Homework Hotline:

The Homework Hotline offers telephone academic tutoring in six languages (English, Spanish, Arabic, Kurdish, Swahili, and Turkmen) for students in Nashville, Tennessee and the rest of the state from 4 to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday, when the Metro Nashville Public Schools are in session (MNPS). The Homework Hotline has operated throughout its 20-year tenure at the Cohn Adult Education Center.

The hotline is open from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, every day that school is in session. There are a total of 34 lecturers; 24 of them are teachers of the Ministry of Education, while the other 10 are teachers from other school districts and graduate students.

A SSISTANCE P ROGRAMS

At the end of the one-year study, students in the study did not outperform the control group on measures of school grades, self-esteem, or standardized test scores. Half of the selected students participated in an after-school program that provided homework help, mentoring, and cultural enrichment activities.

P ROJECT Q UESTIONS

How do utilization rates and types of assistance requested differ across

How do stakeholders perceive Homework Hotline?

How is information regarding Homework Hotline disseminated across

R ESEARCH D ESIGN

All schools except Nashville Middle are Title I schools and are considered economically disadvantaged. See Appendices 10-15) Interviews were conducted at the Homework Hotline office and at the four MNPS high schools described.

Q UALITATIVE D ATA C OLLECTION

The teacher asked the students if they would be willing to talk to a researcher and answer questions about their experiences with the Homework Hotline. There were five instances where the parent was not available to provide consent, so the capstone member thanked the student for his/her willingness to participate but stated that the interview could not be conducted without parental supervision.

Individual Interviews

Each interview was recorded via a digital recorder, as the topstone team member took notes on each tutor's response. Those students who were willing to be interviewed were then transferred to a topstone team member.

Homework

The students were interviewed by phone after they had finished receiving help from the tutor. Interviews with principals, counselors, and teachers all took place at their respective schools.

Hotline Administrators/

The interviews with principals and counselors took place in their respective offices at each school, while the location of the teacher interviews varied slightly from school to school. A teacher interview from a low-use school was conducted in a teacher's classroom during her planning time when there were no other people in the room.

Support

3 Total Interviews 55

To understand how information about the Homework Hotline is disseminated, the capstone team was required to observe the ways in which the Hotline is promoted within the schools and also interview principals, teachers, counselors, tutors, and Hotline administrators to gain an in-depth understanding of the way the Homework Hotline is promoted. internal. The final section of the protocols examined each stakeholder's perception of the quality of assistance provided by the Homework Hotline.

Finally, we asked each student to tell us about the quality of help they received from the Hotline tutors.

T EACHER P ROTOCOLS

Q UANTITATIVE D ATA C OLLECTION

Mentors completed an application form over the phone containing the following information: name of Homework Hotline staff member; date; time; The following day, all information from each call was entered into the Homework Hotline database.

L IMITATIONS AND C HALLENGES

The students who were interviewed for this study agreed to be interviewed after they had finished speaking with a tutor on the homework helpline. Surveying students immediately after they received homework help was a threat to external reliability, as it is possible that students gave us answers they thought were more socially acceptable.

F INDINGS

M ISSION

Total Calls By Grade Level, 2009-10

Through the data we collected, we sought to better understand the typical student who uses the services of the Homework Hotline. Through this process, we found another characteristic: most students called the homework hotline only once.

High Volume Callers

M ARKETING

No posters or other materials related to the Homework Hotline were displayed at the schools visited. The teachers remembered the Homework Hotline sticker, but for the most part did not advertise it.

R ESOURCES /C APACITY

Counselors can make the Homework Hotline recommendation at a time when the student knows he needs help. Suggestions presented for classrooms were posters to communicate the goals of Homework Hotline and how students may use the organization.

C ALL V OLUME

The teachers have a warm respect for each other and there is a jovial spirit that characterizes the centre. 19:00." Since the answers were all different, no conclusion can be drawn.

T EXTBOOKS

T ECHNOLOGY

Although there are a few computers in the Homework Hotline office, they are used by administrators. Teachers did not understand why the Homework Hotline still used telephone tutoring with the availability of technology as a resource. All the teachers insisted that most of their students have computers at home and use them a lot.

Again, teachers discussed the pervasive use of computers by all their students. In addition, teachers expressed concern that only students would benefit from the phone. Most of them are visual or kinesthetic learners.” Teachers commented on the difficulty of learning through an auditory only method when so many students are visual or kinesthetic learners.

We waste so much time gathering information.” The addition of technology would enable records.

I NSTRUCTIONAL Q UALITY

Educators also described their aggravation with many of the students calling simply with a desire to complete their homework. Many of the students will often call several times to get the tutor they like best or feel is a good tutor. In addition, many of the tutors felt that these pre- and post-tests felt like a waste of time instead of delving into the issues that the students were really struggling with.

This anonymity on the part of the students can facilitate calls from those students who may have difficulty asking questions in class. Many of the students call back and request to work with the same supervisor over time. This relational atmosphere is an important part of the homework hotline both between the teachers and the students.

The students seemed almost loyal to the organization and felt that Homework Hotline positively assisted them in their school work.

