Stories of Promising Practice - All Means All (Peer Tutoring)

All Means All

Southern Hills Middle School - Boulder Valley School District 

Southern Hills Middle School in Boulder Valley School District started its peer tutoring program in 2011, enabling students with disabilities to be included in general education classroom with the support from their peers. 

Storyline

Peer tutoring brings students with disabilities together with their non-disabled peers to provide assistance in the general education classroom. The peer tutors help teachers differentiate instruction, keep students on task and help with other parts of the classroom experience. The idea was spawned by Richard Villa, an inclusion expert, as a way to equitably allow access for children with disabilities. The program in Boulder Valley School District was hatched at Southern Hills Middle School and has eager participation among students. Moreover, peer tutoring has spread to seven other middle schools within the district, and it was recently added as an elective for high schools in the district.

Diana Rutenberg is a school psychologist at Southern Hills Middle School in the Boulder Valley School District. Several years ago she worked to start a peer tutoring program in the school. Since then the model has been replicated around the district and is proven to be successful at allowing students with disabilities to gain access to grade level standards in the general education classroom.