As a tutoring program coordinator, you must juggle many tasks and responsibilities: forming partnerships with schools and community members, finding and training volunteers, and helping assess students' progress. The "to do" list can seem overwhelming.

Day One breaks down typical beginning tasks into six steps:

1. Assess What You Know and What You Have

Project Focus
Learn all you can about your program and its history. Read the grant proposal or agreement and other documentation to help you learn about:

• Project goals
• Existing partnerships or stakeholders (organizations or individuals)
• Timelines
• Expected outcomes
• Methods of assessment
• Reporting requirements
• Other promised or required actions or products

Resources

• Make a list of resources you need to run the tutoring program, everything from paper and pens to volunteers.

• Ask a student or staff member to orient you to the building. Look for materials you can use: bulletin boards, pictures, maps, or empty space.

• It's important to create a sense of space that helps students identify an area or room as their tutoring space. Speak to the teacher or person in charge about hanging a bulletin board or pictures, or placing a reading chair in an area of the room.

• For a portable sense of space, designate a stuffed animal as the tutoring mascot or bring along a big book made of cardboard and illustrated with photos or pictures and text by students and staff.

• Take stock of supplies you already have: paper, markers, staplers, etc. If you share equipment with your host school or organization, learn the rules for using the photocopier, computers, and materials.

• Cross off items you've located. Make initial contact with community partners who can donate, share, or help locate items you don't have.

Stakeholders
The individuals and organizations whom you serve or who otherwise benefit from your program's work are stakeholders. When you work with stakeholders, you build community interest and participation in your program, multiply your creative and material resources, and help ensure the success of your program. These partners are invaluable!

• Determine who is already involved or interested in your work by reading the program proposal or contract.

• Determine who else is a stakeholder by asking who will be served by the program: students, teachers, principals, other school staff, parents, community members, etc.

• Look for local experts: If you tutor reading in a school, is there a school or district reading specialist? In an adult literacy program, are there experts working in projects serving homeless families or migrant workers, or in projects related to employment and training? Professors and students at universities, community colleges, and extension services can be valuable partners.

• Define the role you want stakeholders to play in creating the program, setting goals, administering daily work, and providing guidance for the future.

• Create a steering committee made up of stakeholders. For logistical reasons, limit the committee to six to eight people. The steering committee can be responsible for any of these activities:
  • Maintaining and developing the program's focus on goals
  • Ensuring that everyone's needs are being met
  • Encouraging involvement of teachers, parents, and community members
  • Envisioning the years to come
  • Finding additional funding
  • Serving as ambassadors for the program to the community

• Create a list of potential committee members, and make initial contact by letter, phone, or personal visit. Follow up any letter with a phone call.

2. Define the Program

Who, What, When, and Where (and How)
Your answers to the following questions will help flesh out the initial concept of your project. You'll also begin imagining what tutoring sessions will look like.

• What grades or populations will your program directly serve?

• What is the focus of the tutoring program: reading skills, homework help, etc.?

• When will tutoring happen? How often? Students benefit from consistent attention from the same tutor. Daily sessions for students with high needs may be ideal. Depending on the goals of your program, meeting schedules will vary, but meeting at least weekly is advisable.

• Where will tutoring take place: within classes, as pull-outs from class, after school? What space accommodations must be made? Rooms may be scarce but finding or defining a space relatively free of distractions is optimal.

• How will tutoring sessions be structured: one-on-one, in small groups, or some combination? Training needs will vary based on how your tutors work with students.

• How will students be selected or referred to the program? Most researchers and educators agree that volunteers should work with students who are making less-than-average progress.

• How will tutors be selected, and how will they be paired with students? Consider any special accommodations your tutors may need (parking, building access, etc.). This is especially relevant for programs with senior volunteers.

• Who will train tutors initially? On a on-going basis? (See text box below)

• Who will observe and supervise the tutors directly?

• How will teachers, parents, and tutors communicate with each other? With you?

• What are the expected outcomes of the program?

• How will you assess the program? At what points will assessment take place? Assessments should be realistic, reflecting outcomes that are reasonable to expect from tutoring activities. Assessment should help inform future tutoring goals and activities.

3. Set Program Goals and Objectives

• Set short- and long-term goals for your program based on the answers to your questions in Step 2. Some of the goals and outcomes may already be determined by the proposal or agreement with host schools.

• Create a set of shared goals and outcomes with your partners and/or stakeholders. Shared goals and outcomes are important, though how collaborative you want to be when creating them is a decision to make carefully. At the very least, all stakeholders must agree to the primary objectives and structure set by your grant or agreement.

• Have the steering committee review additional goals to ensure they are within the scope and purpose of the program.

