Delivery and Evaluation of Synchronous Online Reading Tutoring to Students At-Risk of Reading Failure

Abstract

In a technological society, demands for higher literacy are ever increasing, creating grievous consequences for those who fail to meet these demands (National Research Council, 1998). Both legislative mandates, such as NCLB, and developments in the provision of reading instruction, such as RtI, have increased the demand for high quality tutoring services. However, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE, 2005) and state officials (Richard, 2005) report that access to intensive supplemental tutoring may be limited in rural areas due to limited availability of qualified providers. One way to overcome this obstacle is to supplement classroom instruction with live systematic, comprehensive, and explicit online reading tutoring. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe and discuss a preliminary investigation of the effects of live online reading tutoring on 4th grade students in a high minority, high poverty school in Philadelphia, PA. Although this study was not conducted in a rural location, the implications are great for rural schools where qualified tutors may be nonexistent or inaccessible. Using a distance teleconferencing system, trained and supervised undergraduate students located at Utah State University delivered tutoring. The researchers employed a multiple-baseline across participants design to determine, the effects of 1:1 online reading tutoring on reading fluency scores for 3 students. In addition, they compared data on tutors' face-to-face and online tutoring behaviors. Data collected from parents, teachers, tutees, and tutors evaluating the effectiveness, efficiency, and feasibility of online tutoring for remediating students' skill deficiencies are presented and discussed.