Closing the achievement gap between low- and high-achieving public school students is an important goal of public education. This article explores background information and research and discusses examples of best practices to close the achievement gap. Several plans have been proposed as ways to enhance the achievement of under-represented…

This report provides information on the outcomes of the Intervention for College Attendance Program, a program of competitive grants awarded to postsecondary institutions, professional organizations and community-based organizations. Funded programs focus on increasing the access and success of groups traditionally underrepresented in higher…

The Delta Adult Literacy Council, Inc. (DALC) is a volunteer, nonprofit organization that seeks to recruit, assess, train, match, and support volunteer tutors and adult new readers. Its accomplishments, its history as a literacy organization, and its tutor training process are described. The process of student recruitment and support involves…

This booklet presents tutoring strategies for use in the Read-Write-Now! Partners Tutoring Program, which assists school-age children, grades 1-6, in reading and writing. The booklet discusses general strategies, guidelines for effective tutoring, what to do during tutoring sessions, paired reading (including the basics and some "finer…

An intelligent advisor system is an adaptive system aimed at intervening when the user of any application software performs complex transfer tasks. An important aspect that needs to be taken into account when designing and developing an advisor system is the strategies and tactics used by the advisor to provide the user with an environment…

The "consultant" model for the writing center professional is especially appropriate when graduate students are the ones seeking assistance with their writing. For many academicians with backgrounds in the humanities and liberal arts, "consulting" is a term fraught with mystery. Many have never "consulted" and are not…

The general focus of a course on adult literacy and community service at a large state university was to increase students' understanding of adult literacy as a societal issue and to support their involvement as tutors in local adult literacy programs. To understand what students learned from their experience in the course, the instructors began…

This pamphlet describes the key elements necessary for a successful schoolwide or classroom-based tutoring program, explores the benefits for tutors and tutees, and explains the steps that are necessary for the effective training of tutors. The first section looks at peer and cross-age tutoring, including terms and definitions and the benefits of…

This paper contains the scripts of five skits illustrating conspicuous errors on the part of writing tutors trying to assist undergraduate writers. Although the dialogue is fictitious and the situations slightly exaggerated, the skits delineate real problems that have been observed by the directors in actual tutoring sessions. The skits are…

A positive, practical approach to parent tutoring of children is presented in this booklet. Suggestions for how to listen and react to one's child, how to use associations to promote easy learning, and how to reinforce positive behavior and encourage independence are provided. Each chapter sets out a step-by-step system. An easy collaborative…

The effects of an in-house workplace literacy program on an organization are examined. A small Canadian manufacturing plant that began a workplace literacy program called Learning in the Workplace in 1990 was the site of this case study research. The plant was CCL Custom Manufacturing, which specialized in household powder-based products. Four…

The transformation of private to public writing not only challenges student writers, but teachers of writing. The most important assessment of writing takes place in the transaction between writer and reader--among peer readers who are actively writing themselves. Faculty should not relinquish responsibility for assessing written products, but a…

Console-operation skill is procedural knowledge of control panel actions. The console operator must select appropriate sequences of steps (e.g., setting dials, pressing buttons, etc.) as mandated by desired goals and subgoals. A computer-based training (CBT) environment can simulate an environment where knowledge acquisition is efficiently and…

The researchers of this study selected four pragmatic research questions that distance learning administrators with high-enrolling Independent Study courses, similar to those that Brigham Young University offers through its Department of Independent Study, may be interested in exploring. These questions included: (1) When tutoring services are…

Dynamic instructional planning was explored as a control mechanism for intelligent tutoring systems through the development of the Blackboard Instructional Planner--a blackboard software-based dynamic planner for computerized intelligent tutoring systems. The planner, designed to be generic to tutors teaching troubleshooting for complex physical…