Tutoring programs are a communal effort. Program and onsite coordinators, tutors, teachers, parents, and caregivers all work synergistically for the benefit of the most important member of the team: the child.
To capitalize on the team's enthusiasm and efforts, a program needs strong vision and coordination. According to Koralek and Collins (1997), an effective reading tutoring program must create systems to identify children for tutoring, recruit volunteer tutors, test children's skills, periodically evaluate program effectiveness, and seek feedback. Delivering these systems is the job of the program coordinator. Many America Reads partnerships report that a paid program coordinator-whether a VISTA volunteer, graduate student in education, reading consultant, or staff person from a partner organization-is critical to the success of a volunteer-based program. Wisconsin Reads in Madison notes that hiring a paid program coordinator has greatly enhanced partners' ability to focus their energies on achieving specific objectives instead of managing administrative details. Program staff with Helping Children to Succeed in Reading Through Community Volunteerism in Bensenville, Illinois, report that one of their funding priorities is "to pay a qualified person to coordinate site facilitators, work with districtwide personnel to facilitate training, and ensure the continuous recruitment of new tutors."
An effective onsite coordinator is another crucial link in a tutoring program's outcome. Although the ideal coordinator would be a certified reading specialist, the job can be handled successfully by a retired teacher, professor, school employee, trained volunteer, or graduate student. At the Fordham University America Reads Challenge in New York, program founders originally envisioned filling onsite coordinator positions with reading specialists. But as the program progressed, these positions by necessity expanded from simply training volunteers in tutoring techniques to more comprehensive management roles that included administration and assessment. As the onsite coordinator job description has evolved, the partnership has worked together to identify appropriate staff. In many programs, the onsite coordinator winds up wearing many hats.
The daily presence of an onsite coordinator is critical. This person needs to be available to consult frequently with tutors, remind them of materials to use, check their training logs, and ensure that their placement is working well for both the tutors and the schools. Coordinators should be present to model tutoring techniques, prepare lessons or assist experienced tutors in lesson planning, and observe sessions in order to provide feedback to tutors (Morris, Shaw, & Perney, 1990).
Because not all volunteer tutors are college graduates, onsite coordinators need to be sensitive to tutors' varying skill levels and not assume they possess more background knowledge than they do. Coordinators must also be adept at mentoring adults in a collegial manner to help them acquire skills and remain enthused and committed (Koralek & Collins, 1997; Morris et al., 1990; Wasik, 1998). Especially when working with inexperienced tutors, a coordinator's frequent, friendly support is vital to tutors' self-esteem and motivation.
Tutor recruitment is usually the first and largest task facing a tutoring program. For an existing program, the best recruiters are often current volunteers who are passionate about their work. Good recruiting venues are community meetings and religious, civic, and professional organizations. Sometimes an organization will pledge a continuing commitment and ongoing supply of new tutors. Hooked on Books in Louisville, Kentucky, has reaped a bumper crop of volunteers from local synagogues that have joined the new National Jewish Coalition for Literacy, launched in 1997 in response to the America Reads Challenge.
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Photo supplied by Seattle Reads Tutoring Compact |
Volunteer recruitment can sometimes be a hurdle, especially for a new program. Cleveland Reads in Cleveland, Ohio, faced the challenge of finding qualified volunteer tutors in urban communities with high poverty rates, related social problems, and low education levels among the adult population. Given the negative public perceptions of these communities, the program found it difficult to recruit volunteers from other neighborhoods. When traditional recruiting methods such as fliers, letters, and volunteer fairs failed, Cleveland Reads hired a community liaison person. Through site visits to community agencies, religious groups, social organizations, and businesses, the liaison was successful in recruiting tutors, proving that personal contact will work when other recruitment methods fail. After encountering similar recruitment problems in inner-city neighborhoods, the University Park Tutoring Program in Worcester, Massachusetts, plans in its next recruiting cycle to approach firefighters, police, and emergency medical technicians-groups already comfortable with serving a low-income population.
Wichita America Reads in Kansas has overcome the reluctance of local business owners to give release time to employees who want to be tutors by creating a task-centered approach, in which tutors are given discrete goals for each tutoring session. This more concrete approach satisfies the business owners' need to see the "product" of tutoring.
Many programs use press releases to announce their projects and to solicit volunteers. Hooked on Books in Louisville, Kentucky, has received up to 30 inquiries from potential new volunteers each time it has been featured in newspaper articles. Other programs produce television commercials or arrange for program participants to be interviewed on local television and radio talk shows. School Reading Partners at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill has found that posting recruiting fliers and posters around campus yields the best response from college-age tutors.
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Photo by Orville Myers, The Monterey County Herald Jeanne Fowler, 80, known as Miss Jeanne at |
A teacher's input can be the critical factor between a hit-or-miss tutoring experience and one that is an unqualified success. The teacher usually understands a child's literacy needs best and is almost always the one who selects a child for tutoring, based on classroom observation, test scores, and individual needs. While a site coordinator may provide a tutor with a general list of skills and competencies matched to grade levels, the teacher holds the key to why a particular child needs tutoring, what he or she is currently learning in the classroom, where help is needed, and how best to offer it.
Teachers and tutors should communicate frequently so that tutoring practices can seamlessly integrate with the classroom. Wichita's America Reads program notes, "A tutor's job is not to teach new material but to reinforce what is taught in the classroom." If a child's tutoring program is not coordinated with the curriculum and classroom instruction, the tutor runs the risk of confusing the child with the untimely introduction of new information and two different sets of expectations and assignments. If this happens, learning is fragmented. The tutoring loses its immediacy for the child and may not deliver that "Aha!" experience that can make learning so exciting. At Philadelphia Reads, tutors have daily contact with the classroom teacher; the teacher defines goals for the student, and the teacher and tutor work together to meet those goals.
While it may be ideal for a teacher to meet frequently with a tutor, this may prove impractical. But because tutoring and the classroom must be closely linked, a good program should periodically seek input from the teacher regarding the direction and emphasis of classroom reading instruction. The more often the teacher, site coordinator, and tutor communicate, the more pertinent information is exchanged, and the more effective the tutoring experience is for the child. At Princeton Young Achievers in New Jersey, this communication is elegantly low tech: Tutors simply leave notes for teachers. Tutors' need for support is satisfied and teachers willingly offer feedback, because they can do so without sacrificing classroom time. Teachers have another important role to play in the tutoring partnership: While respecting the child's right to privacy, teachers should provide tutors with any background information that may affect learning or the tutoring relationship.
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