Founding Citywide Tutorial

As cited in his booklet "Benefits of the SFUSD Consent Decree" by Dr. Waldemar Rojas, Superintendent, San Francisco Unified School District (1999), the San Francisco Citywide Tutorial Program grew out of a recommendation of the African American Community Education Partnership Summit held in 1997.  The Summit resulted in a community commitment to closing the achievement gaps between African American students and other ethnic groups in SFUSD.  To raise the academic achievement level of African American students to the 50th percentile by the 21st century, the Citywide Tutorial Program, and other funded efforts, provided African American students with after-school learning activities in reading, writing, math, and science. 

The program provided tutorial/learning/computer centers in the communities where targeted students lived.  Students received assistance with school assignments and special projects in a culturally enriched environment.  The funding of the Citywide Tutorial is from the Consent Decree budget.  The budget is furnished by the State of California and administered by the Department of Integration by Assistant Superintendent Dr. E. Tony Anderson. 

The Consent Decree's goal to provide high-quality education to all students started in 1983 as a result of a lawsuit filed in Federal court against SFUSD and the State Department of Education filed in 1978 by the San Francisco NAACP on behalf of a group of African American parents residing Bayview Hunters Point and children assigned to a racially segregated school, and subjugated to inferior and unequal educational opportunities. 

The Citywide Tutorial Program, one of the most robust programs to develop from the 1997 Community Educational Summit, was headed by Ruth Taylor, Program Facilitator, and established in 1998.  Tutorial sites were the African American Family Education and Cultural Center, the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center, Ingleside Presbyterian Church, Providence Baptist Church, The San Francisco Christian Center, Jones United Methodist Church, and Third Baptist Church.  Following the initial sites, a Memorandum of Understanding between the San Francisco Housing Authority and SFUSD linked tutorial opportunities for students in public housing with tutorial efforts in other parts of the city.