A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

OKLAHOMA

FAMILY EDUCATION INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND TRAINING
America Reads Contact: Jennifer Reid
Oklahoma City University/2501 N. Blackwelder
Oklahoma City , Oklahoma
E-mail: filmlit@lec.okcu.edu
Internet Address:
Telephone: 405-521-5942 Fax: 405-557-6012

Particiption: In September of 1998, the Family Education Institute received an America Reads Challenge Grant. With the grant funding, the Institute developed and implemented the Reading Discovery Tutor Training Program. Twelve different elementary schools in the Oklahoma City metro area participated in the tutor training program. Since the inception of the training, the Even Start programs of Maryland and Escambia County, Florida have also participated in training their reading tutors. To date, over 1,000 tutors have been trained in the research based, in-depth tutor training model.

Tutoring: The population targeted in by the Reading Discovery Tutor Training Program are children pre-k through the third grade. Over 1,000 tutors from various organizations such as: RSVP, VISTA, Health Care Workers, High School Students, Corporate volunteers from American Fidelity, McAfee and Taft Professional Group, Cox Cable, Southwestern Bank, and many other corporate volunteers, Texas Future Home Economic's educators, and college students from local universities have all been trained thus far in the model. Thirty-five parents of pre-k children in the Oklahoma City Public Schools Even Start Program. Currently, the Benchmark Education Company of Pelham, New York is disseminating the tutor training model nationally.

Resources: The Institute has developed over 200 different book bag lessons for use during tutoring sessions. This book bag lesson enables the tutor to go into a tutoring session prepared with all of the materials needed to read a book with a child and work on teaching new skills in context and develop comprehension. These lessons are available through the Family Education Institute or through Benchmark Education Company for a fee. Fortunately, the Institue has had a wonder collaboration with the OKCPS Mentoring and Tutoring program, the OKCPS Foundation's Partners in Education program, the Oklahoma Community Service Commission, the Corporation for National Service, and the Oklahoma Learn and Serve America School-and Community-Based Programs. Each of these programs have provided us with tutors to train and have given us information for our independent evaluation of our program's effectiveness.

Research: Standardized tests scores for several of the children were obtaiined in order to evaluate the Reading Discoveyr Tutor Training's effectiveness. Overall, these children did have an increase in their reading scores. In addition the to the standardized scores, the Institute developed a teacher questionnaire and administered it to each of the teachers for each child that was tutored during the year. We wanted to see if the teachers observed a difference in behavior and attitute about reading and school as a result of being tutored. Those questionnaires also indicated a change among the tutored students. The questionnaire is available to anyone who is interested in it, free of charge.

Relations: Word of mouth has been our best recruitment tool. We were recognized in the Daily Oklahoman when the grant was awarded. We were also selected by the Southwest Education Development Laboratory (SEDL) as it's chioce for outstanding practices to be highlighted in the publication "So that Every Child Can Read." The Readinig Discovery Tutor Training program is one of ten models that was highlighted for their outstanding practices in tutor training.

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