Abstract

The America Reads program at the University of Utah has 37 Federal Work Study (FWS) tutors (2002) serving in three Salt Lake City, Utah, elementary schools. An AmeriCorps member serves as a site coordinator at each school. The program director has put together a packet that includes the forms, materials, and resources that the site coordinators need to effectively run their programs. The information is also provided on a CD-ROM, so coordinators can make site-specific modifications and updates. The packet has improved management and reporting. Submitted by Toni Sage, Program Director University of Utah America Reads and Dean DeSantis, LEARNS.

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Issue

One of the tasks of an America Reads site coordinator is to provide reports, schedules, and other forms to the program director, tutors, and school staff, but site coordinators have varying access to technology and organizational skills. Due to this discrepancy, the creation, presentation, and interpretation of these forms was causing confusion and frustration. In addition, the coordinators in this particular program are AmeriCorps members and the yearly turnover causes further confusion.

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Action

The program director of the University of Utah's America Reads program has put together a packet that includes the forms, materials, and resources site coordinators need to effectively run their programs. Materials include everything from the mission statement and partnership criteria and agreement to timesheets, schedules, tutor request forms, lesson plan records, assessments, and training materials. This information is also provided on a CD-Rom, should coordinators ever need to make site-specific modifications to the forms or print out fresh originals to copy. The packets and the CD also contain samples of each form so that the coordinator clearly understands how they should be completed. This helps to standardize the reporting and makes for easier compilation.

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Context

The University of Utah's America Reads program currently has 37 Federal Work Study (FWS) tutors serving in three Salt Lake City elementary schools. At each elementary school an AmeriCorps member serves as the site coordinator, acting as the liaison between the school and the program. The coordinator is responsible for creating tutoring schedules and reporting on program activities. The University of Utah America Reads program is also part of a local consortium of America Reads initiatives working to promote literacy in the Salt Lake Valley. Other partners include Salt Lake Community College, Westminster College, Salt Lake City School District, Granite School District, AmeriCorps*VISTA and AmeriCorps - Salt Lake County Reads and Promotes Service, Bridges and Foster Grandparents.

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Outcome

The school partners experience a smoother transition from year to year as the AmeriCorps members change. Members can now focus on getting to know their site, teachers, students, and tutors rather than struggling to get organized and creating forms and materials from scratch each year. The program director has noticed a decrease in the number of questions she gets from coordinators on how to complete reporting forms, as well as a general streamlining of the reporting process.

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Posted On

February 21, 2002

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For More Information

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Related Practices

• Recording members' hours using a customized timesheet
• Creating a meaningful evaluation report

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Related sites

Topic Areas

• Tutoring
• Supervision
• Training
• Nonprofit management
• Partnerships
• School-community partnerships
• Sustainability
• AmeriCorps
• Program Director
• Program Manager
• Project Director
• Volunteer Coordinator
• Schools
• AmeriCorps
• Program management
• LEARNS

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