A randomized field trial involving 883 students at 23 schools in three urban cities assessed the effectiveness of Experience Corps[R] (EC), a program that places older adult volunteers in elementary schools to tutor students who are poor readers. Students were assessed at the beginning and end of the academic year with standardized reading…

This study examined the effects of online reading instruction for at-risk fourth-grade students in Philadelphia. The authors used a multiple baseline design to assess the extent to which the students increased their oral reading rate given systematic supplemental online reading instruction. Tutoring consisted of 4 sessions per week with 50-min…

The authors used a pretest-posttest control group design with random assignment to evaluate whether early reading failure decreases children's motivation to practice reading. First, they investigated whether 60 first-grade children would report substantially different levels of interest in reading as a function of their relative success or failure…

"Reading Recovery"[R] is a short-term tutoring intervention designed to serve the lowest-achieving (bottom 20%) first-grade students. The goals of "Reading Recovery"[R] include: promoting literacy skills; reducing the number of first-grade students who are struggling to read; and preventing long-term reading difficulties. The…

There is a recent interest in volunteer tutoring programs and research has suggested effectiveness in improving reading skills. Previous research found that the Help One Student to Succeed (HOSTS) volunteer tutoring program increased reading fluency and comprehension over a 5-month interval (Burns, Senesac, & Symington, 2004). The current…

Start Making a Reader Today[R] (SMART[R]) is a volunteer tutoring program widely implemented in Oregon for students in grades K-2 who are at risk of reading failure. The program is designed to be a low-cost, easy-to-implement intervention. Volunteer tutors go into schools where at least 40% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch…

This study reports the results of a peer-mediated intervention, total class peer tutoring, on the academic performance of six urban students at risk for reading failure. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to evaluate the effects of this intervention. The results showed that five of the six students significantly increased their…

The purpose of this handbook, which was developed by the National Reading Center, is to bring to each child who is having trouble learning to read a trained tutor to give him the right kind of help. Sections are given to explaining some characteristics of children who have reading problems, outlining some general principles of successful tutoring,…

The Helping One Student to Succeed (HOSTS) Language Arts volunteer tutoring program was evaluated by comparing pre- and post-intervention scores on standardized measures of reading using a 5-month test-retest interval. Students (n = 129) from six elementary schools in Michigan that utilize the HOSTS program served as the experimental group, and…

This manual for nonprofessional tutors in remedial reading programs outside of the established educational structure deals with specific techniques needed for teaching children, adolescents, and adults to read. It describes the problems of the student who comes for instruction and discusses the relationship between him and the tutor. It outlines…

Reading skill can be acquired in a natural and informal manner and in a variety of settings ranging from the school to the streets. Anyone who wants to learn to read or to develop his reading ability can do so if the following conditions are satisfied: (1) A person who knows how to read and wants to share his knowledge is willing to help. (2)…