partnership with a university, about 70 students from a Boston charter school are receiving tutoring from college students rather than taking customary summer school classes. They spend four hours a day, four days a week, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work on basic math, reading and English skills.

The youths come from Media and Technology Charter High School, or Match, recruited there from some of Boston's worst schools with the promise that if they put in the time and effort, teachers will make learning interesting, with media projects to supplement classroom learning.

Having attended an after-school tutoring session staffed by students from M.I.T., Bob Hill, a Match teacher, decided that the format would work in the school's summer program. Through contacts in the university's work-study office and on its faculty, Mr. Hill obtained the use of six classrooms and the 60 tutors.

Most of the tutors are M.I.T. students, though some come from Tufts, Boston University and other institutions in the area. Because the tutors are all in work-study programs, federal funds cover 75 percent of their $17-an-hour wage. The arrangement also helps M.I.T. fulfill a federal requirement that 7 percent of a school's work-study money be allocated toward community service jobs, said Alan Safran, executive director of the Match school, and Jane Smith, director of M.I.T.'s work-study office.

''This type of summer school has not happened in America,'' Mr. Safran said. ''But with university partnerships and federal work-study funding, there's no reason this can't happen everywhere.''

The students and their tutors start work at 8 a.m. Incoming ninth graders whose test results suggest a need for help, and returning students who failed two classes in the last school year, stay until noon, and those who failed one class until 10 a.m. One midmorning break is allowed, for 10 minutes. Otherwise, the students must be working at all times, though this can include visits to the various libraries and museums on campus.

Students say the experiment is working.

''This is definitely the best kind of tutoring I've had,'' said Robert Valella, 14. ''This whole learning thing is going to help me a lot when I go back to school in the fall.''

Yakira Velez, 14, said the one-on-one intensity had meant some ''hard times,'' especially in math. But, she agreed, it produces results. Yakira and her tutor, Kelly Zimmerman, have made a graph of her work on multiplication tables, which has steadily improved. Now math is her favorite subject.

''At first I didn't want to come here,'' Yakira said. ''But it's not bad at all. If I didn't come here, I'd still hate math.''

One recent morning, Andrea Jordan, 14, hovered at a blackboard with her tutor, Beth Thompson. Ms. Thompson wrote ''.20'' on the board. Andrea paced and grasped her head as she tried to convert it to a fraction. After some guidance, she wrote ''1/5,'' then gave her tutor a high-five.

''If it's me with 15 other kids, the teacher is going to have to focus a lot more on the other kids,'' Andrea said. ''But here it's just me and Beth, and we can focus on what I need to learn.''

Mr. Hill, of Match, said he hoped the program would continue next summer. Students will take a standardized test at the end of this summer to gauge their progress, but Mr. Hill said he had already observed improvement among most students, which he attributes to the program's intensity.

''When you're in one-on-one tutoring, there's nowhere to hide,'' he said. ''I don't mean it in a bad way, but for building trust and promoting learning.''