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Analyzing Effective and Frustrated Program Implementation
Of the initial trainees at the August 1997 Tutoring and Mentoring session in Silver Spring, Maryland, several seemed to be particularly "empowered" to go home and immediately begin tutoring projects. The majority, however, were stalled in their attempts. In the next two chapters, I look at two participants who initiated tutoring projects before the end of the year. What aspects combined to cause their effectiveness? In a third chapter, I also paint a composite picture of the frustrations encountered by those who were not as successful in making things happen. Obviously, the reasons for eventual success or frustration in an endeavor such as setting up a tutoring project are as varied as the people and their circumstances. But, trying to dissect the various components of implementation against a common backdrop may prove to be helpful to everyone interested and/or involved.
In chapter 2, I reviewed the literature about tutoring projects in general and literacy tutoring projects in particular. Based on my readings, I isolated the characteristics of successful programs and organized these characteristics in a matrix based on a graphic by Ambrose (1987) titled, "Managing Complex Change" where five major components crucial to implementing change in a program are identified. In this framework, all five components–vision, skills, incentives, resources, and action plans–must be present if change is to occur. Since implementing a new tutoring project can mean a great amount of change to those involved, I felt that this organizer would be appropriate and helpful in analyzing the experiences of the participants at the August 1997 Tutoring and Mentoring seminar in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Using a conceptual framework as described above is useful according to Miles and Huberman (1984a) who rhetorically ask:
What orienting ideas does the researcher–even one with a strongly inductive or hermeneutical bent–bring to the inquiry? We have found that making such initial frames explicit, usually in the form of a simple graphic structure of major variables with arrows showing relationships between them, substantially aids focus. (p. 25)

Arnold, the Visionary
Background
As I have pondered the reasons why only a few of the trainees have found success in setting up tutoring projects, I realize that those who were immediately effective already had key elements in place prior to attending the training. Through previous training or experience, because of current job status, and/or due to personal strengths and gifts, these effective leaders took what they already had and utilized it to design effective programs. Arnold's story is a particularly potent example of this "coming together" of complementary factors.
An extremely talented and gifted pastor and educator, Arnold Trujillo (Arnold requested that I use his actual name) came to the August training with somewhat of an agenda already in place. He is the "father" of L.E.A.R.N., an organization whose acronym stands for Latino Educational Advancement and Research Now Resource Center and Foundation. L.E.A.R.N. is a network of Latino professionals which seeks to improve the educational attainment of Latino youth. Arnold has enlisted the help and commitment of dozens of professionals in numerous fields, all who have a common interest in the advancement of the Latino community. One of the original goals of the strategic plan set forth in early 1996 was to "establish church-school collaboratives to support a tutoring/mentoring program based at the local church for students K-12" (Data File, p. 151). Arnold's background is Hispanic. His family has lived in the American Southwest for hundreds of years. He has served the Hispanic community as a pastor in several different churches since the early 1980s. He is very familiar with the needs of this cultural group. Arnold's deep concern for his people and his own personal experience prompted him to organize L.E.A.R.N. In an electronic mail memo sent to key leaders connected with the Latino community around the country, Arnold passionately spelled out his vision for the organization he proposed to start:
I believe that what is needed now and will be more acutely needed in the future is compassionate, educated, courageous, committed and visionary leaders who will be mentors. We need leaders who are winsome but not wimps. We need leaders who are bridges and bridge-builders who can span the racial and linguistic diversity of modern America and forge a unity grounded not on sameness but on respect for America's multicultural reality. . . . Where can we find such leaders? They are already among us. They are our children. They are in our Sabbath Schools, Pathfinder clubs, and Sociedad de Jovenes youth organizations. They are also in the community, as yet undiscovered. Admittedly these leaders-to-be are immature and lacking in education and training. That is our challenge. We must immediately begin to develop the human resources we have among us. (Data File, p. 142)
It was with this passionate vision that Arnold attended the August 1997 Tutoring and Mentoring workshop. He had been personally invited and encouraged to attend the workshop by Jose Rojas, who also has a Hispanic background. During the workshop, Arnold realized that L.E.A.R.N. could effectively adopt the America Reads/SMILIES agenda as its primary vehicle for delivering tutoring and mentoring services to Hispanic churches. He admits that, at first, the goals of the training and the initiative were somewhat unclear and lacked integration. But as the training week proceeded, Arnold began to catch a vision for what could be done. On Thursday afternoon of that week, Arnold voiced his enthusiasm about the project to the entire group of trainees:
This curriculum, I think, that is being provided for us is far superior to anything that is out there. We have absolutely nothing to be concerned about. I believe that by us hitting the street first, by us doing serious research evaluative criteria first, we are going to be leading the rest of the public agencies. They are going to be coming to us and saying, "What are you doing? How is it going? What are you learning? How are you training your volunteers for tutoring? What kind of results are you getting there?" I think that those of us who are taking this training at this stage of the game–we are way ahead of the game from many other agencies who won't be establishing sites for another year or so. We are responding to this national initiative within 90 days. That's unheard of! That's totally unheard of! And if there are some glitches that we have because the presentations this week have not been totally integrated it is only because we are trying to hit the ground running first. I think the next time that this is offered it will be far more integrated. (Data File, p. 123)

