HOWARD STREET TUTORING PROGRAM (HST)

OVERVIEW

The Howard Street Tutoring Program was created to improve reading and reading comprehension skills in low-ability readers. Each year, the program provides roughly 20 first-grade students with one hour of tutoring per day. An experimental evaluation shows that the Howard Street Tutoring Program improved the word recognition, reading passages, and spelling scores of its participants.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Children ages 7-8 who have low reading levels, are in the bottom third of their first-grade classes, are of low socioeconomic status, or reside in urban settings.

The Howard Street Tutoring Program (HST) is designed to improve reading and reading comprehension skills in low-ability readers. For seven months each year, HST programs provide roughly 20 first-grade students with an hour of one-one-one tutoring per day. Various reading and writing exercises are employed by adult volunteers.

Program Components:

Component	Provided by	Duration	Description
Contextual reading	Adult volunteers	7 months	1:1 tutor-child ratio
Word study	2 days per week
Writing
Reading to child

Program Objectives/Goals: To improve reading and reading comprehension skills.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Morris, D., Perney, J., & Shaw, B. (1990). Helping low readers in grades 2 and 3: An after-school volunteer tutoring program. The Elementary School Journal, 91(2), 132-150.

Evaluated population: 60 7- and 8-year-olds whose reading scores were in the bottom third of their first-grade class. Thirty of these students were in the experimental, HST tutoring condition; 30 were in the control condition.

Objective:
Improved reading and reading comprehension skills in low-ability readers.
Measurement instrument:
Pre- and post-testing of word recognition, spelling, basal passage reading (reading aloud passages from school-based reader).
Evaluation:
Type: Experimental quantitative
Statistical techniques: Random assignment to treatment and control group; significance level=.05
Outcome:
Increased mean test scores in word recognition, reading passages, and spelling. Higher gains in improvement in word recognition, reading passages, spelling tests from pre-test to post-test.
Other Information:
Students attended sessions twice a week at a building near their school for 1 hour per day during the school year. Students received 50 hours of tutoring on average. Most tutors, especially college students, volunteered for 1 program year. Estimated costs were approximately $6,000 per year for fees of the two program supervisors (late 1980s). High program attrition rate of about 25% due to students and tutors leaving program and moving.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION
 

Link to program curriculum: http://www.guilford.com/cgi-bin/cartscript.cgi?page=pr/morris.htm&dir=edu/lit&cart_id= 

References:

Morris, D., Perney, J., & Shaw, B. (1990). Helping low readers in grades 2 and 3: An after-school volunteer tutoring program. The Elementary School Journal, 91(2), 132-150.

Program also discussed in the following Child Trends publication(s):

Redd, Z., Cochran, S. W., Hair, E., & Moore, K. A. (2002). Academic achievement programs and development: A synthesis. Washington, DC: Child Trends.

 

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 7-8 / Program age ranges in the Guide: 6-11

Program components: mentoring/tutoring, clinic/provider-based

Measured outcomes: education/cognitive

Program information last updated 3/16/07

		© Child Trends 2003