MCCC Opens PASS Program for K-12 Tutoring and Homeschool Support
09/21/20
West Windsor, N.J. – Last week, Mercer County Community College (MCCC) unveiled its Professional Academic Support Services (PASS) program, which provides tutoring services for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
PASS offers instruction for subjects in math, science and English. Students can participate in drop-in group tutoring or schedule one-on-one sessions with certified and trained MCCC tutors.
According to Dr. Charles Haas, Director of the Testing and Learning Centers, PASS serves a significant community need. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to prevent schools from opening in their usual capacities, forcing parents to provide home assistance beyond the virtual classroom experience. In addition, a number of parents are deciding to homeschool their children.
“Dr. Wang emailed an article [to staff] about homeschooling ‘pods,’ along with her request about seeing what we could offer,” Haas said. After some interdepartmental collaboration, PASS was born.
PASS developed as a joint effort between the college’s Division of Innovation, Online Education and Student Success (IOESS); Division of Lifelong Learning, Tutoring Services; Camp College; the Center for Continuing Studies (CCS); and Mercer Institute.
Initially, CCS offered a 6-week “Homeschool with Success” course for parents from which the rest of the PASS program blossomed.
“The homeschooling course is one of many courses offered in our Ed2Go program,” said CCS Coordinator Andrea Bash. “With our own experiences with remote learning this past spring, we knew parents needed more support during the remote or hybrid start to the school year. We also knew some parents were looking to homeschool children.”
“Based on our discussions with local school administrators, we decided to adapt some of our tutoring services for K-12 students,” added Haas.
IOESS Dean Dr. Gonzalo Perez noted that PASS will be especially useful for parents of students taking more complex courses like algebra and geometry.
“Perhaps the parents don’t recall all the material that needs to be covered from their time in school,” Perez said. “Everyone is shifting to remote learning. PASS will provide crucial resources for parents.”
In addition to supporting K-12, PASS is also planning an opportunity for current MCCC students to become trained tutors.
“We worked with Mercer Institute to design a potential tutor training class for a grant proposal. If approved, this proposal would allow MCCC students to receive a free 15-hour tutor training class taught by John Kashmer (Coordinator, Tutoring Services), Katie Gyenge (Coordinator, West Windsor Learning Center), Bernard Foyuth (Writing Center Coordinator) and me,” said Haas.
All of these services are offered at a fraction of the cost of more traditional private tutoring. While the average tutor can cost $50 per hour or more, the PASS program provides individual, K-12 sessions for as little as $15 per hour. Some tutors even offer their assistance free of charge.
“The price for the drop-in group tutoring works out to approximately $10 per session or $5 per hour,” Haas added. “That’s much cheaper than private tutoring.”
Drop-in group tutoring begins Oct. 5. Individual tutoring sessions are available now. For more information about K-12 tutoring at MCCC, visit http://mccc.edu/pass.
Are you ready to help us keep our students on track to finish classes and graduate? Then share and support our MCCC Student Emergency Fund. Donating at www.mccc.edu/mercermatters, or by texting MercerMatters to 41444, will help keep students enrolled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every dollar matters!
To learn more about all of Mercer's PASS program, visit mccc.edu/pass.