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School Children, Literacy, and Government Proposals
In an international comparison of reading achievement in 32 countries,
students from the United States placed second in reading (Elley,
1992). After analyzing three studies which compare the reading
achievement of U.S. children today with achievement scores from
the past, the National Council of Teachers of English and the
International Reading Association, in a recent publication, state,
"Thus, evidence suggests that students today read better
and write better than at any other time in the history of our
country" (cited in Routman, 1996, p. 5). But in spite of
these positive reports, many citizens remain concerned about the
state of literacy among American school children. The most prominent
concerned citizen is President Bill Clinton who, in the summer
of 1996 while on the campaign trail for re-election, expressed
concern about the dismal performance by fourth grade students
on the 1994 administration of the National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP), a testing program that has become known as "the
nation's report card" (Diegmueller, 1996). On these congressionally
mandated tests, 40% of fourth-graders scored below the basic level
(Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 1994). In his
final radio address of 1996, Clinton highlighted his national
literacy campaign he called "America Reads" with a stated
clear national goal: Every American child should be able to read
on his or her own by the end of third grade. In this address and
elsewhere, he calls upon "30,000 reading specialists and
volunteer coordinators to mobilize a million volunteer reading
tutors all across America." Stating that "we know that
individualized tutoring works," he goes on to name several
successful tutoring programs (Clinton, 1996, p. 2537-2538).
Reactions to the president's proposal have been mixed. On the
positive side, Robert E. Slavin, a creator of the Success for
All reading program and a leading researcher at Johns Hopkins
University, said that Clinton's plan is "analogous to President
Kennedy's pledge to put a man on the moon" (cited in Manzo
& Sack, 1997, [p. 1]). He believes that, as Kennedy's mandate
excited the nation to attain the unattainable, so Clinton's plan
has the potential to help large numbers of students in unprecedented
ways. On the America Reads World Wide Web home page, the potential
of Clinton's proposal to help struggling readers is emphasized
by citing 10 successful tutoring programs, all which have promoted
literacy in a variety of settings by enlisting the help of non-professionals
(America Reads Challenge, 1996).
Predictably, Clinton's proposal is getting a cool reception among
some legislators on Capitol Hill who, citing existing programs
both private and federal, claim that it is a duplication of effort.
Others, including both legislators and educators, feel that more
funds should be directed toward the schools where the foremost
mission is to teach children to read (Manzo & Sack, 1997).
Edward Fry, emeritus professor of education at Rutgers University,
in an open letter to President Clinton (Fry, 1997), lists several
concerns that he has with the proposal. The first is with definitions.
What does it mean to "be able to read?" This involves
setting standards, and standards are an elusive thing when talking
about skill in reading. He points out that, when the NAEP (cited
above) finds that 40% of the nation's fourth graders read below
a basic level, this "basic level" is merely "the
subjective opinion of some unnamed group of experts.' It
is sort of a Wouldn't it be nice if they could' basic level
of achievement" ([p. 2]). Fry also discusses the normal distribution
curve and the fact that, even if we substantially raise the reading
levels of the lowest group of students, there will still be those
who are above and below the norm. There always will be reason
for being "alarmed."
Fry's final concern has to do with problems associated with the
use of volunteers. It will be hard to find quality people who
will commit to a year or two of work for no pay. A tutoring relationship
is bound to be beneficial to both the tutor and the child. But
Fry suspects that only professional educators, not volunteers,
will be able to substantially help the students most in need of
remediation.
The concern over the use of volunteers to increase literacy is
not Fry's alone. Diane E. DeFord, a professor at Ohio State University
who helps to direct Reading Recovery, a successful early intervention
reading program for at-risk first-graders, also works with the
AmeriCorps volunteer project at the university. If given the choice
of where to spend money to bolster literacy, DeFord says she would
"put it into teachers. I do not think you can run a program
for your greatest at-risk children with volunteer or uncertified
teachers" (cited in Diegmueller, 1996, [p. 3]). Similarly,
in a letter to the editor of Reading Today, doctoral student Cynthia
Smith suggests that tutors be used in other ways to free up teachers
so they can work with struggling students (Smith, 1997). In retort
to the letter the following month, Keith Topping, Director of
the Centre for Paired Learning at the University of Dundee in
Scotland, agrees that tutoring does not always help "in every
case in real life." But he believes that this is due in part
to poor organization by inexperienced tutoring project coordinators.
He says, "Large-scale meta-analyses indicated many years
ago that in the vast majority of controlled studies, tutored students
outperformed control students, that low-ability students tended
to make the largest gains, and that training in structured methods
improved the effectiveness of tutoring" (Topping, 1997, p.
19).
Work-study coordinators, while happy that the Department of Education
announced late in 1996 that it would waive the 25% of student
wages that they previously had to pay for those working as reading
tutors, are wondering if Clinton's plan is too optimistic in hoping
to place 100,000 students in tutoring jobs (Hoff, 1996).