  • It is not a good idea to avoid involving stakeholders because they may not agree with you or the program's goals. Make the primary goal clear; then make a good-faith effort to accommodate additional suggestions.

  • Involving local experts at this stage is key. If a school's reading expert feels she's been ignored by you, it might be difficult to gain her participation several months later.

• Create action steps that help you accomplish shared goals. Be clear about who is responsible for doing what by when. A follow-up memo or letter to the committee will put this in writing and serve as a reminder. (See text box below.)

• Determine how you will assess the program's achievement of goals. Create initial mechanisms to do this (a record-keeping system, exit interviews, journals, database, etc.). Refer back to the reporting requirements for your program for additional guidance.

4. Meet with Stakeholders

You have a lot to cover in the first meeting with stakeholders. Distributing a written agenda ahead of time will help you maximize the time you're together, and participants then know what to expect and what they have to offer. The following steps will also help you plan a productive meeting.

• Set a time to meet with the stakeholders. Come with a written agenda and state at the beginning what the outcomes of this meeting will be. Seek input on outcomes others would like to see.

• Give a brief introduction of the program: where tutoring will take place, who will be served; what your role is.

• Allow participants to introduce themselves and briefly tell why they are invested in the success of your program.

• Outline program objectives and outcomes. Share any requirements set out in the proposal or agreement.

• Add to the list of goals and objectives.

• Brainstorm a list of local resources that the program can use (people, organizations, supplies, money).

• Discuss the different forms that tutoring sessions might take, and which one is best for the students and teachers you'll work with.

• Create the ground rules of the steering committee.
  • State the role and responsibilities of the steering committee.
  • Decide how often the committee will meet and how its members will communicate with each other and you in between meetings.
  • If someone is interested but cannot make the time commitment, have him or her recommend a colleague.
  • Be flexible-make modifications to the program and to the steering committee as needed.

5. Write a Memorandum of Understanding

6. First Steps Toward Recruiting Volunteers

Now that your goals are set and your steering committee formed, it's time to begin recruiting volunteers, gaining other support, and delivering tutoring services.

Spread the Word
You can't tutor all the students single-handedly, but where do you find volunteers? Post flyers with a brief description of the program and a call for volunteers in locations such as these:

• Senior centers
• Retirement homes
• Community centers
• Churches
• Middle and high schools (cross-age tutoring is fun and benefits the tutor as much as the student!)
• Community college or university bulletin boards, especially departments of education, community service and work study offices
• Civic associations
• School newsletters
• Volunteer section of local newspapers
• Neighborhood association newsletters

Get Some Background
Visit the library, talk to local experts, and surf the Internet to get background information on the topics the program addresses and the students it serves. If you coordinate a literacy program for elementary children, look for articles and books on how young children learn to read. If you tutor youth preparing for the GED, visit the bookstore or library to browse relevant study manuals. Spend a day "shadowing" an Adult Basic Education/GED program coordinator at a community college, employment and training agency, or community literacy organization.

Create a Framework
Below, we've broken down the process of tutoring into three stages. Using this or a similar framework will help you communicate expectations, progress, and achievement to students, tutors, teachers, and parents.

• Getting Acquainted
  For the first four to six meetings, the tutor and student get to know one another. They lay the foundation for a relationship and build trust. The tutor learns about the student's interests, learning style, and needs, and begins using this information to motivate the student. Initial assessments can be done at this stage.

• Getting Down to Business
  This stage constitutes the bulk of time tutor and student work together. Because progress can be difficult to measure, it's important for the tutor to keep a record of the student's progress measured in terms other than grades or level of mastery. A running list of words the student learns or books read shows progress and gives both student and tutor reason to be proud. Portfolios, anecdotes, and journals are also valuable in showing achievement.

• Getting Ahead
  On-going encouragement and positive feedback are important for tutors to give students, and for you to give both tutor and student. Recognize tutors' contributions and students' achievements with a celebratory dinner or awards ceremony. In a way, the tutor's role is to work himself out of a job — to help the student reach a point of self-sufficiency and self-motivation. Take steps to help them both make a smooth, positive transition out of the relationship.

Think About Liability
In the course of tutoring, do the students or tutors travel in school or organization vans or buses? Will tutors and students travel off-site for related activities? Do your tutors and students arrange their own times to meet? Explore legal liability requirements and considerations before the program begins. Schools have liability guidelines for volunteers who work with students. Most schools require criminal background checks; some require fingerprinting. If tutors transport children, seek proof of driver's license and current auto insurance with personal liability provisions. Written parent or guardian permission should be obtained for off-site travel.

Write a Job Description
A brief description of the tutoring job lets volunteers know upfront what will be expected of them. A job description should address the standards of commitment and the importance of consistency, especially when working with young children. Have a space for the volunteer and you to sign the agreement.