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Even after 30 years with the Rochester City School District, Karen Gerew’s passion for helping early learners did not disappear. After retiring, she continued to help with state testing days and intervention programs for grades 1-6.
When a longtime collaborator and principal brought up another opportunity through Early Learning Corps, a youth tutoring program that operates in five states around the country, it seemed to fit perfectly with Gerew’s reading teacher background.
“I decided to try it and I’ve been very happy with it,” she says.
“What I’ve always found the most exciting about teaching is when that child who you’ve been teaching, when they’ve worked at it and they struggled, one day they do it and they’re correct all by themselves,” Gerew adds, illustrating an experience since beginning the tutoring position. “Their face lights up, they have the biggest grin, and that spurs them on to work harder and do more. Because they were successful.”
After rolling out a pilot here in January, Early Learning Corps officially launched in March at Ibero-American Action League and the Rochester Early Childhood Education center, serving 179 students, ages 3 to 5 years old. Katrina Gobins, executive director of New York programs, says the goal for the 2026-2027 school year is to expand to 800 students, which will require 45 tutors.
While the exact placements are still being determined for next year, the organization will be a part of its previous sites, as well as the second Rochester Early Childhood Education center location planned by RCSD.
Early Learning Corps tutors joining for the 2026-2027 school year will begin practice on Sept. 8 with a two-week intensive program, although training is continuous throughout the year. Each building has a program manager and a coaching specialist who conducts monthly observations.
Gobins says Early Learning Corps’ approach is evidence-based and centered around high-impact tutoring, meaning the same tutor and students consistently have extended periods of time together. This can be one-on-one sessions or small groups of students. Depending on the tutoring placement, part-time, half-time, or full-time positions ranging from 15 to 32 hours a week are available.
As Gerew notes, during that time tutors also help with the full classroom time as well, assisting teachers.
“It’s also nice for the children to see more adults that are interested in them, that want to be there, that will talk with them,” she says. “Then when we pull them out to do the tutoring, they know us, they recognize us, and they see, ‘Oh, that’s another adult that is interested in me, that wants to help me.’ I think that’s a good thing at that age that they have. The more adults that are interested in them and trying to help them, the better off we all are.
“(The learning material) is perfect for the younger students, because it is short,” adds Gerew. “You know, you only have that 10 to maybe 15 minutes with those 3- to 4-year-old students before you need to change the activity and they need to do something else.”
The focus on very early learners is intentional, since impacts at that age are especially crucial and compounding for children.
“Ninety percent of a child’s brain development happens before the age of five. So that proves that those early years are critical,” says Gobins. “If Rochester students are not ready for kindergarten when they start school, that’s just where the gap increases throughout. That’s where we start to see third-grade reading and math levels being lower than they should be.”
Since the Early Learning Corps is an AmeriCorps program, tutors are eligible for several benefits. These include a living stipend and an opportunity for a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award upon completion, an award that can be used to pay off student loans or fund future education.
“My favorite part is the power of AmeriCorps. We’re taking community members and we’re training them in scripted interventions. They can make that meaningful impact on kindergarten readiness,” says Gobins. “It takes that approach of, ‘It takes a village,’ it’s not just the school’s responsibility. It embeds community members to provide that support to the youngest learners.”
A federal program, AmeriCorps has been gutted by the Trump administration. In May 2025, program grants were cut by $400 million with nearly 85% in staff layoffs. A lawsuit helped preserve $184 million of that figure.)
While Gobins declined to comment on those changes, she says that Early Learning Corps is a national nonprofit and was able to navigate recent challenges effectively thanks to multiple other funding sources.
The organization was launched in 2003 as Reading Corps PreK in Minnesota. Over the next 20 years, it grew into multiple programs across 12 other states, including New York. Poughkeepsie City School District was the first location in the state.
PCSD began partnering with Early Learning Corps in 2023 as part of an effort to improve flagging numeracy and literacy skills among its youngest students. The organization says that it has supported 1,159 students and 90% improved their literacy skills, while 88% grew in numeracy during the 2024-2025 school year.
Weighted performances for PCSD elementary/middle performance in English Language Arts, the youngest aged measures, show the district has always been within the Level 1 proficiency range since the accountability measures started to be recorded in the 2017-2018 school year. Receiving a Level 1 on an assessment means a student is performing well below grade level.
In an interesting coincidence, Gobins says the PCSD superintendent at the time, Eric Rosser, who is now superintendent for RCSD, played a key role in bringing the program to the district.
“It’s a very unique connection there,” she says. “When I was starting to bring it to the city of Rochester, I didn’t know that Dr. Rosser was going to be coming in as the superintendent of RCSD. It was something that I didn’t even know that he was pursuing. So it was a very organic implementation.”
Gobins says the expansion to Rochester was also driven by the educational nonprofit ROC the Future Alliance. She credits a year and a half’s worth of development with Executive Director Brian Lewis as clearing the way for Early Learning Corps to easily slot its learning services into the area.
“ROC the Future Alliance is proud to reaffirm our commitment to expanding Early Learning Corps in Rochester,” says Sara White-Smith, director of collective impact for ROC the Future Alliance. “This partnership strengthens our shared vision that every child in our community deserves access to high-quality early learning experiences that build a strong foundation for lifelong success.”
As in Poughkeepsie, RCSD elementary/middle ELA performances have also consistently been within the Level 1 category. There was a slight improvement in scores last year, however.
“The ideal tutor is someone that really has the commitment and the want to do a service. Someone who wants to work with younger children and help with kindergarten readiness,” Gobins says. “When we have someone that’s very compassionate about what they’re doing, that will set them above and beyond.”
“I would just encourage people to think about joining the team,” Gerew says. “It’s fun. It’s rewarding. I think the teachers appreciate it. I’m quite certain the kids do because they’re usually very happy to go with you to do the tutoring once they realize that it’s not work. We’re playing a game and learning at the same time.”
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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