Outreach on the Horizon

General Tutor Intake Form

Site Partners Intake Form

The Community Learning Center at Cleveland State University is dedicated to realizing our core value of equitable educational opportunities to all children and youth both inside and outside of the school setting. In addition to running our traditional programming through the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education on the Cleveland State University campus, we are engaged with our community in a number of dynamic ways. Some of our exciting new initiatives are described below. Check our site often as we are developing new projects and partnerships all the time! Please contact Director, Dr. Amanda L. Yurick (a.l.yurick@csuohio.edu) for more information on any of our projects.

Remote Tutoring Opportunities

Over the past two years our world has had to change rapidly and dynamically as Covid-19 altered how we engage children in the educational process. Families were tasked with stewarding their children through uncertain times as schools went fully remote, hybrid, back to in-person, and sometimes cycled through these formats several more times. It has been a whirlwind, indeed! What we learned is that children can benefit academically when provided high quality instruction that is supprtive and individualized, even when that instruction is mediated through a screen! Our Center has established research based protocols to train tutors to work with children remotely. We translate evidence-based practices into format that can be addapted to online instruction. With the support of our Family and Faculty Liaison staff member, we are able to support learning on both sides of the screen, tutor and tutee can learn new ways of connecting with one another. Even as schools and students have shifted back to in-person instruction, some families enjoy the ease of access that remote tutoring has afforded them. Additionally, some families and students have considerations related to health, transportation, and scheduling that makes in-person tutoring all but impossible for them. For these reasons, we have established our remote tutoring programs as a mainstay of our offerings. 

Volunteer Tutoring Program

Throughout the shifting educational landscape of the past two years, the CLC has been inspired to provide the most programming possible to students and families. The demand for instructional support for K-12 learners has been significant and we are responsive to those increasing demands. In order to provide more engaged learning for our K-12 community of learners, we established a Volunteer Tutoring Program. Through this program, we trained new tutors who volunteered their time to support students with homework and other academic needs. Tutors engaged in the volunteer program may be new to education or curious about the profession. This is also an excellent way to engage CSU students who are working to fulfill service hour requirements across different programs. This is a great opportunity for undecided majors to explore teaching as a profession and gauge whether it may be the right career path for them!

Afterschool Opportunities and the Statewide Mathematics and Literacy grants through the Ohio Department of Education

At the Community Learning Center, we continualy seek ways to reach students where they are. Additionally, we are always looking for ways in which we can meet the unique needs of our CMSD school populations. Grant opportunities made available by states through federal Covid-relief funds are an excellent way to address these objectives. We have most recently been awarded funding for an Afterschool Expand program to the State of Ohio and as well the Statewide Mathematics and Literacy Tutoring program. Our programs have placed approximately 75 new tutors within three CMSD school sites and three inner ring suburb sites for on-site afterschool tutoring using evidence-based practices in reading, math, and social emotional learning.  As always, our programming is centrally focused on maintaining consistent academic engagement of our learners, no matter if they are at home or at school. Our Faculty and Family Liaison is crucial to briding that gap and our flex remote format of instruction ensures that students can continue to meet their tutor even during times that miss school. 

Neighborhood Learning Centers

Our work in the CLC is not confined to the walls of our institiution alone. We believe in reaching students and their families where they live so we are seeking ways to expand beyond school sites and remote learning opportunties! We are excited to explore opportunities to support and enhance the urban livelihood of our city by bringing academic support services right to students in our city's neighborhoods. An urban development project that is underway in the Hough neighborhood is identified as a possible partner in learning. We anticipate establishing a tutoring program right in the heart of the housing development that can meet the needs of our community just steps away from their homes. Stay tuned as we continue to work on the realization of this exciting goal!