Arnold took this enthusiasm, his desire to "hit the street first," home with him. Immediately following the Tutoring and Mentoring seminar in Silver Spring, Jose Rojas came to the southern California area to speak at a youth camp only 2 hours from Arnold's home. Because Arnold had some other minor business to take care of with Rojas, he drove to the camp to meet him. When Arnold saw the approximately 600 young people there, he challenged Rojas saying, "Jose, here are all the kids. Make a call for volunteers. I just came in from training. You know that. I'll train them. I'll be responsible for training–you call them" (Data File, p. 88). And Rojas did, resulting in approximately 200 young people from 40 different churches making commitments to offer their services as volunteers.
Now, according to Arnold, "the ball was in my court" (Data File, p. 89). He immediately contacted a friend of his, Suzanne, who is a teacher in an Adventist school in the area. She and Arnold together invited several other people, some of whom were teachers, to gather the next weekend and begin making plans for training sessions. They made abbreviated training guides condensed from various parts of the SMILIES manual. Each person there was assigned a pathway (the SMILIES jargon for one of the seven intelligences as defined by Gardner, 1983) to present at the first training session for volunteers, held at the Spanish-American Church on September 28, 1997.
About 100 volunteers came to the first training session. In a phone conversation I had with him the next day, Arnold stated that he was deeply impressed with the commitment and enthusiasm of the volunteers in attendance (Data File, pp. 125-126). Two weeks later, on October 11, 1997, Arnold sponsored a rally where Special Advisor to President Clinton, Flo McAffee, spoke to most of the 200 original volunteers, challenging them to continue giving themselves in service to their community (Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1997). He offered a verbal message to be relayed through McAffee to President Clinton, stating a local commitment to "tutoring/mentoring–on a one-to-one basis–at least one child, twice every week" (p. 6). Later Arnold had the opportunity to share with her details about the project he had initiated, remarking to me later that McAffee was "totally overwhelmed" (Data File, p. 90).
In the late fall of 1997, Arnold was offered the position of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty associate director in the Pacific Union Conference. He accepted the position, but it necessitated that he move his base of operations to Sacramento, California, several hours to the north. His new office is giving him a unique platform to promote the America Reads effort throughout the Union. But his ability to coordinate the tutoring efforts in southern California has been severely hampered since he returns to the area only once every 2 weeks for the weekend. Arnold is placing the supervision responsibilities in the hands of Suzanne, L.E.A.R.N. vice president for training and curriculum.
At the time of this writing, two other tutoring sites in the Los Angeles area are also functioning, one at Norwalk Adventist Bilingual Church and the other at Baldwin Park Bilingual Adventist Church. The coordinators at each site were trained by Arnold, and he checks on their progress occasionally. I interviewed the key people at each of the three sites in mid-February 1998 to examine critical components of successful literacy tutoring programs as delineated by the conceptual framework described earlier.

Critical Components of Tutoring Programs
Vision
It can hardly be said that Arnold is a man without a vision. When he decides to do something, little stands in his way as he presses forward. Arnold still holds the "record" for being the person responsible for moving the single largest structure from one location to another in the city of Los Angeles. As pastor of a large bilingual church who was considering building on another location they had acquired, Arnold suggested that they move their existing structure instead. He coordinated thousands of man-hours of work as the building was cut in three pieces, moved, and reassembled on their new location. Arnold has calculated that they saved well over $1million as a result.
Arnold spoke often of his vision for tutoring projects in our conversations.
Whatever denomination that carries the name of Jesus, who works in the way that he did ministering to the needs of the people, should be doing these kinds of things, especially for the little ones, especially for that time in their lives when their whole life is being shaped by the success or failure in these most important of skills: reading, and writing, and English. Most important for their whole life, future life. So, I think that this is, I believe in what is a being done through America Reads, I believe it with all my heart and I believe that it really should be a part of every church's array of services. It doesn't have to be the exclusive service, but it should be a part of the array of services that is provided to the community, to the families of the school, to the children of the school. (Data File, pp. 90-91)

