There is a cause-and-effect relationship between teaching practices and learners' success. A key challenge faced by elementary schools is finding effective ways to help all students develop the skills to be successful students. The use of tutorial instruction is often required for students to experience success in the classroom. The efforts addressed in tutorial programs may need to be adapted to the student's cultural or linguistic characteristics. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of a non-traditional tutorial reading academic program versus a traditional tutorial reading program on the reading test performance of African American elementary students who failed a standardized examination. Specifically, this study is concerned with the effects of a non-traditional tutorial reading program on the four dimensions of reading comprehension: understanding, literacy elements, reading analyzing strategies and critical thinking. Additionally, this study ascertains the influence of gender, family structure and socioeconomic status on the total reading comprehension scores of African American elementary students. Seven hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level or better through the application of a One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Based on the data analysis of this study, the following conclusions were drawn: type of instructional method had an influence on the TAKS scores of African American students; gender, family structure and socio-economic status had no influence on TAKS scores. Overall, the program produced positive results for African American learners. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]