The mission of the Alexandria Tutoring Consortium is to provide a foundation for future learning success by helping ensure that first and second graders in the Alexandria City Public Schools can read at or above grade level by the end of second grade.

Tutors' work with students will be guided by an approach that will engage the children in reading, discussion, and basic writing activities.

• Congregation or organization based coordinator will promote the program in your community.
• Each school's volunteer coordinator will match tutors/partners with a child's schedule.
• School administrators, classroom teachers, and school reading specialists will work with the school volunteer coordinators to identify and schedule students for tutoring.
• A pre-assessment instrument will be used to aid in the selection of students to be tutored and as a pre-test/post-test measure.
• Tutoring materials will be selected by Alexandria City Public Schools and, if necessary, purchased using ATC and/or ACPS funds.
• Training for beginning and returning tutors will be provided by ACPS central office staff.

• Tutoring sessions will be 30 minutes in length with each identified student receiving tutoring 1 or 2 times per week. Two tutors can partner to ensure the two sessions will be met.
• Tutoring will be one-to-one and will focus on reading and the student's oral and written response to books selected specifically for the emergent reader. This program will supplement the classroom instructional time devoted to reading.
• A tutoring session will include:
  Brief time for socializing between the student and the tutor;
  Book reading guided by basic comprehension questions;
  The production of a brief, simple written response to the reading.
• Qualifications: Love of reading and love of children
• All tutors will be provided with appropriate orientation by the school coordinator and classroom teacher.

• There are several hundred first- and second-grade children in the Alexandria City Public Schools who are "at-risk" of not being able to read at grade level by third grade.
• Research shows that if students do not "learn to read" by the end of third grade they will have difficulty "reading to learn" in fourth grade and beyond.
• First-graders who receive intensive, targeted intervention, even those who have the most difficulty reading, can reach grade-level reading by the end of second grade. With early intervention, more than 90% of children can read at grade level, or better!

• In the first ten years of the program (1997-2007), over 800 students benefited from receiving tutoring through the Alexandria Tutoring Consortium.
• Results of testing have consistently shown that of the students who participated in the Tutoring Program and who were tested, all improved.