The Summit on America's Future
In April 1997, President Clinton, with the cooperation of all
living former presidents of the United States and numerous nationally
known leaders and celebrities, including General Colin Powell,
held the Summit on America's Future in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The focus of the summit was to "boost volunteering substantially
within three years with an emphasis on helping youth" (Roberts
& Roberts, 1997, p. 4). Americans were called upon to "give
their time to improve the lives of at least two million of the
nation's 15 million poor children by the end of the year 2000"
(Barnes & Gerson, 1997, p. 7). Many organizations made pledges
of service at this gathering, including the North American Division
of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The Adventist Commitment
The Adventist pledge was sponsored jointly by the Adventist Development
and Relief Agency (ADRA, also called Adventist Community Services
in the U.S.) in conjunction with YouthNetthe Adventist Youth
Services Networkwhich acts as the volunteerism clearinghouse
for the church. At the summit, a commitment was made by Adventist
Community Services (ACS), in collaboration with YouthNet, to strive
toward these goals (Sahlin, 1997):
1. Activate 100 community-based tutoring projects
2. Mobilize 3,000 volunteers
3. Reach 10,000 at-risk children and youth
According to Dr. Jose Rojas, director of the Adventist Youth Service
Network, the Adventist commitment was "given to President
Clinton three months before there was any announcement for the
Summit in Philadelphia," adding that "we were among
the most aggressive of the churches who have stepped forward"
(Rojas, 1997, p. 30). The church has been involved in community
service efforts since 1934.
In August of 1997, Rojas and Sandra Brown of Adventist Community
Services took part in a planning meeting for the Alliance for
Youth Project headed by former Joint Chief of Staff Colin Powell.
A number of national service organizations met with Powell and
representatives from government agencies involved in volunteer
efforts in the United States. The Seventh-day Adventist Church
was the only denominational organization represented at this 2-day
event. Powell expressed deep appreciation to Rojas and the church,
encouraging them to "keep up the good work" (North American
Division Youth Ministries Department, 1997).
A reading tutoring curriculum titled Making SMILIES: Helping Children
Read (Freed et al., 1997) was immediately developed by a number
of educators at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan,
in response to the commitment. SMILIES is an acronym that suggests
the seven original intelligences as proposed by Howard Gardner
(1983): spatial, musical, intrapersonal, linguistic, interpersonal,
exercise (bodily/kinesthetic), and solving problems (mathematical).
Use of the intelligences would be encouraged during the tutoring
lessons through a menu of activities classified under each intelligence.
Many of the specific techniques in the manual are patterned after
those used in other successful reading programs.
The first training session in the effort was held in late August
1997 at ADRA's North American Regional Office in Silver Spring,
Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Twenty-five volunteers
from around the country attended these sessions to learn more
about the basics of setting up a tutoring and mentoring project
in general and the SMILIES curriculum in particular. These original
trainees were not only trained to be reading tutors, but they
were also given the mandate to become trainers of tutors themselves.
Statement of the Problem
Whether there is a real crisis in literacy instruction in the
United States, or whether it is simply "manufactured"
as Berliner and Biddle (1985) suggest, does not change the fact
that President Clinton has announced a national literacy campaign,
"America Reads," to deal with the illiteracy that does
exist (Clinton, 1996). A tremendous effort is underway to "mobilize
and train a citizen army of one million reading tutors" to
deal with this "complicated problem" (Clinton, 1997,
[p. 1]). Although there are questions about the scope and magnitude
of the effort and especially about where money should be spent,
there is a good deal of evidence that literacy tutoring programs
can make a difference (Topping, 1997).
The America Reads agenda was part of the focus of the Volunteerism
Summit held in Philadelphia in April 1997. Many organizations,
corporations, and institutions of higher learning made commitments
to help in the tutoring effort (Member's List, 1998), including
the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
(Sahlin, 1997). Believing that they can make a difference, now
their focus of these organizations has shifted to questions of
how the tutoring they offer should be accomplished, and who will
benefit from their efforts.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to document the training and resulting
efforts of the initial trainees in the Seventh-day Adventist North
American Division (NAD) Tutoring and Mentoring effort during this
first year of implementation. It is a descriptive, qualitative
study that utilizes the tools of observation, interviews, video
and audio recording, and written correspondence to collect pertinent
data. The successes and struggles of the trainees are recorded
in the form of individual and composite case studies using qualitative
inquiry as the primary research methodology.
Chapter 2, the review of the literature, focuses of the phenomenon
of volunteerism, why people volunteer, and the benefits of volunteering.
The training of teachers in general, and more specifically the
training of volunteer literacy instructors, was also investigated.
Finally, several successful literacy tutoring projects were highlighted,
and the recommendations of a number of experts in the area of
literacy tutoring were compiled to create a framework of critical
components of tutoring programs.
Given this background, case study analyses of trainees involved
in the initial thrust of the NAD Tutoring and Mentoring effort
were conducted to answer the following research questions:
1. How were these volunteers recruited and trained for this project?
2. What was their initial training experience like? What initial
concerns did they have about their abilities to fulfill their
commitment to tutor children and to train other volunteers?