The passion expressed above was a part of Arnold's thinking long before America Reads was initiated by President Clinton. As he became familiar with the details of the Adventist commitment at the August 1997 Tutoring and Mentoring seminar, the vision began to solidify:
Once I understood America Reads, and once I saw the excellent curriculum, an excellent game plan, I saw that there would be great benefits for L.E.A.R.N. to adopt America Reads as its primary vehicle for delivering tutoring and mentoring services to churches, in the churches. (Data File, p. 84)

Clear Mission and Goals Expressed
The Tutoring and Mentoring Handbook (Sahlin, 1997) clearly defines the overarching mission and goals of the North American Division-sponsored project. Commenting about his formal introduction to these guiding principles Arnold states:
I went to Silver Spring, took the training end of August, and was introduced to that manual and to the excellent work and video that had been done to help us. And I was very, very grateful for that because that provided the content, that provided the game plan, that provided a curriculum and the how to's–what do you do when you have the children in front of you? (Data File, p. 83)

Jose Rojas, speaking about "Service With an Attitude" (Data File, pp. 123-124), was the first to challenge the large group of young people in the Los Angeles area to service at the Cedar Falls youth camp in late August 1997. Arnold's purpose in sponsoring Flo McAffee's visit to the tutors-in-training several weeks later was to impart a vision for service in general and for the America Reads initiative in particular. The sheer numbers of volunteers they recruited point to the effectiveness of this vision planting. At each of the gatherings, the specific goals of the YouthNet project were explained in detail.
Arnold began by working with a core group of about eight people, most of whom were teachers. His plan was to "replicate himself" in these key leaders (Data File, p. 123). At their initial meeting on September 21, 1997, he "explain[ed ]the program and the vision" (Data File, p. 124). Together, they set goals and made specific plans for the next phases of the training.
Juan, the coordinator at the Spanish-American site, discussed the need for setting specific goals in their program:
We have to define our goals, we have to define a very specific goal, let's say, let's have 50 kids by the end of the summer. . . . The main question they ask, tutors ask, ok, when are we going to stop this? If we, let's say it would take a kid from first level to fourth level, and he is ready, we have to stop somewhere. Those things are not very clear, and we need to work on that. (Data File, p. 117)

Clear Expectations of Volunteers
It is true that some things "are not very clear" as Juan confesses. The programs at these three sites had been operating only a short while at the time of my interview. Details about some aspects of their programs were being clarified as they continued to offer services. Evidently, there was clarity enough for volunteers to commit to the programs. Marcos, the coordinator at the Norwalk site, had 25 tutors who had received training (Data File, p. 93), Sylvia at Baldwin Park had 12 (Data File, p. 104), and Juan at Spanish-American has 11 active tutors, but over 20 are on the rolls (Data File, p. 117). The coordinators all expressed various general expectations of their volunteers that were mostly a part of their action plans, things having to do with schedules, lesson content, and student load.

Skills
My first interaction with Arnold was at the Tutoring and Mentoring seminar in Silver Spring. During the first morning of our presentation about the SMILIES reading materials, we asked the participants to work in groups on a task. I noted that they seemed a little shy about working together, even though this was the fourth day of the seminar. As I circulated, I asked Arnold if this was the first time the participants had been asked to work in groups. As I recall, Arnold said, "Yes, brother. I asked Jose just last night if he realized that lecturing is the most inefficient form of instruction, because all we've had for three days is lecturing." Immediately, I began to form an opinion that this man had a unique grasp of things associated with education and what it takes to implement successful projects.
And I was correct in my assessment. In my conversations with Arnold, he is usually overflowing with enthusiasm, but not the kind of enthusiasm that is unrealistic. As the seminar in Silver Spring was coming to a close, I asked the participants to share in writing what concerns they had about implementing a literacy tutoring project such as what we had proposed with the SMILIES program. Arnold candidly stated, "I am not sure that volunteers will be able to reach a level of competence that will enable them to utilize this program effectively" (Data File, p. 72). But this did not thwart him from pressing ahead. Within a few days of making that statement, Arnold had committed to training the 200 volunteers who stepped forward at the Cedar Falls Youth Camp just outside of Los Angeles.

Ongoing Training and Supervision of Volunteers
I indicated above that successful tutoring projects provide quality initial and ongoing training for volunteer tutors. A few weekends after making the commitment to train the 200 volunteers, Arnold met with a core group of eight volunteers, mostly educators, planning training sessions for the larger group. The initial plan was to provide regular, possibly monthly, inservice events for the volunteers. In my notes from a telephone conversation I had with Arnold on September 19, 1997, I wrote, "He sees the key element in the training as the continuing technical support by key teachers he has trained as opposed to the training event itself" (Data File, p. 125). This is evident in Arnold's organizational strategy.
I also noted the content of the training the group proposed:
Their strategy is to have the tutors leave each monthly session with 2 lesson plans that they can go out and implement immediately. Their inservice will cover two "methods" to use with each pathway. They plan to purchase a training manual and Keep Books™ for every sight. . . . During the sessions, he plans on doing two things–tutor trainees will observe those who are already trained as they work with children, and they will work with the tutor trainees in the use of the manual. (Data File, p. 124)

As noted above, Arnold took a new position in the conference that necessitated his being away from the Southern California area for most of the time. But this did not mean that tutoring sites were not established. Even with the few training sessions that were held, three sites were in operation at the time of my visit, with several more in various stages of planning. At these sites, the coordinators provided their own training based on the model that Arnold and his core group had proposed.
At the Norwalk site, Marcos, the coordinator, provided initial training for his tutors with plans to continue regular training sessions on a biweekly basis. Speaking of his training, Marcos said:
We intend to have every other Sunday training which, what we use basically is the kit that we received. And so, we set our site at our church–a little room with a VCR. We just watched the video for about two hours. And right after that we just go ahead and just start. I guess it's like learn as you go. At the same time we have a teacher, Alex. He goes ahead and he helps us in any places we get stuck–we are able to call him. But there are other times when he is there and he goes ahead and helps. (Data File, p. 92)

In addition to Alex, the wife of the local pastor, who is also a kindergarten teacher, acts as a consultant for individual tutors who have questions. She was one of Arnold's original group of eight teachers who worked with him to develop the abbreviated manual and the first large-group training sessions.
At the Baldwin Park site, the coordinators attended the two initial training sessions which Arnold organized at the Spanish-American Church. Then they organized a local training session for tutors in one of their homes (Data File, p. 105).
All coordinators mentioned the importance of local "experts" on whom they depend for insight and advice. They are a vital part of the ongoing training scenario that Arnold has envisioned:
I think that involvement of a teacher in the ongoing program has enabled them to get immediate feedback, and support and training for the tutors. It's my guess that's going to be an element of an ongoing successful program. . . . We are learning, and even though everything is not cut and dry, we are developing the body of experience that we are going to share with one another and then we will be stronger. We're going to be working on ongoing training for the tutors, because that is an arena where you just have to keep on including, keep on strengthening, and keep on sharing. And the newsletter as well as the on-sight supervision by Suzanne or other teachers, ‘cause we're going to recruit other teachers, to help us in this, hopefully, will give us a quality program and the support that the young people who are actually doing the tutoring need and want. (Data File, pp. 118-119)

On-site observations and videotaping sessions are also part of the ongoing training plan, as Arnold explained to Juan at the Spanish-American site:

We're hoping to come around and videotape you one of these times. Hopefully we're coming back in a month or so, so we can capture on tape what you are actually doing because that will be a real encouragement to others as well. . . . We'll have some of their tutors come over and help get over this fear of "what am I going to do?" Come over and observe and then go back and do it. And maybe from . . . other churches, so we'll have these models where people can come and see, and get over their fear, and then go back and implement and jump in and do it. (Data File, p. 120)

Training for Leaders on Recruitment and
Retention of Volunteers

At the original seminar held in Silver Spring, Arnold and the rest of the participants received the Handbook for Community-Based Tutoring & Mentoring Projects (Sahlin, 1997). Chapter 8 in the Handbook is titled "Recruit Volunteers." This chapter was discussed by Sandra Brown, project coordinator, during one session at the training seminar.
None of the site coordinators working under Arnold in the Los Angeles area mentioned whether this had been part of the original training they received. I suspect that it was not, although the problem of volunteer recruitment/retention came up several times in my interviews with them. Marcos at Norwalk, who uses primarily high school students, needs more tutors partly because of the sheer numbers of children they have been getting.
Some of the tutors went back to school, and we lost some tutors, but we haven't lost any students, so that's our main objective right now, to get more tutors. Ok, so we're working on that right now. We were thinking about involving other churches . . . (Data File, p. 94)

