From Aides to Academic Tutors

Seniors will no longer serve as teacher aides; instead, they’re being asked to strengthen academics by supporting classmates in the classroom.

By: Isabel Barycki

Last school year, before school was released for summer break, an announcement was released regarding a shift from teacher aides (TAs) to academic tutors. This year, the shift was enacted, and so far, there has been nothing but positive feedback.

Alexa Barba-Tepper, Redwood’s Assistant Principal, says this idea was made by brainstorming with staff last year, “We as admins can’t take credit, it really did come from the teachers.”

Barba-Tepper noticed there are many smart students at Redwood, many going towards a teacher aide route. “Wouldn’t it be cool if students could help students?” Barba-Tepper says.

After the decision was made, Instructional coaches at Redwood were on board and were assigned to train academic tutors. On the first two days of school, training occurred for academic tutors before they were deployed out to teachers they matched with.

To further support senior academic tutors, further training will be held throughout the year. These trainings are designed to assist not only students but also teachers. Instructional coaches will shift training towards the teachers’ request, whether it be for students to understand how in-classroom stations work or certain topics learned in class.

Not only that, but students who are academic tutors will receive a letter grade, which helps with GPA as well as resumes.

Barba-Tepper says, “So far, everything I’ve heard is positive.”

Mrs. Blair teaches AP Statistics and Math 3 honors here at Redwood. In her classroom, she says she typically had two TAs, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Whether it be stapling papers, grading homework, making sure students are on task, or other little tasks, Blair says, “They usually do odd jobs for me.”

Inside the classroom, Blair says, “I’m noticing it’s going to be a tremendous help.”

Blair regards her second-period Academic tutor, stating how, since they already know the content, “While I’m helping one group, she can be helping another group.” With limited class time and so many students, many questions can be overwhelming, especially in a math class with complex topics. “The extra help with questions is nice,” says Blair.

Blair says, “Some challenges will be when it’s content that maybe my academic tutor isn’t as familiar with.” Blair describes how she may need to teach her academic tutor ahead of time to maximize the benefit of using her help, ensuring she’s up to date.

Blair thinks major benefits will come to seniors as academic tutors. She says, “I think the tutor is going to get a lot out of it because when they’re able to teach something, they’re learning at a much higher level of mastery.”

Redwood student Erin McDonnell ’26 works inside Mrs. Blair’s classroom as an academic tutor for her second period.

When she first learned that senior teacher aides were instead becoming academic tutors her senior year, she says, “I was happy they were providing more opportunities for students to work with their peers and share their knowledge. You don’t get to do as much as a teacher aide.”

As a tutor, McDonnell describes her job, saying, “Tutors still do general TA work like grading, but they also get to walk around the classroom and help out any students who are struggling.”

As she works in Blair’s statistics class, she sees benefits not only to her senior schedule but towards her future, “I think it’s great that I get to help out in a subject that I want to pursue in college. The work is light and it’s not stressful at all, so it’s a good balance to the harder classes I’m taking,” McDonnell says.

While academic tutoring aims to help teachers and seniors, there are also major benefits for students in the classroom. Students may not feel comfortable asking teachers for help right away, especially if they’re busy. So McDonnell says, “Having a peer help out may be more comfortable depending on the student. It also makes the teacher’s job a little easier, getting to answer more individual questions in such a small amount of time.”

Biology and AP Biology teacher, Mr. Rojas, sees that academic tutors provide a good example to his students. Because academic tutors assigned to specific teachers meet certain requirements to tutor that class, such as grades and behavior, Rojas says, “I think seniors are used as kind of like a shepherd dog with the sheep, it shows students what they should be acting like and how they should be learning in the classroom.”

Essentially, senior academic tutors provide a positive example, “There is a standard and expectation that is clear and set up before they[students] even get to the classroom, so they have a clear outline of what they should be doing and how they should be behaving,” Says Rojas.

Rojas describes how, in past years, when he took on teacher aides who were not academically and behaviorally aligned, there were some challenges. Thus, this year, he is screening students who want to be his academic tutor himself. Additionally, academic tutors having to have an A or B in the class they want to tutor helps limit any of these issues or challenges.

Brenya Soto, ’26, is an academic tutor for Mr. Rojas during his pre-first period.

Inside the classroom, helping grade homework and organizing the classroom are a few jobs she has to do. From teacher aides to academic tutors, Soto says, “I don’t think it’s that big of a shift.”

However, some challenges have come along with trying to help students, Soto says, “It has been hard, I do it zero period, so not a lot of kids are even really awake to be able to help them.”

Other than that, Soto says, “I just grade his papers for him whenever he’s teaching, and I help out kids if they don’t understand what Bio [Biology] is.”

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