Half Time Advice
"The fight for social justice and economic justice begins in the classroom."
- Barack Obama

Free Kick is proud to offer fantastic and well-structured math tutoring by patient, knowledgeable, and trained college tutors from Georgetown University.

Our Goals

As outlined in our Principles page, Free Kick seeks to narrow the mathematics performance gap in our community by increasing the availability of basic math education to low-income youth. Our math tutoring sessions are designed in this context; that is, they provide at-risk middle school kids with additional access to math learning in the hopes that these basic sessions will help establish a necessary foundation to succeed in their classrooms and beyond.

Our Tutors

The DC Office of the State Superintendent for Education reports that only 43% of "core" mathematics lessons in the District's public schools are taught by qualified teachers. While our tutors also do not possess these official qualifications, we firmly believe that, in many cases, their knowledge of mathematics may exceed that of their professional counterparts. Each and every one of our tutors is a Georgetown University student majoring or minoring in mathematics, and they all belong to a student group dedicated to tutoring math and science to DC's underserved youth. This guarantees our program top-notch tutors with experience in the field of teaching young at-risk kids on a voluntary basis. Prior to our 2011 pilot program, all tutors will undergo a week-long training session to ensure our tutoring remains structured, consistent, and productive across the board.

The Process

Upon arrival at our program at Georgetown University, kids will be split up according to their respective division (Girls and Boys each of 6th, 7th, and 8th grades), with individual adjacent classrooms for each division. Roughly 2-3 tutors will be present for each division (depending on participation levels). Each week, Free Kick will focus on one mathematics topic, taken from the DC Public School System's math priorities and subjects (see "Our Curriculum" section below).

Our Curriculum

In our pilot Spring 2011 program, Free Kick will serve outgoing sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. However, our curriculum covers math for grades 6 through 9, so that participants may choose to use Free Kick's tutoring either to catch up from the previous year or prepare for the next. Working closely with our volunteer tutors, our curriculum will be developed over the next several months and released in Spring 2010. Rest assured it will be specific, comprehensive, and closely aligned with what our participants will have learned or will be learning in their schools - with a unique soccer-based "Free Kick spin" (pun intended) to help kids understand certain topics.

Our Facilities

Classes are held in safe, high-quality, air-conditioned classrooms at Georgetown University's main campus, with restrooms and drinking fountains just outside the rooms and the soccer field less than a block away.

Beyond The Field

The Free Kick program doesn't end once our daily sessions conclude. Participants are encouraged to apply weekly math themes in their homes, at the grocery store, with their parents, and in their communities, recording these experiences in their Striker Journals. Participants who keep a Striker Journal are rewarded with school equipment, soccer gear, DC United gameday tickets, "first dibs" on equipment, and more*.

*Striker Journal rewards are contingent on funding and donation levels.