Incentives
The coordinators at each site frequently referred to the underlying reasons why they chose to volunteer in a program such as this. As to whether these reasons are primarily egoistic or altruistic, it is hard to decipher. Desiring to help a struggling child is a selfless act, but the tutors frequently talked about the positive feelings it evoked in them. Marcos at Norwalk talked about how working with children affects him.
It gives an extra push through the week, because a lot of times we're so overwhelmed about where our own personal problems are, that when we go and study with a child it just gives us a new look at life, you know. (Data File, p. 100)

He also spoke of how it affects the high-school students who are the tutors at his site: "They keep on coming because of the satisfaction they get in learning with the child" (Data File, p. 92). Lauren, one of the assistant coordinators at Baldwin Park, said that she enjoys helping her mother, who is a teacher, in her classroom. "I thought maybe there's something that I can do to make a difference in a child's life. And that's what motivated me" (Data File, p. 111). Sylvia, another assistant at Baldwin Park, explains her motivations this way:
I really came on because I enjoy working with kids. Some people ask me "Why do you do it after work, when you're with them all day?" But I still enjoy it I want to help children, um, who need one on one . . . Another reason that I wanted to come on is to become active and involved in the church again. I have kinda' neglected the church, I have gotten burned out, burned out with my responsibilities, so I stepped down. I just had to get to the perfect work to come back. And so I come back, and now I am very happy. (Data File, p. 111)

Juan, the coordinator at Spanish-American, had many mixed motivations that he wanted to explain:
Well I think, um, there are so many reasons, but I think the main reason is that I believe as Christians we just need to serve our community or wherever is available or needed. In this I think we may have reached it. After God, I can mention so many others like personal satisfaction, because that is what it produces in your person after you helped someone. And last, um, I don't know, there are so many reasons, that I can't think of one. As a Christian, I believe this is the right thing to do. (Data File, p. 114)

Juan's assistant, Sheila, is motivated by the young people who come:

I enjoy working with kids, but I also enjoy working, I mean being supported by the church. I think it's a good idea. I think that I have a lot of motivation by seeing the kids, that they would come. At first, I was like, "No–the kids aren't gonna come," but when they started coming, I felt, "Ok, this is going to work!" So, that has been a motivation for me. I enjoy it. (Data File, p. 114)

Support From the Administrative Level
Arnold is working to establish a network of support through the L.E.A.R.N. organization through which support in the form of training, expertise, organization, and materials would flow to the tutoring projects. He sees it as his role to promote these projects to the various components of the Pacific Union, which include Adventist universities, departments of the Union, and individual churches. In my notes from a conversation I had with Arnold I state that
Arnold sees this as a "grass roots" effort. He is not interested in a top-down model. . . . He is going to work with the pastors of the volunteers. He'll ask them to provide a tutoring site, miscellaneous materials, and a $50 donation to pay for the administration of the program. Arnold rhetorically asks, "What pastor wouldn't see this as a wonderful opportunity?" (Data File, p. 125)

In my interview with Arnold, he talked again about L.E.A.R.N.'s responsibility to provide support of various kinds to the site coordinators:
We'll provide the material, we'll provide the training, and then you guys [the various sites] can start networking so you can learn from one another. . . . Suzanne who is the Vice President for L.E.A.R.N. for Training and Curriculum . . . is going to be the one who will be doing the ongoing training for the kids [tutors] here. (Data File, p. 87)

Marcos at Norwalk called the support from Arnold and L.E.A.R.N. "our backbone, to hold us together" (Data File, p. 96). This support provided by Arnold goes beyond the provision of materials and training for skills. He works to provide a substantial amount of encouragement and emotional support as well. I will expand upon this idea below.

