AmeriCorps Literacy Tutoring to K-5th Grade Students Program at DMPS Elementary Schools

During the 2018-2019 school year, AmeriCorps members provided evidence-based Lexia Reading Core5 tutoring to at-risk K-5 students in 29 Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) that were struggling to achieve or maintain reading proficiency. The Lexia Reading Core5 is an evidence-based, personalized, and technology-based intervention that supports academic instruction and student learning.

Study Goals:

The goal of the study was to assess potential beneficial influences of the AmeriCorps members’ services on students’ individual academic growth and the school-student support system.

Research Questions:

The research questions were:

• Do students receiving the AmeriCorps intervention:
  • Demonstrate growth in reading proficiency that differs from students who do not receive intervention services?
  • Demonstrate reading proficiency growth that differs from same-grade students who do not receive intervention services but attend schools where AmeriCorps services were provided to other grades?
• Does school year reading growth among students who receive AmeriCorps member intervention:
  • Differ systematically from semester/school year reading growth among students who do not receive AmeriCorps intervention service?
  • Differ systematically as a function of how much AmeriCorps service students receive?
• Do schools with AmeriCorps members providing services demonstrate higher student proficiency in reading and provide increased benefits to students in comparison to schools without AmeriCorps service members?
• Do characteristics of AmeriCorps members or the modality of service delivery influence the effectiveness of member services on student literacy?

Findings:

The evaluation found the following:

• The extent of reading proficiency growth was approximately consistent across schools, whether the school had an AmeriCorps service member or not; however, increases in intervention frequency reduced proficiency deficits among students who received support services.
• Overwhelming evidence of added benefit to schools due to AmeriCorps service was less compelling due largely to limitations on school-level programming and support data and, more importantly, to relatively little variance in reading proficiency growth across buildings.

For more information, download the full report.