![[Table of Contents]](/icons/up.gif){kind=icon}
[IOWA] Samples of America Reads Challenge Federal Work-Study Programs and National Service Initiatives
ANDERSON UNIVERSITY
President James Edwards
America Reads Contact: Kammy Dawson
1100 East 5th Street
Anderson, IN
Email: kedawson@anderson.edu
Website: http://www.anderson.edu
Telephone: 765-641-4134
Fax: 765-641-3851
Number of Districts: 1
We are working with Robinson Elementary, a Title I school, to place FWS students there to work with students in grades 1-3. Each student is assigned a teacher who assigns our students elementary students in need of assistance.
EARLHAM COLLEGE
President Doug Bennett
America Reads Contact: Susan Baird
National Road West
Richmond, IN
Email: bairdsu@earlham.edu
Telephone: (765) 983-1383
Fax: (765) 983-1234
Earlham College has a strong America Reads program supported solely by student volunteers. All 33 literacy tutors work on a volunteer basis and contribute approximately two hours every week. The tutors are each paired with an elementary student in one of three after-school reading programs in the Richmond community. Thirty-three first through fifth graders currently receive one-on-one reading tutoring at the three schools.
The program is coordinated by an AmeriCorps member and funded by AmeriCorps, Indiana Campus Compact, and Earlham College. The coordinator is responsible for recruiting, training, and placing (including conducting background checks)all volunteers, as well as assessment of student progress, reflection, and evaluation. The volunteers are responsible for creating and implementing lesson plans, and the local schools supply an Accelerated Reader student assessment in order to plan lessons according to individual reading levels.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY-BLOOMINGTON
America Reads Contact: Shirley Boardma
Franklin Hall 208
Bloomington, Indiana
E-mail: sboardma@indiana.edu
Telephone: 812-856-5561
Fax: 812-855-7615
Indiana University-Bloomington's response to the America Reads Challenge is called the Indiana Reading Team. Our reader-tutors are active in two school corporations, the children's area of the Monroe County Library, the Boys' and Girls' Club, Girls' Inc., and Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Currently 50 undergraduate and graduate students are participating. Other organizations who assist with this program include our Alumni Association, Americorps, Vista, and a number of departments on the campus. We have a number of volunteers also engaged with literacy activity although they are not directly involved with the Indiana Reading Team. They do, however, know of our efforts and we share with them.
Our training effort has had a variety of models and more are being considered. Training has been a joint responsibility of individuals from the School of Education, Title I Teachers in our school corporations, and other volunteers who have an interest in children and reading. At the present we do not involve parents in the effort but are exploring the feasibility of expanding to a family literacy center in our family student housing units.
At this point, most of our resources have come from seed money provided by the Bloomington Campus and a sharing of costs and resources among a variety of departments. We do not expect to have a major infusion of funds and so hope to operate with a minimal amount of extra fund expenditures.
To this point, our research and evaluation tools are primarily through the gathering and analysis of the observations of the participants, i.e. teachers, reader-tutors, and children. We are not using any objective tools at this point but relying on the impressions, observations, and perspectives of the individuals. To gather this information we administer surveys at least every 6 to 7 weeks.
We have done a minimal amount of public relations efforts because we still feel that we are in such an experimental phase. There were some press releases throughout the State of Indiana. We are exploring literacy coalition possibilities but need to concentrate first on that which is most essential: the training and selection of tutors, the tools they need to perform their work, and the logistics (payroll, evaluations, placement, security checks, etc.)
We find that the administration of the program is quite labor intensive. It is more akin to running a mini-employment organization where one is also responsible for the training and orientation of the employees as well as the matching of time and talent with the needs of the employer. Our program is primarily staffed with college work-study students. They have complicated lives and frequently find their academic coursework interrupting their work schedules. Balancing their obligations as students to their obligations as a student employee can be quite challenging.
INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
President Dr. John Moore
America Reads Contact: Gary Beaulieu
307 Rankin Hall
Terre Haute, IN 47809
Email: beaulieg@citrine.indstate.edu
Internet Address: http://web.indstate.edu
Telephone: 812-237-8535
Fax: 812-237-4114
Number of Students: 10
Number of Districts: 2
INDIANA UNIVERSITY-PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS
President Gerald L. Bepko, Chancellor
America Reads Contact: Danielle Bardgett, Student Employment Coordinator
Address: BS 2010, 801 W. Michigan St.
Indianapolis, IN
Email: dbardget@iupui.edu
Internet Address:
http://www.iupui.edu/it/career/career.html
Telephone: (317) 274-0862
Fax: (317) 278-1335
Number of Students: 79
Number of Districts: 3
The America Reads program at IUPUI is administered by the Student Employment Office in conjunction with Financial Aid, the IUPUI Office of Neighborhood Resources(ONR), and the Center for Public Service and Leadership(CPSL). ONR and CPSL recruit, screen, train and support work-study tutors primarily for agencies such as the Boys & Girls Clubs and Community Centers of Indianapolis. For students willing to commit to a required number of hours, an AmeriCorps bonus is available upon completion. The Student Employment Office posts positions on its computer Jobline, issues and processes hiring paperwork and monitors awards and earnings throughout the year as it does for all other work-study students.
In addition to the 54 tutors placed by ONR and CPSL in 1997-98, the Student Employment Office itself placed 25 students primarily in public schools and after-school programs equipped to take care of their own screening, training, and support. Allowing for this diversity in approach has enabled IUPUI to reach a greater number of children than would have been possible otherwise. If you wish further details from us or from ONR and CPSL, please let us know.
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
President Dr. Steven C. Beering
America Reads Contact: Brenda White
1102 Schleman Hall, Room 305
West Lafayette, IN
Email: bwhite@dfa.purdue
Internet Address: http://www.purdue.edu/DFA/
Telephone: (765)494-5050
Fax: (765)494-5072
UNIVERSITY OF EVANSVILLE
President Dr. James Vinson
America Reads Contact: Michael B. Russell
1800 Lincoln Ave.
Evansville, Indiana 47722
Email: mr54@evansville.edu
Telephone: (812)475-6404
Fax: (812)479-2156
Number of FWS Students: 30
WALDORF COLLEGE
President Dr William E. Hamm
America Reads Contact: Duane A. Polsdofer, Jr.
106 South 6th Street
Forest City, IA 50436
Email: polsdofed@waldorf.edu
Internet Address: http://www.waldorf.edu
Telephone: 515-582-8120
Fax: 515-582-8194
-###-
This page last updated May 14, 1999 (lw/pjk)