I just finished my last day of the school year as a tutor at Jefferson-Houston Elementary School here in Alexandria, Va., and while I was just as happy as the students to be done for the year, I left with a nagging worry that I’d learned more from my students than they had learned from me.

Just dropping in once a week to read a book with my assigned student gave me a glimpse of the challenges faced by this school, which despite having a new principal, experienced staff, and a preschool program has repeatedly missed NCLB targets and is largely regarded as the “worst” school in the district.

Jefferson-Houston serves a population that doesn’t see the benefits of the gentrified historic area surrounding it—its boundaries include million-dollar townhomes in the swank Old Town section, as well as housing projects and apartments near the subway lines. The few school-age children living in the nicest areas aren’t attending Jefferson-Houston, though. In fact, most real estate listings for these homes don’t advertise the assigned schools.

Last year, I sometimes dreaded the hour that I spent with a boy who, frankly, needed far more help than I could offer. He was reading about three years below his grade level and let me know several times that he would have much preferred to be with his classmates in P.E. His teacher, who was young, enthusiastic, and overwhelmed, continuously thanked me and assured me that he enjoyed our sessions, even though he didn’t know my name.

In this month’s ASBJ, communication columnist Nora Carr outlines the ways school staff can create a more welcoming environment and better train their volunteers to understand the challenges of working with at-risk children—something I wish I had read before venturing into this school. She describes how the superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) district brought in thousands of volunteers by working with leaders of local churches and then providing extensive training and outreach. And she correctly points out that volunteers need steady communication and may be intimidated at first.

But perhaps the best advice for volunteers came from a middle school principal: “At-risk kids don’t warm up immediately to people they don’t know,” he says. “They’re going to test you first to see if you’re serious about sticking around.”

I eventually learned that the boy I tutored last year lived with his grandmother, who refused to take calls from the school, and numerous other young relatives in a chaotic house, which explained why he was often sleepy. And toward the end of the year, we discovered a series of books that he enjoyed. I can only hope that when he moved on to his next school, that there was a volunteer willing to take time to get to know him.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor