City students in YSU tutoring program show improved reading scores

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown City School students who participated in a YSU tutoring program showed improved reading scores, the school district and YSU announced in a news release today.

Youngstown State University’s Project PASS – Penguin Assistants for Student Success – started in January 2015, pairing more than 300 YSU education students with second- and third-grade students from the city schools.

The goal of the program was to improve reading skills. A study by the Ohio Education Research Center at Ohio State University found that participants did in fact show improvements in their reading abilities.

“This shows the positive effect extended learning time and one-to-one tutoring can have on a child’s reading skills,” said Krish Mohip, CEO of Youngstown City Schools, in a statement. “We believe the Project PASS model can be replicated throughout the state between other universities and urban school districts.”

YSU President Jim Tressel also commented on the program, stating: “Project PASS proves that when the city’s two largest educational institutions join forces, good things will happen. Not only has Project PASS resulted in improved reading scores for Youngstown City Schools students, it also has provided an excellent training ground for our teachers-in-training. It also demonstrates the feasibility of other university-district partnerships to enhance literacy and could prove to be an example that can be replicated across the state.”

Specifically, the study found that participation in the program for at least one semester increased by 29 percent the students’ likelihood of meeting the Third Grade Guarantee.