The Breakthrough Collaborative, based in San Francisco, California, is a highly successful after-school program for students of color. They have believed so strongly in the effectiveness of students as teachers that their tagline is “Students Teaching Students.”
The organization shares the following anecdote:
“During one of the first summers, several high school students who were acting as teaching assistants took over the classroom for a math teacher who had fallen ill. When the teacher returned, she observed that her students were working harder for the older students than they had for her. By coincidence, this ‘experimental’ teaching model sparked the interest of the younger students who loved having the high school students as their teachers and mentors. Suddenly, seventh and eighth grade students who never believed it was cool to be smart were reciting Shakespeare, learning the Pythagorean Theorem and studying the laws of physics. [Breakthrough] was a booming success”. (Breakthrough Collaborative, 2015)
SoundOut Education Consulting 