Literacy for the community, by the community

Literacy is a significant challenge in the U.S. and its territories, especially in low income communities where use of English language is non-standard. Wedeveloped the Actual Community Empowerment (ACE) Reading program for students at risk in such communities. ACE is a small-group tutoring program to support fluency, word recognition and decoding, and comprehension at the best pace of learning for individual, struggling readers. It has several variations (e.g., for different ages, different uses of technology), depending on local needs and resources. The program has been successfully implemented in 40 locations from Philadelphia to Pohnpei, with a 95% success rate for significant reading improvement. ACE tutors are community paraprofessionals or school students with backgrounds similar to the children who receive tutoring. In the first major section of this paper, the ACE Reading Program is described and empirical research demonstrating the benefits of the program for students' literacy is reviewed. The second major section presents preliminary qualitative research evidence that paraprofessional tutors progress through recognizable stages toward increased professionalism. Recommendations for future research are provided.