Schoolwide Reading Buddy Program (1999-2000)
Project: I had a very successful year using a Reading Buddy program in my class the year before (1998-1999). The average growth had been 2.5 grades in reading level for my struggling readers in the 4th and 5th grades. (Unfortunately, I don’t have access to that data anymore, but I remember so clearly the day I got the scores back from our district’s spring reading assessment. I was shocked by how well my students had done. I know they made 2.5 years’ growth because I immediately calculated it.)
Kennedy decided to start a school-wide Reading Buddy program in the fall of 1999. The cafeteria was used as the location and an aide served as the supervisor. Peer tutors were recruited from the intermediate grades. They had to be fluent readers with a good attitude. They went through an application process and were trained in how to coach a struggling reader using the Integrated Reading Method.* Twice a week for 30 minutes, the reading buddies (a tutor and a struggling reader from their own grade or lower) would meet and read an “Accelerated Reader” book that was in the struggling reader’s Zone of Proximal Development*, also called “reading at instructional level.” We had 100 struggling readers involved in the program, but that spring the district decided not to give the standardized reading test to the 3rd and 5th grades. This was my main data source. That eliminated all but 14 struggling readers from my pre- and post-testing, but by observation and teacher input, the results were equally good at all grade levels.
Results for 14 students in the 4th and 6th grades:
- With 5-9.5 hours of tutor contact, students’ percentile ranking increased +8 percentage points.
- With 10-14.5 hours of tutor contact, students’ percentile ranking rose +8.5 percentage points.
- With 15 or more hours of tutor contact, students’ percentile ranking rose +13.2 percentage points.
Theoretically, a student’s percentile ranking shouldn’t change because s/he is being compared to the same peers who have had the same amount of time to improve as s/he had.
- The mean gain in RIT points* for students with at least 15 hours of tutor contact was +12.8 RIT points.
RIT scores are expected to change from fall to spring. They are designed to show how much growth occurred. 5 points’ growth was considered average for the NWEA Level Test* the year this was given, so 12.8 points is approximately 2.5 years’ gain. The schoolwide Reading Buddy program was as effective as my classroom program had been in 1998-1999.
After 1999-2000, the school went to a buddy classroom approach for cross-age tutoring between an intermediate and primary classroom. It carries on today and most teachers are using partner reading within their own classrooms as a frequent tool for helping their struggling readers.
* See Glossary