Resources

Committed Tutors
Obviously, tutors are the primary resource in a literacy tutoring project. If children's lives are to be changed, impacted for the better, it will happen because of the workers on the "front lines." Arnold, being aware of this, encouraged Jose Rojas to "make a call for volunteers" at the appropriate time during the youth camp at Cedar Falls on Labor Day weekend (Data File, p. 88). This is where the majority of tutors working in the projects under Arnold's supervision first made a commitment to the America Reads initiative. Several others were recruited in different ways. Marcos put out a call for volunteers at his church and at a Bible study group (Data File, p. 92). Lauren, an assistant at Baldwin Park, volunteered because she saw a flyer about the project posted at the church and she wanted to help (Data File, p. 106). Sheila, who is Juan's assistant at the Spanish-American project, was drafted by Juan to help with the registration at the first training session. When she saw what was going on, and when Juan asked her directly if she wanted to tutor, she was eager to join (Data File, p. 113).
But what is it that causes tutors to remain committed? This question finds a partial answer in an interesting exchange I had with Arnold immediately after our interview with Marcos at the Norwalk project. In talking with him about Marcos and his brother-in-law, Ricardo (who is Marcos' assistant in the tutoring project), Arnold revealed his fatherly care for these young men:
I'm so pleased that they are into business and real estate, and I would encourage them to get more education and, uh, hopefully, in the foreseeable future, our church will have things education-wise, educational programs and services that they can access at an affordable price–I mean in terms of college degrees and other kinds of professional certification kinds of programs. Um, because this is target group right here, this is the group that I am trying–and the younger ones, the high schoolers. Because they are committed. There's something, you can tell, their hearts are soft or sensitive. They're responsive and they just don't want to–Marcos is a classic example–he not only wants to respond to the work of the Holy Spirit thus far, but he wants to do something with that. He wants to serve. That's why we gotta' equip them so that they can do that. And then, what better way than in their service? They are equipping others so they are duplicating themselves, they are replicating themselves with what is being shared with others. And the need is so great, the need is so great. [Marcos] is a very motivated young man, I mean he, and he's very intelligent; he's very bright. And he wants to, you know, he has ambition. . . . I love these young people, I'll tell you. I love them because they are so, so responsive. They really want to do something. (Data File, p. 102)

Possibly those who volunteer in these projects under Arnold's supervision sense his concern for not only the children, but also for them, the tutors and coordinators. Arnold is very generous with the approbation that he offers to these volunteers. This emotional support, which goes beyond basic kinds of support that one would expect in a program such as this, could be a major factor that causes these young people to volunteer and stay committed to the project.
Arnold frequently comments about the enthusiasm among his volunteer teachers and tutors. In my notes from telephone conversations with Arnold in the last few months of 1997 and the first part of 1998, I have made these comments:
Arnold says that he is excited, and that there is much excitement among his people. (Data File, p. 124)

Talked with Arnold Trujillo again. As always, he was very enthusiastic about how things are going with his program. . . . The people they are recruiting are really "pumped up." (Data File, pp. 124-125)

He is amazed at the motivation of the volunteer trainers he has recruited from the ranks of elementary school teachers who teach in Adventist schools in the area. They have made an ongoing commitment to be a resource to this tutoring project. Arnold asks himself why they are so enthusiastic, and then answers his question by suggesting that, for the first time, they are feeling very valued and that this project is worthwhile. They see it as a call from the President to serve in an effort that is national in its scope. They have an opportunity to use their training in a high-profile way. (Data File, p. 125)

Arnold's suspicions about the enthusiasm of the volunteers may be true but, in my assessment, his own excitement for the project and his validating of the efforts of the volunteers are possibly the key reasons for their positive feelings.

Qualified Faculty to Provide Support
In chapter 2 I indicated that most successful programs use support personnel that are, at best, educators who have special certification and training in reading instruction. Some projects utilize graduate reading-education students as coordinators, while others use trained volunteer coordinators who are overseen and supported by certified educators.
Arnold is, himself, a richly experienced educator:
My background is education. I have a master's degree in education, I've taught, I've been a vice principal, I've been a superintendent of schools, and I have doctoral work with studies in educational administration. (Data File, p. 85)
As a doctoral candidate at the University of California, his emphasis was in policy planning, organization theory, and research design. Even so, Arnold's first move after securing the 200 volunteers on Labor Day weekend at Cedar Falls was to gather around him eight other educators who expressed a willingness to help in the tutoring project. He placed one teacher, Suzanne, in charge of the continued training efforts that will be provided by L.E.A.R.N. With his recent reassignment to the Sacremento area, Arnold will rely heavily on her expertise in providing local educational support for the tutoring projects.
Not all of the project coordinators are educators. Marcos at the Norwalk site is presently working in real estate. Juan, the coordinator at the Spanish-American site, is a graduate student in engineering. But they have educators, beside Suzanne, who provide consultation and training opportunities for them when possible. Sylvia at the Baldwin Park site is a teacher who has certification in early childhood education.
Arnold realizes that a key to the success of the projects will be ongoing professional input and training by fellow educators. The coordinators who are not educators have indicated that they need help from professionals. This is why he is in the process of setting up formal means of support.
In L.A. what we have is Suzanne who is the Vice President for L.E.A.R.N. for Training and Curriculum. So she is going to be the one who will be doing the ongoing training for the kids [tutors] here. The trainers we have are not only Hispanic–all of the trainers right now are elementary teachers. (Data File, p. 87)

