Lessons Learned
In their final reports, the 61 America Reads partnerships summarized lessons they have learned to date. This list of pointers, gained through experience, ranges from broad principles to the particulars of daily program management.
Partners
- Clearly delineate goals and responsibilities of all partners.
- Recognize that reaching consensus on program goals and norms can be complicated
by partners' different agendas.
- Enlist diverse community partners (diverse in terms of religion, race, ethnicity, socio-economic background, civic role, age, gender). Diversity adds to the richness of the program.
- Communicate with school administrators so they understand the program and how it fits into their curriculum. Don't proceed until teachers and principals are on board.
- Maximize resources by "piggybacking" onto existing volunteer programs, even those without a specific reading focus.
- Be aware that existing programs may be resistant to innovation and fearful of losing their
volunteers to the new program.
- Make training and supervision of site coordinators a top priority.
- Recognize tutors, training staff, and cooperating teachers for their participation.
- Involve parents of tutored children. Even low-level readers want to read with their children once they acquire tutoring techniques to help them.
Operational Norms
- When planning, build in extra time at all stages of program development for the inevitable unforeseen.
- Institute operational norms and routines. Simplify and systematize paperwork. Make the
program as self-managing as possible.
- Start with a manageable number of sites and grow only as capacity develops. Quality
diminishes if the program is overextended.
- Synchronize program policies with school policies and use models and materials that
are compatible with school district reading curriculum.
- Train tutors to respect school and classroom policies and procedures: They are guests!
o Set up a central office; it is vital for planning, recruiting, training, placing, coordinating,
monitoring, and assessing volunteers.
- Provide transportation, if possible, to tutoring and training sessions. Transportation problems can extinguish the enthusiasm of a volunteer who does not own a car.
Resources and Tutor Recruitment
- Recruit from the religious community, a source of individuals motivated to serve with care and devotion.
- Use the media: newspapers (press releases, local columnists), newsletters, television stations, radio.
- Build in plenty of lead time to recruit prospective tutors. For example, start recruiting
in spring for the fall term.
- Telephone tutors to confirm their attendance at training sessions.
- Expect tutor no-shows and dropouts. Sometimes it is good for an individual to self-select
out of the program.
- Don't recruit more volunteers than the program is able to manage.
Tutor Assignments
- Instruct teachers how to utilize a tutor. Without instruction, the tutor may end up working
as a teacher's aide.
- Take time to thoughtfully pair tutors and students. Follow up often to make sure placements are working.
Commitment
- Consider a tutor-to-tutor mentoring system to foster a sense of common cause.
- Support tutors onsite.
- Develop a "buddy system" of two tutors per child. They can fill in for each other
and brainstorm together.
- Ask tutors to commit to a minimum number of tutoring hours.
National Service and Federal Work-Study Programs
- Allow sufficient lead-time to identify VISTA volunteers. They can be hard to recruit.
- Use AmeriCorps and other National Service members and volunteers to fill critical logistical support roles and maximize staff salary budgets.
- Enlist the support of high-level college/university administrators and financial aid directors. Without this support, roadblocks may be impassable.
- Facilitate communication among campus coordinators for sharing of best practices, materials, and resources (through a listserve, for example).
- Accept that college students are busy and often find it difficult to maintain agreements
and schedules. A team leader should be available to encourage them.
Training
- Use a training team to circulate within a region to provide programs with consistent, quality tutor training.
- Work toward teacher and school buy-in by fielding well-trained tutors. Untrained, unreliable volunteers can cripple a program.
- Train in small interactive groups instead of large group lectures.
- Maximize the number of volunteers by providing varied training models to meet varying
levels of availability, skill, and expertise.
- Keep it simple; don't ask tutors to be reading teachers.
Ongoing Training and Support
- Nurture tutors frequently with prompt feedback and support. It is easy for them to become frustrated.
- Don't assume tutors remember strategies, methods, or techniques after training. Create
a "cheat sheet" of tutoring techniques for them to consult during sessions with students.
Monitoring, Evaluation, Assessment, and Record Keeping
- Evaluate the program continuously and adapt it to changing circumstances. Document
what works and what does not.
- Make tutor record keeping simple; show tutors how record keeping benefits them. For Federal Work-Study tutors, consider tying accurate and complete record keeping to pay.
Sustainability and Replicability
- Plan for program replicability and sustainability beyond temporary funding arrangements.
- Enlist school district staff in key positions to encourage sustainability.
- Devote funds to training of trainers to develop capacity and replicability.
- Designate a model site as a prototype for program expansion.
- Develop a standard tutoring manual to promote replicability.
