Peer tutors from Bret Harte High School pose for a photo with Lead Teacher Jennifer Landry (fourth from right). The students are earning work experience — and a paycheck — by providing educational support to elementary school students.
Partnership puts high school students to work raising achievement of elementary students
March 17, 2025
A new partnership in Calaveras County is giving high school students a chance to gain work experience as tutors while providing educational support to struggling elementary students.
Thanks to $320,000 in grant funding from Sierra K-16, Bret Harte High School students provide academic support to students at nearby feeder school Mark Twain Elementary School. The high school students are paid minimum wage to tutor students during their high school advisory period.
Mark Twain Union Elementary School District Superintendent Louise Simson said that Mark Twain students, who face a high level of poverty and socio-economic challenges, are in great need of academic support: Less than 10 percent of students are proficient in math and only 25 percent are proficient in reading, according to state test scores.
This partnership provides Bret Harte High School students with real-world job experience and much-needed academic support to younger students who will one day attend their high school.
“Our students receive job experience and pay for their work, but more importantly, they are pouring into the future generation of Bullfrogs, and the community service aspect is huge for our kids,” said Scott Nanik, superintendent of Bret Harte Union High School District. “My hat is off to Sherryl Godfrey, Jacob Holt and Jennifer Landry for the launching of this program that has never existed before.”
First-year teacher Jennifer Landry, whose position is also funded by the grant, brings a wealth of experience in personnel from private industry to the assignment. She has created the application, interview structures, training modules and assignments that truly prepare these Bret Harte students for their role as tutors.
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“This is an amazing opportunity to rethink what the K-12 articulation experience can look like for neighboring districts ...”
— Louise Simson, Superintendent, Mark Twain Union ESD
The program received so many applications from high school students that the grant was increased an additional $120,000 through a collaboration between Columbia College, Calaveras County Office of Education, Bret Harte, and Mark Twain in order to create additional opportunities for students needing support and those seeking paid work experience.
“If we don’t correct the learning deficits of our K-8 population before they hit high school, the achievement of the four-year experience and beyond is reframed from ‘college and career’ to ‘credit recovery,’” Simson said. “This is an amazing opportunity to rethink what the K-12 articulation experience can look like for neighboring districts and to provide relevant, real-world impact for students in high school and beyond.”
By exposing them to careers in education, the program may also encourage high school students to enter the teaching profession. There are also plans to provide college credit.
“The program will include a dual enrollment trajectory for the fall semester to also provide additional college credit for these students, who are not only making an impact in their community but a statement about their future careers as educators by coming into our rural district and taking care of their own,” Nanik said.
The partnership was possible under the leadership of Sierra K-16 Director Emily Graham at Columbia Community College. Sierra K-16 is an initiative backed by a $18.1 million state grant that focuses on creating seamless educational-to-career pipelines in seven counties: Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador, Alpine, Mariposa, Inyo and Mono. Columbia Community College serves as the lead agency for Sierra K-16.
High school tutors lead an exercise with students from Mark Twain Elementary.
High school students with the elementary school students they tutor.