Collaboration with other existing service agencies avoids redundancy of effort in maintaining the quality of service. Such an integrated approach to funding, administration, and programming provides the strongest possible model for serving children and families in these programs. Students at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale who wish to avail themselves of the opportunity to engage in the America Reads Challenge and who meet the established qualification criteria are serving local elementary school children who need assistance with reading. Background checks on all potential tutors, as well as interviews with the Project Coordinator or her assistant, are required as part of the screening process. The America Reads Challenge Project at SIUC operates within six local Carbondale schools.
Employed students tutor first grade through sixth grade students during the school day.
Tutors generally spend from four to twenty hours per week at a school site working with children in this program. During the past year, there were about 25 tutors in the field, working in focused tutoring sessions with more thall 150 students and providing additional, in-class assistance with many others. The programmatic coordination of the America Reads Challenge Project on this campus is under the direction of a member of the Reading and Language Studies faculty in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. The time and effort spent in this regard is in addition to her regular faculty assignment. The faculty of the Teacher Education Program have long encouraged our students to engage in volunteer opportunities in nearby schools.