THE
OVERVIEW
The Howard Street Tutoring Program seeks to provide quality, after-school reading instruction to 2nd and 3rd grade public school children who have fallen significantly behind their peers in reading. In a random assignment study, students assigned to take part in the tutoring program were compared with students assigned to a control group. Over the course of the academic year, tutored children made significantly greater gains in reading achievement than did children in the control group. Tutored children, on average, gained over a year of reading achievement, whereas control group children gained only two-thirds of a year of achievement.
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM
Target population: 2nd and 3rd graders who are below grade level in reading
The Howard Street Tutoring Program seeks to provide quality,
after-school reading instruction to 2nd and 3rd grade
public school children who have fallen significantly behind their peers in
reading. The program operates in a poor neighborhood on the far north
side of
Teachers at neighborhood schools identify poor readers in their classes and reading specialists test these children on a variety of informal reading and spelling measures. The lowest-scoring students are invited to participate in the program, which runs for the length of the school year.
The program operates on several general assumptions: that children learn to read by reading and should be given opportunities to read interesting stories, that children who are learning to read need semantic and syntactic support (as offered by good stories written in natural language), and that word study should play a role in a program designed to help beginners learn to read and write.
Each student in the
Tutors are people from various walks of life: college students, suburban mothers, retirees, and so forth. A trained reading specialist serves as the tutor supervisor. This individual is salaried and gives tutors on-the-job training and helps in preparing lesson plans for each tutee.
The program serves approximately 20 children a year and operated on an annual budget of $6,000 in the late 1980s.
EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM
Morris, D., Shaw, B., & Perney, J. (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: At the beginning of the 1986-87 school year and the 1987-88 school year, two second grade teachers and two third grade teachers were asked to identify the lowest 50 readers in their classrooms. These 50 children served as the study sample for this investigation.
Approach: The 50 identified students were screened on their word recognition abilities, their spelling, and their reading. Children were matched into pairs, based on their word recognition abilities, and were randomly assigned, within pairs, to either the treatment group or the control group. Students assigned to the treatment group were given the opportunity to participate in the Howard Street Tutoring Program. On average, these students received 50 hours of one-on-one after-school reading tutoring over the course of the year. Students assigned to the control group were not given the opportunity to participate. In late May of each year, students were again screened on the reading and spelling skills.
Results: On four of the five achievement measures administered during this study, students assigned to take part in the Howard Street Tutoring Program made significantly greater gains than did students assigned to the control group. Nearly half of the students assigned to the control group made less than half of a year’s gain in reading achievement over the course of the school year and only 20% of control students made at least a full year’s gain. By contrast, nearly half of the students assigned to take part in the Howard Street Tutoring Program made at least a full year’s gain and only 23% made less than half of a year’s gain. 34% of tutored students made more than a year and a half’s gain, whereas only one non-tutored child showed such growth.
SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION
References:
Morris, D., Shaw, B., & Perney, J. (1990). Helping Low Readers in Grades 2 and 3: An After-School Volunteer Tutoring Program. The Elementary School Journal, 91(2), 132-150.
Program categorized in this guide according to the following:
Evaluated participant grades: 2nd and 3rd
Program age ranges in the guide: Middle Childhood
Program components: Tutoring
Measured outcomes: Education & Cognitive Development
KEYWORDS: Education, Tutoring, Academic Achievement, Elementary School (Grades 2-3), Urban, Literacy, Middle Childhood (6-11), Cognitive Development.
Program information last updated on 10/8/07.
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© Child Trends 2003 |
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