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Start Making a Reader Today® (SMART®) is a volunteer tutoring program widely implemented in Oregon for students in grades K–2 who are at risk of reading failure. The program is designed to be a low-cost, easy-to-implement intervention. Volunteer tutors go into schools where at least 40% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and read one-on-one with students twice a week for half an hour. Typically, one volunteer works with two children on four types of activities: reading to the child, reading with the child, re-reading with the child, and asking the child questions about what has been read. The program also gives each student two new books a month to encourage families to read together.
One study of SMART® met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards. The one study included more than 125 students in first grade in six schools across four school districts in Oregon. 1 The WWC considers the extent of evidence for SMART® to be small for alphabetics, fluency, and comprehension. No studies that met WWC evidence standards with or without reservations addressed general reading achievement.
Start Making a Reader Today® was found to have potentially positive effects on alphabetics, fluency, and comprehension.
| Alphabetics | Fluency | Comprehension | General reading achievement | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating of effectiveness | Potentially positive effects | Potentially positive effects | Potentially positive effects | na |
| Improvement index2 | +16 percentile points | Average: +17 percentile points Range: +16 to +18 percentile points |
Average: +14 percentile points Range: +11 to +16 percentile points |
na |
| na = not applicable | ||||
|Institute of Education Sciences
