By Cassanda J. Sproles
School can be hard.
School can be even harder for students who learn differently from others. That’s where Korn Learning, Assessment, and Social Skills (KLASS) Center can step in to help.
The KLASS Center—housed in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences—has been helping students, preschool to college, who have academic or social problems that prevent them from succeeding in the classroom. The center also has reached out to parents and educators to help them identify, prevent, and remediate behavioral and academic problems.
The center also has worked during summers helping elementary school students with free reading and math tutoring programs, while serving as a training ground for students in the Special Education and School Psychology programs.
Work at the KLASS Center helps provide graduate students with research and training opportunities for future careers as educators and administrators.
[callout]“It’s a win-win situation for all involved,” says Director Brian Wilhoit. “We provide needed services to community children and training services to graduate students.”[/callout]
Wilhoit says the creation of the center and its continuing success is due in large part to a private gift made by Tom and Pam Korn, who saw a need for such work and sought to fill it.
“Over five years, we have been able to touch many lives in so many positive ways,” says Wilhoit. “Service recipients improve their skills and increase their chance for success; graduate students receive training and opportunities to hone their clinical skills; and for the larger community, we’ve shaped the future school psychologists who will have an exponential effect on learning outcomes for children.”
The College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences would not be what it is today without the support of our alumni and friends. Programs, like the KLASS Center touch students as well as members of our community. If you would like to help support the college and its programs, you can give at cehhs.utk.edu/alumni/gift.html.