Program Development

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

Program Requirements

PA Literacy Corps grantees must satisfy six basic requirements.

1. The Literacy Corps program must be developed and implemented through an adult literacy-higher education partnership.

2. The higher education partner must offer the Literacy Corps college-credit course at least twice during the term of the grant, enrolling a minimum of 30 college students over the two semesters.

3. The adult literacy provider must recruit or identify adult learners to work with tutors

4. The program must ensure that each college student performs a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer tutoring under the direction of the adult literacy provider.

5. Both partners must continually assess program effectiveness and impact and, when indicated, work to improve program operations and/or services.

6. The program must submit E-Data and other required reports.

Adult Literacy-Higher Education Partnership

An adult literacy-higher education partnership must be established.

• Partnership roles and responsibilities must be defined.

• Resources must be allocated to support those roles.

Partnership roles and responsibilities must be defined.

Partnerships may include one or more adult literacy providers or higher education institutions. For example, a college may choose, for a variety of reasons, to work with two or more community literacy providers in need of tutors. Reasons may be that (1) one literacy provider may not need 15 new tutors in a single semester or (2) two tutoring options offer college students opportunities to work with different learning needs, in different teaching formats, or at different locations and times.

Conversely, an adult literacy provider may opt to work with more than one higher education institution. Small private colleges or community colleges may be very interested in being a partner, but may not have a large enough pool of potential college students to successfully recruit 30 participants. However, each of two colleges may elect to offer the Literacy Corps course once an academic year or two colleges may choose to work together to offer a Literacy Corps course that enrolls college student from both institutions.

Tutoring Activities

Programs must be designed to serve local literacy needs. With the help of Literacy Corps tutors:

• Adult literacy agencies can provide adult learners who are already enrolled in literacy programs with more individualized or intensive services.

• Adult literacy agencies can increase the number of adults being served by enrolling new learners to work with Literacy Corps tutors.

Adult Learners

The target adult learner population must be identified and recruited for participation in the program. Adult learning needs must be assessed and conveyed to tutors. Based on their learners' needs, Literacy Corps tutors should be guided in developing short-term goals with clear educational objectives that can be met within the 40 hours they are going to work with their adult learner. Adult literacy providers should help college student tutors understand specific adult learning needs and provide tutors with ongoing assistance and support.

Tutoring Placements

Literacy Corps college students are required to volunteer a minimum of 40 hours of tutoring. Tutors may be placed in situations where they can provide literacy support that is supplemental to ongoing adult basic and literacy education programs. They can work with individual learners or small groups of learners. They can work consistently with one learner or they may work with more than one learner. Tutors may also be placed with learners who are recruited for the Literacy Corps program.

Many Literacy Corps tutors volunteer many more hours than they are required to do, choosing to remain with their learners until they have reached their goals; however, care must be taken to avoid a disruption in an adult learner's education when their original college student tutor is no longer available. Program staff need to develop and put into place a system to ensure that learners have ongoing and consistent instructional support; for example, tutors can maintain learner logs to pass on to the next tutor to make the transition smooth. Changing tutors after 40 hours is not necessarily a bad thing, many learners enjoy having a new tutor who explains things a little differently, and often learners experience renewed motivation with the enthusiasm of a new tutor. In special cases literacy providers may need other types of literacy support that college students can provide or there may be a situation where a college student can best be used to support adult literacy in another capacity. These situations must be reviewed and approved by Sheila Sherow.Tutors may also be placed in CareerLink Centers, but please check with Sheila to ensure that program requirements are being met.

Tutor Safety

The safety of all Literacy Corps participants is of uppermost importance and must be carefully considered and addressed. Policies must be developed and clearly communicated and enforced to ensure that both tutors and learners are provided with safe tutoring situations and conditions.

1. Literacy Corps college students should not tutor in a learner's home. Arrangements should be made for tutoring to take place in a public place.

2. Times and locations for tutoring should take into consideration the safety of both tutors and learners as they travel to and from tutoring sessions.

3. Literacy Corps tutors should not give learners their home addresses or telephone numbers. A public telephone number should be provided for communication between tutors and learners.

4. Literacy Corps tutors should not loan money to their learners, nor should they borrow money. Tutors should be prepared to make appropriate referrals or should be instructed as to the person they should contact if learners have financial needs.

5. Literacy Corps tutors should not provide transportation for or accept rides from learners. Transportation issues should be taken care of by program staff.

6. Tutors should have emergency numbers to call if a problem should arise.

Tutor Ethics

Volunteer ethics should be a part of tutor training and should include the following.

