Effects of On-Site Reading Clinical Tutoring on Children\u27s Performance

This research was conducted to study the effects of field-based clinical tutoring on struggling readers. Struggling readers from two grade levels, 3rd and 5th were randomly divided into two groups. One group received individualized tutoring in reading for a semester from apprentice reading clinicians (graduate students in Reading Program) and the other group did not. There were 13 sessions of one hour each per week. The reading performance of students in the two groups was compared on the two available measures in the school, (1) letter grade and (2) STAR results (a computerized diagnostic reading assessment program). Observational and anecdotal data from teachers and parents of children participating in the program was received. Seventy-six percent of children improved their letter grade in reading from the beginning of the school year to the end of the year grade in reading compared with 35% of children in the non-tutored group. None of the children in the tutored group dropped a letter grade, however, 17.64% of children in the non-tutored group did drop a letter grade or more. On the STAR scores (see description of STAR under Reading Assessment findings above), the tutored group outperformed the non-tutored group. Fifty-six percent of the children in the tutored group showed improvement in scores from Fall 2001 to Spring 2002 compared with 50% children in the non-tutored group