SHEENA STADLER

WHEELING — A program at Wheeling Country Day School is offering free help to students with reading or math difficulties, and they don’t even have to come to the school for instruction.

The EDGE Fearless Learning Program is a virtual and in-person tutoring program that brings math and literacy instruction and intervention to both the school’s students and those living elsewhere via the internet.

“It was started during COVID as a way of giving our students access to literacy interventions that they had already been getting on campus, but that they still needed even during COVID. And it had to be done virtually,” explained Sheena Stadler, director of the EDGE program.

“It was formerly thought you couldn’t provide the same level of instruction as you could in person. But as you know, we all got pretty good at doing things virtually that we did in person before COVID.”

Once COVID passed and students were back on campus, educators at WCDS realized they had put together a really good structure for providing virtual instruction, she continued.

“We had very good data points that showed we could serve students anywhere, and give them access to what were previously interventions that could not be accessed by people who weren’t affluent – or who lived in areas where they weren’t available,” Stadler said.

WCDS began partnering with organizations such as boys and girls clubs, the Salvation Army, the YWCA and afterschool programs to give students free access to academic help, she continued.

The school also works with school districts and directly with families when needed.

“We created a curriculum, and we revised it a couple of times,” Stadler said. “We have some amazing tutors from all over the country, and we virtually go into those clubs three to four times a week to provide this intervention the students otherwise do not have access to.”

The virtual locations where students are served are in eastern Ohio’s rural areas, in West Virginia’s northern and eastern panhandles, Cincinnati, Dayton and as far away as Michigan.

WCDS also did an EDGE Program intervention in Washington, Pennsylvania for two years, Stadler continued.

“Otherwise, their students wouldn’t have had access to it,” she said. “We did it during the school day, too.”

The virtual component is also important to students in their home, as many students live in rural areas where they don’t have access to afterschool clubs.

At the clubs, students participating in EDGE get on the computers for 35-40 minutes a couple of times a week. Then there is small group tutoring that is directing their literacy skills, according to Stadler.

“It’s not just homework help. It is high-dosage intervention for reading,” she said.

Approximately 2,000 students have been through the EDGE Program since it started. Stadler reports about 250 are presently being served.

“The biggest thing we have to overcome is the cost,” she continued. “We serve all students – anyone who needs support. They don’t have to have a diagnosis.

“Most of the students we serve aren’t able to afford this, so the biggest obstacle we have had to overcome is finding community organizations and grant makers to support the work.”

In addition, many of the afterschool programs want to provide the EDGE program in their community, but they don’t have the staff, according to Stadler.

“It takes staff to help run the program, and that’s another obstacle – figuring how we could make this the easiest lift on them,” she said. “We continue to evolve depending on which site we are at to make sure we are being the best partner we can be.”

Good online instructors for the program also are necessary

“We don’t just accept anyone. We make sure they are trained in how they are supposed to do it,” Stadler explained. “Every lesson is rewritten and restructured for each student – one group to the next – to give them the biggest impact.

“We’ve got tutors all over the country. Some are local. Some are in Texas.”

Students may continue in the program as long as they are able to access it, and WCDS is able to fund it.

“It takes good, strong , diligent hard work. Our kids deserve it,” Stadler said. “It’s a basic human right to be able to read. If you can’t access reading, you can’t have anything.”