Paid or volunteer assistants can help a teacher in several ways. They can give students positive reinforcement and can help them correct their work. Assistants can also perform specific tutorial tasks including directing oral reading, assisting with phonics and sight vocabulary, and helping students improve their comprehension. (TJ)

Beginning in 1973, meetings of 12 regional education advisory councils (composed of students, teachers, parents, administrators, board members, superintendents, and other citizens) studied volunteer programs in Illinois to determine their drawbacks and to formulate recommendations for expanding the concept of volunteers in education. This…