Earlier I noted Arnold's thoughts about the need for ongoing support: "He sees the key element in the training as the continuing technical support by key teachers he has trained as opposed to the training event itself." (Data File, p. 125)

Quality Materials/A Sound, Simple Training Guide
Arnold, from his first introduction to the Tutoring and Mentoring program in August 1997, saw the SMILIES curriculum as "far superior to anything that is out there" (Data File, p. 123). His plan was to use the framework, ideas, forms, and recommended supplementary material contained in the SMILIES tutoring handbook and the SMILIES video as the core curriculum for training and program implementation.
The group of educators who met with Arnold to develop a training plan decided to create an abbreviated manual using selected portions of the SMILIES handbook. They also plan to provide a full handbook to each tutoring site along with the other recommended materials–magnetic letters and Keep Books™ (inexpensive leveled readers available from Ohio State University).
Marcos at the Norwalk site uses the SMILIES videotape as the first training introduction to his new tutors. They also use children's books loaned to them through a program at the public library.
At the Spanish-American site they use the SMILIES materials to train new tutors and to implement the program. Juan and Sheila also showed me a collection of various readers, worksheets, markers, and other materials they had gathered. Their tutors are striving to hold to the basic SMILIES philosophy of, as Juan explained it, "learning to look for the best way for the kid that you are helping. They are looking for resources like this, so that they can implement the best way to help a kid" (Data File, p. 116). In order to have a greater selection of resources, they are planning to sponsor fund-raisers and to request financial assistance from the church.
The tutors at the Baldwin Park site have chosen to supplement the SMILIES curriculum with another phonics-based resource. It is the same curriculum that Sylvia, the site coordinator, uses in her kindergarten class at the school where she teaches. She believes that this curriculum maintains "the same concept" as the multi-modal SMILIES approach, incorporating "sound, vocal, action, and dance to the music" activities (Data File, p. 106). Sylvia also talked of coloring materials that were donated by the Health Department, and craft items that were paid for by money given to them by the church.

Parents Are Informed and Involved
Obviously, parents of children who attend tutoring sessions are supportive of the program or they would not allow their children to participate. But it does not follow that these parents are automatically informed or involved in their children's extracurricular schooling. A conscious effort must be made by project organizers for this to occur.
In discussing his original plan for how his L.E.A.R.N. organization would support academic achievement among young people, Arnold envisioned award ceremonies where parental involvement might be fostered:
We also have youth meetings where at the youth meeting or youth Sabbath School the child would be invited to come forward and we would provide a little certificate of recognition and the child would be given this. Now, the purpose of that is so that the parents would see their child receiving this recognition and would be more supportive of his academic achievements. (Data File, p. 81)

Arnold did not mention to me exactly where the mechanics or importance of parental involvement might have been discussed in his training sessions or in his conversations with project coordinators. Nor did the coordinators talk much about their parental involvement plans. But they did give some indications that parents were supportive of the program. The parents at the Norwalk site, according to Marcos, do help with clean-up after each session, they bring cookies and other snacks, and they transport their own children and their relatives to and from the weekly sessions.
Sylvia, at the Baldwin Park site, told a touching story of how the tutoring project there was the answer to one mother's passionate prayers:
I have another story about this lady. She's this little mom raising her son. She's Spanish and has very little English. The father, he left–the whole story–but she was telling me when I called her that she had prayed that morning and that she had anointed him asking, for a prayer, to please send someone to help him with his studies. He is in second grade but he's very behind. He has many learning problems. So when I talked with her that day, she was just like "Oh praise the Lord! This is an answer to my prayers!" She drives him in the car then takes him on the bus all the way to the church and all the way home. That was a blessing. She was so thankful. She had just prayed that morning! (Data File, p. 108)

Sylvia also told about a mother whose son will not even take his nap on tutoring days because he is so excited about coming. The mother drops him off and waits out in the car while he is being tutored. Sylvia and her assistants were very pleased with the grateful enthusiasm among the families whom they are helping.

