Positive results for AmeriCorps tutoring program

This report shares findings of an independent study of Minnesota Reading Corps (MRC), an AmeriCorps program that provides trained literacy tutors for struggling readers, with strategies designed for both preschool-aged children and K-3 children. The report shows that elementary students tutored by AmeriCorps members achieved significantly higher literacy levels than students without such tutors, and impacts were statistically significant even among students at higher risk of academic failure.

The research, which was completed by NORC at the University of Chicago, involved a randomized controlled trial of more than 1,500 students in kindergarten through third grade at 23 urban, suburban, and rural Minnesota schools during the 2012-2013 school year. These students were assigned to either the MRC program or to a control group. Outcomes were measured using the AIMSweb literacy assessments, which evaluated letter sound fluency, nonsense word fluency, and oral reading fluency. 

Overall, key findings included:

• After a single semester of tutoring, the average kindergarten student with an AmeriCorps tutor performed twice as well as students without one.
• AmeriCorps tutors helped the average first grade student perform 11 percent better than untutored peers, and 26 percent higher than the expected level for on-track students after one semester of tutoring.
• Students with higher risk factors (such as dual language learners and students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch) who received AmeriCorps tutoring significantly outperformed similar students.

Johns Hopkins University 

Research in Brief

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