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…

Several retention strategies have been developed at Miramar College in San Diego, California, to reduce attrition and enhance institutional effectiveness. One of these, the PLACe tutorial center, is dedicated to empowering students to attain educational success. In spring 1992, developmental English students who did not use the PLACe Center had a…

A practicum addressing (1) elementary school students' need to increase their sight vocabulary, (2) their needs for self-esteem, (3) their individual learning differences, and (4) the practical difficulties of providing additional practice time and personnel to teach is described in this guide. The introduction of the guide discusses the community…

The first section of this paper notes the tremendous number of approaches to teaching writing, the agreement among experts that writing involves developmental stages specific to each student, and the need for writing programs that challenge individuals at their various levels of development. The paper then describes a newly revised writing course…

In this paper, the development and the first three months of a reading program in which university students tutor junior high school students with reading skill deficiencies are described. In section 1, an introduction, the literacy problem that exists in the United States and the basic rationale for the tutoring approach as a solution to this…

Project Keeping All Pupils in School (KAPS) is a dropout prevention program designed by officials in the Baltimore City Public Schools, supported by Federal funds under the provision of Title VIII of the 1965 Elementary Secondary Education Act (PL90-427). The KAPS Program consists of six components. They include: Daily Program, Service to Aid…

Research on computers in schools is reviewed. The findings include the following: (1) 53 percent of schools have computers; (2) restructuring classroom schedules and revising inservice programs would expand computer use; (3) software packages should allow for individual differences; (4) publishers are coordinating software with curriculum; and (5)…

This article describes successful practices implemented by general education teachers in inclusive settings. A model for evaluating teacher comfort levels with identified teaching practices is suggested, to target areas in which educators desire support. Two practices, classwide peer tutoring and self-management, are examined to show effects of…

This manual for literacy tutors focuses on interactional processes between the tutor and adult student (including those with disabilities). Six processes are stressed throughout: (1) getting to know the learner, (2) participatory assessment, (3) learner-directed goal development, (4) gathering and developing teaching resources, (5) implementing…

This practicum report describes a staff development program that was designed to implement a peer tutoring program in which nonhandicapped students instructed three trainable mentally handicapped peers in a regular high-school setting. The program was implemented to increase the achievement of handicapped students in basic academic skills that…

This two-volume report summarizes and comments on international research into distance education done after 1970 and on some older research deemed still to be important. In the first volume, the review of research and development work is organized into 15 topic areas: (1) general analyses of distance education, philosophy and theory; (2) studies…

Research has shown that students and teachers can benefit from structured in-school helping relationships in which peers assume formal roles as tutors. For the student in need of academic help, peer tutoring programs provide an opportunity to learn in a more nonthreatening environment than the classroom. Immediate feedback and clarification of…

Carleton University's writing tutorial service is staffed by trained graduate students and provides free individual instruction for students having problems writing academic English. The students submit writing samples before the first session at which both student and tutor map out a strategy for improvement. Analysis of the tutors' perceptions…

This is an overview of a project in which cross-age tutoring is used as a means of enhancing the learning and motivation of the tutors, in contrast to the practice in which the learning of the tutee is the primary focus. This teaching method is referred to as the "Learning-Tutoring Cycle." It is recommended that secondary students who are in need…

This literacy program guidebook contains specific information for use by volunteer tutors involved in an adult literacy project in Ottawa, Canada, as well as general information on reading instruction techniques, literacy skills, literacy curricula, and resource materials. The origins, objectives, structure, and operations of the Ottawa program…