P ERSONNEL

Lack of eye contact with students can be a positive trait for some students. Tutors suggested that because of the anonymous aspect of the homework hotline, students feel more comfortable asking what they might consider “dumb questions” in class and generally feel less intimidated asking questions. Tutors discussed that it would be beneficial for them if students were better paired with a tutor in the area of difficulty.

Sometimes students call for one subject, but there is no tutor available who is an expert in that area. Of the students who called more than once, they wanted a mentor with whom they were previously convinced was successful, or with whom they were connected from previous phone calls. The students reported no problems with this process and were able to get a tutor of their choice after a few phone calls.

Because of these differences, it is often difficult for tutors to transition into different roles.

S TUDENT O UTCOMES

Although there is an orientation session at the beginning of the school year, that time is primarily designed to help with the logistical aspects of teaching. They enjoy working at the center and are eager to find ways to improve the services they provide.

H IGH A CHIEVING VERSUS L OW

A CHIEVING S TUDENTS

The teachers believed that only students who are truly motivated would go through the stress required to call the homework hotline. Students who call care." Another teacher said that the students who call are "well-rounded and goal-oriented kids." Interestingly, the magnet school had the highest number of calls in the study. The low achievers do not have the motivation to use such resource, teachers told us.

They don't do their homework and they don't seem to care.” Teachers did not feel that their struggling students called the homework helpline. The students interviewed in this study appeared motivated and mostly seeking understanding. While the Homework Hotline seeks to help at-risk students, the team found no evidence that they are reaching this type of student.

Our interviews can lend credence to the belief that it is the motivated students who use this tutoring service.

S TUDENT A CCESS TO T ECHNOLOGY

S TUDENT A CCESSIBILITY TO O THER

R ECOMMENDATIONS

Homework Helpline Executive Director seeks to help Nashville's neediest college students and students who have nowhere else to turn. Informed by this knowledge, the director can better match the organization's services to the students the Homework Hotline serves. Finally, returning to the idea of funding, the Homework Hotline should reconsider this in light of a newly defined mission.

It should seek to understand how the Homework Hotline could support the work taking place in the individual school environment. As the Homework Hotline also mentors a proportionate number of these students, it is recommended that the Executive Director and some teachers attend this training as well. Another recommendation regarding homework helpline tutors involves developing an evaluation process for the tutors themselves.

Based on interviews with students, we believe this is not a good use of Homework Hotline resources.

C ONCLUSION

R ECOMMENDATIONS FOR F UTURE S TUDY

A mixed-methods study could provide more insight into the value of tutoring in addition to the value of working closely with schools participating in the Homework Hotline.

R EFERENCES

The protective function of after-school programming and parent education and support for students at risk for substance abuse. The effects of peer tutoring on academic achievement of students with disabilities in grades 6 through 12: A synthesis of the literature. A parent, community, public school, and university-involved partnership education program to investigate and increase academic achievement and adaptive functioning in African American students.

The No Child Left Behind Act: Is it an Unfunded Mandate or an Advancement of Federal Educational Ideals.

A PPENDICES

A PPENDIX 3

H OMEWORK H OTLINE S TICKER

A PPENDIX 4

P RIZE L ETTER TO T EACHER

A PPENDIX 7

P REVIOUS I NTAKE F ORM , B LANK

A PPENDIX 8

H OMEWORK H OTLINE L OGOS &

S YMBOLS

A DDED FOR P ROJECT

Teacher Protocol

A PPENDIX 10

I NTERVIEW P ROTOCOL - T EACHER

Administrator Protocol

A PPENDIX 11, C ONTINUED

I NTERVIEW P ROTOCOL – MNPS A DMINISTRATOR

School Counselor Protocol

S CHOOL C OUNSELOR

I NTERVIEW P ROTOCOL – S CHOOL C OUNSELOR

Student Protocol

S TUDENT

I NTERVIEW P ROTOCOL – S TUDENT

Tutor Protocol

T UTOR

I NTERVIEW P ROTOCOL – T UTOR

Homework Hotline Administrator Protocol

H OMEWORK H OTLINE

A DMINISTRATOR

I NTERVIEW P ROTOCOL – H OMEWORK H OTLINE

A PPENDIX 16

H OMEWORK H OTLINE A NNUAL

R EPORT 2009-2010

R EPORT 2009-2010 APPENDIX 16,C ONTINUED

A PPENDIX 17

H OMEWORK H OTLINE P REVIOUS

M EASURES AND A SSESSMENTS

A PPENDIX 18

H OMEWORK H OTLINE S PONSORSHIP

L ETTER

A PPENDIX 19

I NSTRUCTION S HEET FOR O BTAINING

A PPENDIX 20

N ASHVILLE T UTORING A GENCIES

A PPENDIX 21

C APSTONE P ROJECT D ESCRIPTION

Descriptive Data for Nashville Middle School

A PPENDIX 22

Q UANTITATIVE D ATA D ESCRIPTION

Descriptive Data for Williamson Middle

School

Descriptive Data for Davidson Middle School

Descriptive Data for Tennessee Middle

H OMEWORK H OTLINE

T AKEN N OVEMBER 11, 2010

P ICTURES OF