Setting
The study was set in six schools in four Oregon school districts, and 24 classrooms. All of the schools were participating in the SMART program for the first time, therefore, none of the 1st graders in the study had tutoring in kindergarten. The participating schools were Title I schools in two of the largest counties in Oregon.
Study sample
The schools were all Title I schools and represented a mix of large city, moderate-sized city, and rural schools in Oregon. Students were European American (47%), African American (30%), American Indian (10%), Asian American (6%), and Latino (6%). There were 44 females and 40 males in the analytic sample (Total = 84).
Intervention Group
In addition to regular reading instruction during the day, SMART intervention group students received tutoring. The Start Making a Reader Today (SMART) program is a two-year volunteer tutoring program, in which low-performing readers receive one-hour of tutoring from an adult volunteer per week for six months each year in the first and the second grade. The number of 30-minute tutoring sessions ranged from 49-98 per student (mean of 73, SD of 10.9). Volunteers are asked to read to the child, to read together with the child, to have the child reread a section just read by the volunteer, and to ask questions of the child based on the reading. Volunteer training is 1-2 hours, and follow a Volunteer Handbook to guide the tutoring process. The tutors were adults from the local business community, and were older than 30 years (33% aged 30-45; 29% aged 45-65; and 20% over 65 years). The authors described that a half-time SMART coordinator at each school managed the program and described that they were typically AmeriCorps volunteers or instructional assistants with no formal training in reading instruction or elementary education, and training lasted about 1 full day per year for them.
Comparison Group
The comparison condition received all usual services offered by the school. The only noted difference for SMART students was the 1 hour of tutoring per week.
Support for implementation
Volunteer training is 1-2 hours, and follow a Volunteer Handbook to guide the tutoring process. The training occurs in impromptu sessions and consists of instructional modeling by the coordinator. The authors described that a half-time SMART coordinator at each school managed the program and described that they were typically AmeriCorps volunteers or instructional assistants with no formal training in reading instruction or elementary education, and training lasted about 1 full day per year for them. The volunteer tutors work through the volunteer handbook and use four primary reading strategies: 1) reading to the child, 2) reading with the child, 3) volunteer reads a section and the child re-reads, and 4) the volunteer asks questions during reading tutoring.