This study reports on an evaluation of the "Reading Partners" program, which uses community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring to struggling readers in underresourced elementary schools. Established in 1999 in East Menlo Park, California, the mission of "Reading Partners" is to help children become lifelong readers by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable results. This report builds on those initial findings by describing the "Reading Partners" program and its implementation in greater detail, exploring whether the program is more or less effective for particular subgroups of students, and assessing some of the potential explanations for the program's success to date. In addition, this report includes an analysis of the cost of implementing the Reading Partners program in 6 of the 19 sites. The following are appended: (1) Implementation Study Methods; (2) Impact Study Methods and Teacher Survey; (3) Tutor Background Characteristics and Additional Impact Findings; (4) Cost Study Methods; and (5) Additional Cost Findings. [This report was written with A. Brooks Bowden and Yilin Pan.]
Authors
Tepper Jacob, Robin, Armstrong, Catherine, Willard, Jacklyn Altuna
- Assessments and Surveys
- Stanford Achievement Tests
- Authorizing Institution
- MDRC
- Education Level
- Elementary Education
- Location
- California
- Peer Reviewed
- F
- Publication Type
- Reports - Research
- Published in
- United States of America
- Sponsor
- Corporation for National and Community Service
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Title Page 3
- Funders 4
- Overview 5
- Contents 7
- List of Exhibits 9
- Preface -1
- Acknowledgments 13
- Executive Summary 15
- Chapter 1: Introduction and Evaluation Overview 23
- Chapter 2: The Reading Partners Program 35
- Chapter 3: Understanding Implementation Fidelity 47
- Chapter 4: The Impact of Reading Partners 63
- Chapter 5: The Cost of Reading Partners 89
- Chapter 6: Conclusions 103
- Appendix A: Implementation Study Methods 115
- Appendix B: Impact Study Methods and Teacher Survey 121
- Appendix C: Tutor Background Characteristics and Additional Impact Findings 127
- Appendix D: Cost Study Methods 137
- Appendix E: Additional Cost Findings 147
- References 153
- About MDRC 159
