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

Samples of America Reads Challenge Federal Work-Study Programs and National Service Initiatives

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
America Reads Contact: Megan Myers
800 21st Street, NW Suite 427
Washington, DC
Email: thana@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu
Telephone: (202) 994-6983 Fax: (202) 994-7768
Number of FWS Students: 50 Number of Districts: 1

The Neighbors Project Learn and Serve America AmeriCorps program at GW has partnered with For Love of Children (FLOC) and Scott Montgomery Elementary School to utilize 50 FWS tutors in an afterschool program at Scott Montgomery Elementary School. Two AmeriCorps Members each supervise 25 FWS tutors who provide one-on-one tutoring twice a week for 3 hours each time to 2nd through 4th graders at the school utilizing the Sing-Spell-Read-and-Write curriculum. The AmeriCorps Members recruit, train and manage the FWS tutors and FLOC provides training, materials and supervision for the AmeriCorps Members. The school is metro-accessible and FWS tutors receive a wage of $10/hour from which they pay their own transportation. Our initial evaluations show that the students have improved an average of one year in their reading skills in under six months. For more information on the curriculum itself, contact Chris Young at FLOC at (202) 462-8686 ext. 335.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
President Leo J. O'Donovan
America Reads Contact: Chris Koliba, Assistant Director
Volunteer and Public Service Center, 316 Leavey
Washington, DC 20057-1096
Telephone: (202) 687-3703  Fax: (202) 687-8980

The initial focus of the DC Collaborative was to set up tutoring programs in the 16 elementary schools with the greatest need. Several organizations stepped forward to set a strategy in providing tutors for the students in these schools beginning in the fall of 1997, including the Corporation for National Service, Communities In Schools of Washington, DC, and six local colleges which include the George Washington, Trinity College, Howard University, Catholic University and American College--with the leadership of Georgetown University.

DC Reads is an effort to increase literacy among children and families throughout Washington, DC. Through the involvement of DC Public Schools, local colleges and universities, businesses, and other public and private organizations, DC Reads is supporting the national goal to ensure that all children can read well and independently by the end of the third grade. DC Reads will utilize nearly 600 tutors, including 450 Federal Work Study college students who were recently trained to begin tutoring in DC schools this Fall.

-###-

[DELAWARE] [FLORIDA]