3. What happened after they left the training session?
4. What adaptations did they make in the implementation of the
tutoring program?
Importance of the Study
The initial importance of this study was to provide helpful information
to the organizers of the Seventh-day Adventist North American
Division Tutoring and Mentoring Project as they begin the first
full implementation year of the program in 1998-1999. The NAD
initiative is certainly aggressive, and the project coordinators
are making every effort to insure its success. It is hoped, this
study will make a contribution to the existing literature on the
training of volunteer literacy tutors, and the effective organization
and administration of local tutoring projects.
Limitations of the Study
This study was limited to the volunteers who were trained at the
initial NAD Tutoring and Mentoring training session held in Washington,
D.C., on August 27 and 28, 1997. The primary focus of the study
was these volunteers and their experiences associated with this
tutoring programtheir training experience and their subsequent
efforts to establish tutoring sites in their respective locales.
My experiences as a trainer and support person are documented
solely as to how they relate to the trainees. Effects on children
who receive tutoring at their sites, including pre-posttest gains,
attitudinal changes, teacher attitudes, parent attitudes, etc.,
are not the focus of this study. Any information that is reported
relating to these areas is incidental only, and is included to
provide information in order to fully document the experience
of the trainees.
Definition of Terms
America Reads: An initiative introduced by President William J.
Clinton in late 1996 with the national goal that every third-grader
in America should be able to read on his or her own by the end
of third grade. As a part of this proposal, Clinton advocated
mobilizing 1 million volunteer reading tutors to help work with
children.
Alliance for Youth: A national organization initiated at the Philadelphia
Summit on Volunteerism in April 1997. The mission of the Alliance,
headed by former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell,
is to reach 15 million at-risk children and youth through mentoring
relationships. The goals of the Alliance are larger than the more
specific goals of the Adventist Alliance for Youth Tutoring and
Mentoring project, sponsored jointly by YouthNet and ADRA (both
defined below).
North American Division (NAD): The organizational unit of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church which includes all Adventists and
their organizations on the North American continent. In this paper,
NAD may stand more specifically for the leadership of the division
directly responsible for the Tutoring and Mentoring project.
Unions: Smaller units of the NAD that are made of churches in
a specific region. A union, such as the Pacific Union, may be
composed of several states. Each union has its own leadership
that is responsible to the leadership of the NAD.
Conferences: Smaller units of the Unions, regionally organized.
Local churches are organized at the conference level.
SMILIES: The literacy tutoring curriculum written specifically
for the Adventist Alliance for Youth Tutoring and Mentoring project.
Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)/Adventist Community
Services (ACS): Traditionally, the humanitarian agency for the
Seventh-day Adventist Church. ACS is the U.S. domestic branch
of ADRA International. ACS centers are strategically located throughout
the U.S. and have supplied disaster relief, food, clothing, health
screening services, inner city, and other community action programs
to those in need.
YouthNet: The Adventist Youth Services Network, the official volunteer
agency of the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist
Church.
Tutoring: An effort by a more experienced person to impart academic
skills or knowledge to a less experienced person. In this study,
literacy tutoring is offered by older youth and adults to children
in Grade 3 and below.
Organization of the Study
This dissertation has eight chapters, arranged in the following
manner:
In chapter 1 I introduce the problem that is examined. It contains
a description of President Clinton's America Reads challenge and
the response to it. I explain the Tutoring and Mentoring program
initiated by the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist
church in response to Clinton's challenge.
Chapter 2 contains a review of the literature in three main areas:
the phenomenon of volunteerism and volunteers, effective training
of professional instructors generally and volunteer instructors
specifically, and characteristics of successful tutoring programs,
especially those staffed by volunteers. I also propose a matrix
of critical components of tutoring programs which is used as a
framework for analysis.
In chapter 3 I explain the research methodology used in the study.
I examine features specific to qualitative studies generally and
to this study in particular. An explanation of the study's timetable,
data collection techniques, and verification processes is given.
Chapter 4 describes the initial training session attended by the
participants. Their written statements about their intentions
and concerns are analyzed and summarized.
Chapters 5 and 6 offer case study observations of two participants
who were successful in establishing tutoring projects in their
home areas. After visiting their tutoring sites and interviewing
their volunteers, I describe the components that contributed to
their successful implementation.
Chapter 7 contains composite narrative stories of those participants
who attended the initial training session, but who were unable,
for various reasons, to implement a tutoring project during the
1997-1998 school year. In these composite stories, I summarize
the reasons they gave for the frustrations they experienced in
establishing tutoring programs.
In chapter 8 I provide a summary of the study by responding to
the original research questions. I discuss other findings, and
offer suggestions, based on my research, to the organizers of
the North American Division Tutoring and Mentoring project specifically,
and to those who are considering implementation of tutoring projects
generally. I close the study by making recommendations for further
research.