Antonio Ifill explains how tutoring, soccer and positive relationships are helping New Haven students build confidence in the classroom and beyond.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — For Antonio Ifill, improving a child’s math performance often begins with something that cannot be measured on a worksheet: trust.

Ifill works with New Haven Counts, a nonprofit organization using math tutoring, mentorship, athletics and youth employment to help young people strengthen their academic skills and see more possibilities for their futures.

During an interview with The Vibe, Ifill described New Haven Counts as a math literacy program that operates in schools and communities throughout the city.

The organization’s approach recognizes that students do not leave their personal challenges at the classroom door. Some are worried about difficulties at home. Others are falling behind academically, struggling with confidence or beginning to believe they are simply not capable of succeeding in math.

New Haven Counts attempts to intervene before those beliefs become permanent.

“It’s always amazing to see,” Ifill said of watching students develop. “It’s dope when you get a kid to open up to you, but it’s even cooler to know that they’re learning as well.”

More Than a Traditional Tutoring Program

New Haven Counts is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in New Haven. The organization says its mission is to improve educational outcomes and economic mobility by providing engaging math tutoring and enrichment programs connected to sports, mentorship, entrepreneurship and real-world opportunities.

Its programs serve elementary and middle school students who need additional academic support. New Haven Counts also trains and employs high school and college-age tutors, giving older students opportunities to earn money, develop leadership skills and become role models for younger children.

The organization calls this a cascading mentorship model.

Instead of relying only on traditional teacher-and-student relationships, the model places younger students alongside tutors, coaches and mentors who may be closer to them in age or familiar with their neighborhoods and experiences.

New Haven Counts says the approach strengthens math skills while creating workforce and leadership experience for the young people serving as tutors.

The organization offers math tutoring after school, on weekends and during the summer. It also provides math training and resources for families, schools, educators, volunteers and community organizations.

Reaching Students Through Coaching

Ifill said his role as a coach allows him to build relationships with students differently than a classroom teacher might.

“They don’t see you like they see their teacher,” he said. “You’re coming in as a coach and kind of a mentor.”

That relationship can create an opening for instruction.

When students see a coach arriving for soccer, basketball or another activity, their initial excitement may be centered on playing. However, the coach can use that connection to reinforce academic expectations, teamwork, personal responsibility and confidence.

“There’s times where they’re going to push the limits and see where they can go,” Ifill said. “But at the end of the day, they’re all good kids. They’re all learning. They’re all growing.”

New Haven Counts uses sports-based learning to help students understand that math is connected to the activities they already enjoy.

The organization’s programming introduces concepts such as ratios, percentages, statistics, probability and data analysis through games and athletic competition. It also provides paid training and leadership development for high school and college-age tutors.

The organization’s current program listings include basketball, soccer, STEM board game tournaments, SAT preparation and summer math-and-sports programs.

Building a Soccer League

Ifill said New Haven Counts expanded its athletic programming after some schools experienced reductions in funding or access to soccer programs.

The organization responded by creating a soccer league involving students from participating schools.

According to Ifill, students were transported to fields on Clinton Avenue and Kimberly Avenue for games during the fall and spring school semesters.

The league gave students an opportunity to compete, release energy and learn lessons about teamwork.

“Just seeing my kids from last year to this year and the way they play soccer, you can see their growth,” Ifill said.

He said the organization’s soccer league grew to include approximately 400 students. He also estimated that New Haven Counts had served roughly 700 students across its school-based programming at the time of the interview.

Those figures were provided by Ifill during the interview and may represent program estimates rather than independently audited enrollment totals.

New Haven Counts currently reports partnerships with more than 15 schools and says students in its programming have demonstrated two years of math growth in one year.

Addressing Math Learning Gaps

Ifill said one of the greatest challenges facing students is that math skills build upon one another.

When a student misses an important concept, the difficulty can follow that student into the next unit or grade level.

“If you get caught behind in math, you’re kind of stuck where you were caught behind,” Ifill said. “Then it becomes a catch-up.”

