At-Risk Readers and Community Volunteers: A 3-Year Perspective

Intervention after Grade 1: Serving Increased Numbers of Struggling Readers Effectively

“…In these schools, a reading specialist working one-to-one obviously cannot serve all the children who need and deserve help. To address the problem of numbers served, some schools have implemented low-cost volunteer programs, using unpaid adults or college students earning minimum wage to tutor at-risk first-grade readers (Baker, Gersten, & Keating, 2000;Fitzgerald, 2001;Invernizzi et al, 1997). Because this approach bears directly on the present investigation, we will examine the extant research carefully.…”

“…Invernizzi et al did provide evidence that tutored children's performance increased across three successive cohorts of the Book Buddies program. Fitzgerald's (2001) investigation of a first-grade intervention was similar to the Invernizzi et al (1997) study in design, if not in implementation. Work-study college students tutored at-risk first-and second-grade readers twice per week, using a 40-minute lesson plan similar to that used in Book Buddies.…”

“…In fact, the seven tutor coordinators (or supervisors) in Fitzgerald's program were graduate students who had little background in reading. As did Invernizzi et al (1997), Fitzgerald used a within-program comparison group to evaluate program effectiveness. She found that first and second graders who received 25 weeks of tutoring (N = 64) outperformed controls who received 6 N = 64) outperformed controls who received 6 N to 12 weeks of tutoring (N = 19) on several measures.…”

“…However, the evidence produced by the three studies just reviewed is tenuous. The Invernizzi et al (1997) and Fitzgerald (2001) studies produced positive results, but the researchers used an unconventional, within-program control-group design. In these studies, the finding that students who received more of the treatment did better than students who received less is suggestive, but not conclusive.…”

“…If such schools still want to achieve the power of one-to-one reading intervention in first grade, some evidence supports the use of community volunteers as reading tutors. Book Buddies (Invernizzi et al, 1997) is a good example of such a program. But is first grade the only, or even the optimal, time period to intervene with nonprofessional reading tutors?…”