The Literacy Cooperative’s Pilot STEP Tutoring Program Makes Impact

2012 STEP program results

To help address the learning gap for students in first grade, The Literacy Cooperative pulled together a group of community literacy partners and developed STEP (Supporting Teachers Engaging Pupils). The tutoring program was designed specifically to help underperforming children and prevent reading failure through one-on-one, structured tutoring sessions that coordinate with the classroom curriculum. Results from the 2011-2012 school year show that STEP is making an impact.

The goal of STEP’s bi-weekly, 30 minute per session pullout tutoring is to improve outcomes by helping students acquire the skills necessary for reading success. The STEP initiative at Marion Sterling School in Cleveland focuses on first graders who are below grade level; research shows that children who are not reading proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma than proficient readers and a new Ohio law (Third Grade Reading Gaurentee) requires that all students pass a third grade reading test to advance to fourth grade. 

Research further shows one-on-one tutoring programs are effective in preventing reading failure, especially in the early grades.  Understanding that children learn best from well-planned and consistent tutoring sessions, STEP provides volunteers with a variety of tools to use, including scripted lesson plans. The tutors use research-based methods to deliver lessons that emphasize phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension. 

STEP also strives to establish strong, mentoring relationships between tutors and children. Research has shown that regular interaction strengthens assets in children that lead to improved skills.

The Literacy Cooperative partnered with Dr. Catherine A. Rosemary at John Carroll University to oversee a formal assessment protocol for STEP that measures the value of the initiative as an intervention that can improve outcomes for children.

Results for the 2011-2012 STEP tutoring program at Marion Sterling show that the STEP program has made a positive impact. STEP participants demonstrated gains on all measures of reading skills and gains in total scores from October were significantly higher than the gains of the non-tutored students. The results further demonstrate that the gap that existed between tutored and non-tutored students in October was closed by the end of the school year and some of the tutored students were close to or at grade level in May. This translates into higher overall gains for the tutored students, who caught up to their peers. 

As promising as the academic results, the STEP participants enjoyed their learning experience and want to stay in the program. STEP helped to improve not only the reading skills of the program participants but also their confidence in classroom participation and their social interactions with peers. 

The Literacy Cooperative is currently launching the third year of the STEP pilot program and intends to further demonstrate results and refine STEP for replication. It is the hope of The Literacy Cooperative that STEP will be recognized as an effective tutoring model and subsequently adopted by organizations offering tutoring services in Greater Cleveland area schools.