1. The role of the tutor and boundaries of a tutoring relationship.

2. Privacy and confidentiality issues.

3. Maintaining professionalism.

4. Dangers of giving personal advice or counseling learners.

Long-Term Commitment to Literacy

Higher education institutions and literacy providers are expected to maintain records of tutoring hours and other adult literacy service activities contributed by Literacy Corps college students for a minimum of one year. This information is to be submitted to Sheila Sherow.

The PA Literacy Corps Course

The PA Literacy Corps course must be developed and offered twice a program year.

• The course must fully prepare college students for tutoring and include any specialized tutor training necessary to serve the needs of adult learners.

All Literacy Corps courses must equip college students with the knowledge and skills needed to be well-trained tutors and must require students to volunteer a minimum of 40 hours of tutoring. However, the course varies in other ways among higher education institutions. Some colleges offer the Literacy Corps course as an undergraduate course; others offer it as a graduate or continuing education course.

Most programs offer the course in a traditional classroom setting, while an increasing number of programs are offering students an opportunity to take the Literacy Corps course online. The online course provides nontraditional college students with an opportunity to take the course at times and places that fit within their work and family responsibilities.

The course can be housed in a variety of college departments including English, health and human development, family studies, sociology, psychology, communications, business, and political science, as well as elementary, secondary, and adult education. Regardless of how or where it is offered, the Literacy Corps course must be designed with input from the adult literacy partner. As such, each program customizes its own course to meet the specific learning needs of its Literacy Corps college students, which are largely dictated by the adult learner population to be served; for example, if college students will be tutoring English as Second Language learners, the course must provide them with a background in second language acquisition. Consequently, course content varies to some degree among colleges and universities, but all Literacy Corps courses prepare college students for tutoring with an understanding of adult learning theory and adult literacy issues and equip them with tutoring skills.

Class sessions should allow time for college students to engage in group discussions and problem solving. College students should understand learner privacy issues and maintain confidentiality during group discussions.

It is not the intent of the Literacy Corps model to recruit college students from any course offered on campus to participate as volunteer tutors; Literacy Corps tutors must be trained in a specific Literacy Corps course designated for this purpose. Literacy Corps courses may be adapted from existing courses or may be developed as new courses.

Although it is hoped that Literacy Corps courses include recent research on adult literacy issues and methods, Literacy Corps tutors should not be instructed or allowed to use adult learners as subjects for their own research projects. The role of the Literacy Corps tutor is to provide literacy services to adult learners.

Suggested Course Outline

It is recommended that Literacy Corps courses follow a course outline similar to the one that follows. It is essential that the initial topics be covered (items 1 through 10), but the inclusion of the remaining topics depends upon the tutoring situations in which college students will be placed.

1. Introduction of the Literacy Corps program and model.

2. Definitions of literacy and basic skills, and descriptions of adult basic and literacy education programs.

3. Program expectations and policies in terms of the 40-hour tutoring requirement, paperwork and reporting, and Goal Attainment Scaling.

4. Tutor ethics and safety, including referral and emergency numbers.

5. An orientation by local literacy provider, to include an overview of the adult literacy agency's mission, goals, and services, as well as the needs of the adult learners it serves.

6. Specialized tutor training provided by the literacy agency.

7. Adult learner needs and adult learning theory.

8. Adult education instructional methods, how to teach adults basic skills.

9. Setting short and long-term learning goals for tutoring.

10. Assessing learner progress as an integral part of tutoring, Goal Attainment Scaling.

11. Workforce and workplace literacy issues, and an explanation of the CareerLink System as it relates to adult learners and employment.

12. Family literacy programs and the intergenerational transfer of literacy.

13. English as a Second Language needs and issues.

14. Literacy as it relates to social issues, such as health care and aging.

15. Special topics such as: literacy and technology, literacy and welfare reform, and literacy and corrections education.

Recruiting College Students

Recruiting college students is a primary responsibility of higher education partners. Eligible college students include undergraduate, graduate, returning adult, and continuing education students. Most higher education institutions require students to pre-register for courses a semester in advance. As such, successful recruitment strategies plan ahead instead of relying on a last-minute registration period at the beginning of the semester. The following suggestions are strategies that have proven to be effective.

1. Make a recruitment plan.

• Ask current and past Literacy Corps students, as well as other college students, for recruiting suggestions, they know the target population, the campus, and the best avenues for publicizing the course.

2. Try to structure the Literacy Corps class so that it satisfies some type of graduation requirement, a community service requirement, practicum or internship requirement, required writing course, etc.

3. The most powerful recruitment strategies involve word-of-mouth or peer recommendations. Current or past Literacy Corps college students are the best bet for recruiting new students.

• Get them involved in speaking to groups of students.

