Training Models From the Field

The LEARNS staff invited three experienced program directors to share their training models, topics, challenges, and best strategies with us. Three programs—AmeriCorps, the National Senior Service Corps, and Federal Work Study—mobilize a range of senior, college student, and community volunteers. Here are three varied approaches to training that are shaped by the programs’ goals, students served, and the characteristics and backgrounds of the tutors.

"What has been missing is the collaboration between sites .... We plan to address the issue by being the coordinators between the sites. Each site will contribute a component to basic training .... The schools will receive a huge benefit from their collaborative efforts." —Melanie Ogryzek, RYSC-AmeriCorps

Regional Youth Service Corps AmeriCorps (RYSC) (www.tcfn.org/rysc)
Based in rural Washington state, RYSC AmeriCorps is working to improve its tutor training program. RYSC has 38 full-time members who work side-by-side with students at local elementary schools to help struggling readers. RYSC is also piloting an innovative Math Corps program based on the Washington Reading Corps model.

In the past, the training of AmeriCorps and VISTA tutors was handled by the school sites, while the local Education Service District (ESD) provided training in the state’s education standards. While these training programs were useful, it was decided that tutors needed to acquire skills and knowledge before beginning their service rather than sporadically throughout the year.

Beginning in 2002, RYSC will coordinate its own tutor training, including three weeks of preservice training featuring a strong leadership development component and a variety of strategies for reaching students with different needs. Following the preservice training, members will gather twice a month to add new skills to their tutoring repertoire.

"Our basic goal is that children feel so comfortable in that setting that they are thrilled to learn ... to come in every day and work with that tutor." —Rob Tietze, Experience Corps

Experience Corps (www.temple.edu/cil)
A National Senior Service Corps (NSSC) program based in Philadelphia, Experience Corps enlists 140 volunteers to provide literacy tutoring to K – 3 students in 13 local schools. Because the average age of tutors is 68, training must be tailored to meet the needs of senior volunteers, many of whom have not stepped into a classroom for many years and whose memories of what school was like vary dramatically from today’s reality. According to Rob Tietze of Experience Corps, addressing the similarities and differences between the past and present allows the tutors to make “a very easy transition into the school environment, and it really helps allay any fears they may have.”

Tutors receive six days of preservice training during which they gain an understanding of literacy stages and how to support literacy development. They also learn the stages of child development, how to plan an instructional approach and work with teachers, and the dynamics of working as a team. Once tutors begin their service, they receive further training that focuses on any specific needs that arise.

"We use our trainings to develop a relationship with our CSU students. Because we are a commuter school, they don't have the attachment that you might when you live on campus, and so it's really important to me that when they come away from this experience that it's more than being paid $8 an hour to go and work with a child." —Kathy Beal, Cleveland State University

Cleveland State University (www.csuohio.edu/career/amreads.html)
One challenge of operating a tutor program at a commuter school such as Cleveland State University in Ohio is building a sense of community among tutors. Not only do most of the 50 – 60 tutors in the program live off campus, they also tutor off campus. They often lack opportunities to gather and build esprit de corps.

As a result, the four yearly programwide tutor training sessions become vital for providing tutors with a sense of what it takes to work with others. To meet training needs, program coordinator Kathy Beal sets up sessions that are hands-on and efficient, and that provide as many practical and relevant tools as possible in the brief time available.

A key component of the tutor training is a tutor toolbox and manual. Both are filled with hands-on activities and are designed to give tutors a resource that will take them beyond what they can learn during four one-day training sessions. Between sessions, Beal visits each of the 15 school sites and attempts to spend an hour on the job with each tutor at least once each quarter.