I have been in the educational system for almost forty years to date. I can honestly note that Project Pupil has been one of the highest quality programs with which I have had the honor to work with.

Overall, the best thing Project Pupil did was to increase students’ engagement in mathematics. Students like Student A and Student B were now willing to stay after school to get the extra help they needed because math was being presented to them in a new and engaging format. Hence, I had students who would have never stayed for tutoring, stay after school with me 2/3 times a week to get extra help. On an individual level, tutoring also built up the student’s confidence in math class. Many students like Student C or Student D, who had never volunteered in class before, were now raising their hands because they felt confident in their knowledge from the reinforcement they received during tutoring. Lastly, every one of my students had increases in grades by at least one grade. Students were now completing their homework on time and succeeding on tests because of Project Pupil. Student C went from an F to a C. Student D went from an F to a D. Student A went from an F to a D. Student B went from an F to a B. Student E went from a D to a C. Those are the biggest things.

I have had the opportunity to discuss with our teachers the student outcomes of working with Project Pupil this year. Our teachers have indicated positive gains in motivation and skills related to math and tutoring. The students chosen for this program are struggling in concepts related to math and we have applied remediation strategies in the classroom. However, our classes are very large and it is difficult to provide explicit individualized instruction in a class of 35 or more. Project Pupil has given us the setting we need for explicit instruction, which has resulted in academic gains. Because Project Pupil is technology based and innovative, students don’t feel like it is just an extension of their regular class. They are more motivated to attend. Several of our students had been assigned to our traditional tutoring before Project Pupil. They were not motivated to attend. When we mandated their attendance, they were not motivated to participate. These students are eager to attend Project Pupil which led to an increase in tutoring attendance and academic gains for the students. We plan to expand our tutoring with Project Pupil in the 2014-2015 school year. This year we had 3 of our teachers and 3 student groups working with Project Pupil for math tutoring. We plan to add at least 2 more teachers and student groups for tutoring in English Language Arts. We are very grateful for the opportunity to work with our colleagues at Pupil.