• Some programs have actually engaged a past Literacy Corps student as a student coordinator, often paid by work study funds.

4. Identify all the different college departments, academic majors, and special groups on campus that have an interest in community service or related topics such as literacy, adult education, workplace literacy, family literacy, prison literacy, etc.

• Talk with faculty and students from these different disciplines about Literacy Corps and how their involvement in the program could help them attain their goals and provide them with very valuable experiential learning opportunities that support their areas of interest.

• Don't be afraid to take recruitment efforts beyond education departments; many Literacy Corps programs have established strong programs within psychology, business administration, social work, criminal justice, sociology, and other academic areas.

• Try to identify and meet with service organizations, fraternities, and sororities on campus.

5. Involve the adult literacy partner in short presentations to college classes or groups about the importance of adult literacy and how Literacy Corps helps solve problems resulting from illiteracy.

6. College student advisors are very important to the success of recruiting efforts and must be made aware of the benefits of the Literacy Corps course and experience; emphasize the value of community service on a student's resume.

7. Develop and implement a literacy awareness campaign on campus. Feature community literacy providers, create awareness of community literacy problems, and publicize the need for well-trained volunteers.

8. Teachers who must earn Act 48 credits may be interested in taking the Literacy Corps course. The course can explore the intergenerational transfer of literacy and the tutoring experience offers an opportunity to work with learners with special learning needs.

• Adult literacy has a very strong connection to early childhood, elementary, and secondary education, as parents are the first and most powerful teachers of their children.

• Emphasize family literacy research that consistently indicates that (1) the educational attainment levels of parents are indicators of their children's academic achievement, (2) parents reading to children is the single most important activity contributing to school success, (3) illiteracy tends to be intergenerational, (4) educational interventions at the school level have limited impact when not supported at home, and (5) parental involvement in children's education is a key factor in academic success.

• Another perspective is that of why or how students fail to learn. What can teachers learn about teaching and learning from adults who failed to learn while in school?

If you are having difficulty recruiting college students, try to identify the barriers and work to resolve them. If you believe it's the number of hours involved:

1. Try reducing the credit hours of the course to reduce the number of hours spent in the classroom. However, you must maintain the 40-hour tutoring requirement.

2. Try to offer flexibility in scheduling tutoring time.

3. Offer a variety of opportunities to fulfill the 40-hour tutoring requirement, such as combinations of one-on-one tutoring and working with small groups of learners.

If you believe it's the cost of taking the course:

1. Try reducing the credit hours of the course, which will reduce the tuition.

2. Offer the course through continuing education, which is often less expensive.

3. Take advantage of the grant to pay no more than one-half the tuition college students must pay to take the course.

• This is an option only if grant funds are not being used to pay the course instructor.

• This is only appropriate when students must pay tuition by the credit or course, as opposed to paying a semester's general tuition.

Tutoring Placements

Tutoring placements should be a shared responsibility of partners and should take into consideration the interests and circumstances of college students.

• College students must be placed in tutoring situations that are appropriate given the training they receive, the limitations of their schedules, and the needs of community literacy providers and adult learners.

• Attention must be given to transportation needs and safety issues related to times and locations of tutoring sessions.

• Alternative literacy service activities should be planned and available in the event that an adult learner misses a tutoring session. Conversely, policies and procedures for rescheduling tutoring sessions should be set for college students who have to cancel due to sickness or other unavoidable circumstances. Supervision and monitoring of service activities should be a shared responsibility of partners. It is important that college students have ongoing on-site supervision and that they are provided with emergency telephone numbers if they are meeting at times or in places where or when a supervisor is not on-site.

PARTICIPANT ASSESSMENT AND PROGRAM EVALUATION

Literacy Corps programs are required to monitor, measure, and report the attainment of program goals, including:

• Adult learner gains resulting from Literacy Corps tutoring.

• The number of college students recruited and trained as tutors.

• The number of hours of tutoring provided by college students.

• College student performance as tutors.

Program Evaluation

Literacy Corps programs will be evaluated based on the following:

1. Attainment of contracted number of tutors.

2. Tutors trained according to program guidelines.

3. Engagement of tutors for a minimum of 40 hours, with a significant volunteering more than the required 40 hours.

4. Adult literacy gains resulting from Literacy Corps tutoring.

Program evaluation will also incorporate:

1. Indicators of Program Quality IPQ

• IPQs are designed to evaluate program operations and services. Program staff should routinely use the IPQs to conduct self-assessments.

2. Adapted Teacher Competencies

• The teacher competencies have been adapted to fit the role of Literacy Corps tutors.

• Staff can used the competencies to evaluate tutor performance.

• Tutors should be encouraged to conduct self-assessments using the competencies.