Reviews the current state of knowledge about various (adult-volunteer) tutoring programs' effects on student achievement. Except for the Howard Street Tutoring Program and the School Volunteer Development Project (two very small programs), the programs reviewed present no unbiased evidence of effectiveness. Comparison groups are needed to…

The America Reads challenge makes a national commitment to the goal that every child will read independently and well by the end of the third grade. The primary means of achieving this goal is to place one million volunteers in schools to tutor children in reading. However, little is known about the effectiveness of using volunteer tutors in the…