SPONS AGENCY bureau of Educational Personnel Development

Project Upswing was a two-year tutoring experiment directed by universities in Denver, Oxford (Mississippi), St. Louis, and San Francisco and involving first graders identified by their teachers at the beginning of the school year as capable of normal achievement but having learning difficulties. Half of the students served as a control group and half were tutored twice a week, one hour each session, by adult volunteers. The project was evaluated for impact of tutoring on children's development of reading skills, visual-motor integration skills, and self-esteem and for effectiveness of tutor training. Analysis indicated that tutoring was effective in helping students improve their rates of progress in reading and their self-esteem but that tutoring had no significant effect on visual-motor integration skill. As a byproduct of the evaluation, the data suggested that grade retention had negativ