A student who does not fully understand multiplication may struggle with division. Difficulty with fractions can later create problems with ratios, percentages and algebra.

In a traditional classroom with 20 or 30 students, teachers may not have enough time to provide every struggling student with sustained individual assistance.

“That’s where we come in with after-school programs,” Ifill said. “We try our best to offer a one-to-one ratio as far as tutor and student go, so they can really hone in on what they need to do better.”

New Haven Counts says its core after-school tutoring program serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade through small-group and individualized support aligned with classroom instruction.

The organization is also a participant in the New Haven Tutoring Initiative, a collaboration involving the city, New Haven Public Schools and community organizations.

The initiative was developed in response to significant literacy and mathematics learning gaps, particularly those intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Its math programming is designed to complement the Common Core and i-Ready curriculum used in New Haven schools.

Rebuilding Student Confidence

The academic challenge is only part of the work.

Ifill said some students begin to define themselves by their struggles. They may call themselves unintelligent or decide they are not good at school.

He recalled speaking with one student who responded to encouragement by saying, “Coach, I’m dumb. I’m not good at this stuff.”

Hearing a child describe himself that way was difficult, Ifill said.

“You want to be the one to help raise them up,” he said.

Ifill does not describe the children he works with as broken. Instead, he sees students who are still growing while being influenced by their families, peers, neighborhoods and personal circumstances.

“There are so many different things that could get in a kid’s head and get in the way of them being fully present,” he said.

That reality helps explain why mentorship is central to the New Haven Counts model.

The goal is not only to help a student complete an assignment. It is to help that student develop enough confidence to attempt the next problem, ask for assistance and believe that improvement is possible.

Developing the Next Generation of Leaders

New Haven Counts also creates opportunities for older students to become part of the solution.

Ifill said many of the organization’s tutors and volunteers are New Haven high school students. At the time of the interview, he estimated that approximately 200 tutors and volunteers were involved in the organization’s work.

Through its volunteer onboarding process, New Haven Counts provides training in tutoring procedures, student assessment and foundational math concepts, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions.

The organization also tracks service hours that may be reported to schools, colleges and scholarship programs such as New Haven Promise.

This structure gives high school and college students experience in education, leadership and community service while expanding the number of younger children who can receive individualized help.

The model also provides younger students with examples of people from their own community taking education seriously.

Growth From a Small Community Program

Ifill said his relationship with New Haven Counts began through one of the organization’s founders.

Approximately seven or eight years before the interview, he became involved with an entrepreneurial program serving about 15 high school students.

The students developed business ideas and were introduced to professional environments, including law offices and studios.

“From there to now, it’s grown tremendously,” Ifill said.

New Haven Counts says it began as a small community effort providing free math tutoring before developing into a broader model incorporating academic support, sports-based learning, mentorship and youth employment.

The organization identifies Ron Coleman Jr., Daniel Hicks and Dom Dugo as its co-founders.

Coleman and Hicks have backgrounds in education, while Dugo previously taught science in New Haven and helped lead an early financial literacy program.

According to its website, New Haven Counts has been empowering students since 2018.

A Larger Vision for New Haven

New Haven Counts has established ambitious goals for its future.

Its published 2030 vision calls for:

• 1,000 community volunteers supporting students across New Haven.
• 2,500 students receiving at least two hours of high-dosage math tutoring each week.
• An average of more than three years of academic growth among participating students.

Those goals reflect an understanding that tutoring alone cannot solve every challenge facing New Haven students.

Progress requires cooperation among schools, families, coaches, volunteers, community organizations and local government.

For Ifill, the work becomes meaningful when he sees a student begin to open up, improve on the field and recognize that academic growth is within reach.

The soccer games, tutoring sessions and mentoring conversations are all parts of the same mission: helping children understand that they are capable of more than they may currently believe.

“The math is getting there,” Ifill said. “They’re all learning. They’re all growing.”

For information about tutoring, sports programs, volunteering or supporting New Haven Counts, visit NewHavenCounts.org or NewHavenCounts.io.

Sponsored By: The Vibe