Community Support
Arnold has envisioned a broad base of support for the tutoring projects in the Southern California region. Of course, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the umbrella under which these programs function, with coordination and supervision coming through the Adventist Community Services (ACS)/YouthNet alliance. The L.E.A.R.N. organization, under Arnold's guidance, gains its public credentials from its incorporation by the State of California as a non-profit organization. ACS/YouthNet is also looking to L.E.A.R.N as the key organization which will foster the America Reads tutoring thrust by local Adventist churches (as opposed to Adventist educational institutions or community service branches) across the United States.
ACS/YouthNet has also received AmeriCorp grants which will enable them to hire regional coordinators. In the Los Angeles area, Juan, coordinator at the Spanish-American Church site, may be tapped to be the regional coordinator. And Arnold has mentioned that La Sierra University, the Adventist school nearest Los Angeles, may also provide financial help through work study programs. Surely there is no shortage of organizations that may enter into a formal alliance to support the tutoring efforts in the area.
Each local site is hosted by a church, which represents the most foundational level of support. They provide facilities, volunteers, some materials, and funds to ensure that the volunteers are successful in their efforts. The coordinators also credited their local libraries for willingly providing books and advice when needed. Marcos, in speaking about his local public library, said:
They gave us pamphlets about different things they can do with their parents. They went ahead and allowed us to check out 50 books. And, you know, any questions I have I can go over there and talk to the consultant. They do have a person who is in charge of tutoring programs. We did have questions before and were able to talk to them and they have helped. It's happened quite a lot. (Data File, pp. 94-95)

Action Plan

Sound Organization and Management
Arnold's three-page resume records an impressive number of accomplishments that testify to his organizational capabilities. This tutoring program is another in a long list of successful projects he has initiated, which includes developing various church-related youth, evangelism, and education programs, starting several businesses, running for a seat in congress, and managing a television station. He has pastored four churches, he is the founder and president of L.E.A.R.N., and he is currently the Associate Director for Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Pacific Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Arnold has repeatedly demonstrated his organizational and managerial capabilities, and I became even more convinced of these as I listened to his vision regarding the America Reads initiative. For several hours as we traveled in the car to each of the Los Angeles area tutoring sites, Arnold enthusiastically told me of what had transpired in the past several months under his close supervision.
Our visits to the three existing tutoring sites confirmed to me that the coordinators who are heading up the projects have benefitted and will continue to benefit from Arnold's organizational efforts. Actually, this entire chapter is evidence of the quality of management that has gone into each of these projects. Lining up tutors, organizing training sessions, setting schedules, gathering materials, communicating with the public–these all take a great amount of organizational effort on the part of the coordinators. Marcos, at Norwalk, commented about how well things have gone in spite of the size of the task: "It was overwhelming. I didn't think it was going to work out this good. In my mind, even if it was planned to the second, I don't think it would have worked out so good" (Data File, p. 98).
Arnold assured each of the coordinators that he would continue to support, through L.E.A.R.N., their tutoring projects:
I took a new position as of December 1, and have been totally out of this arena for the last eight weeks or so, and I'm finally getting back into it. So we've asked Suzanne to be vice president for curriculum and training for L.E.A.R.N., so she, of course, has the other teachers there at [her school], and so they are going to start to do some more training and follow up. Debbie is going to give me a list of tutors, with names, address, and phone numbers, and we're going to try to establish a newsletter so we can communicate with them and have much better networking between everybody. (Data File, p. 119)

Close Cooperation between Volunteers and
People in the School

All of these projects are operating from churches instead of schools. Therefore, any communication between the tutors and personnel in the schools where the children attend occurs because of a purposeful effort on the part of the tutors. The exception to this is at the Baldwin Park site where two of the coordinators also teach in an Adventist school where some of the tutored children attend. They are able to facilitate any coordination that occurs between the children's tutors and their teachers at school.
Marcos told me about one student who had made exceptional progress since he started the tutoring program at Norwalk:
He's gone so far in his school. For example, his teacher called me thanking us because he would always flunk his spelling test. . . . So it shows to them. The tutoring is showing directly to the school, and some of our tutors have gone the extra mile and talk with the teachers and see what they need. (Data File, p. 99)
When I asked Juan, at Spanish-American, if they had contacted any teachers, he said:
No, not yet, but we're planning. On the registration form it asks for the name of the teachers, and which schools . . . because eventually we want to contact the teacher of the individual to see how he or she is performing. (Data File, p. 117)

Careful Selection of Students to Be Tutored
In the chapter 2 discussion of this characteristic, the clear recommendation is that tutored students should be of average intelligence but struggling more than other students (Morrow & Walker, 1997a). None of the coordinators whom I interviewed indicated that this type of careful selection process occurred. My impression is that they have generously opened the doors to whomever comes. I asked Marcos at Norwalk how they recruit their children. He replied:
With the Seventh-day Adventist . . . school [we] hand out a flyer, then we talk to the principal. We sent out a letter to each teacher, and they went ahead and put it into the bulletin, and then the parents just called us. . . . We have parents bring other nephews, and we never like to say no even though we don't have enough tutors. But we've been able to work with them. We're challenged–there has been really good days where we have one tutor per student, but there's been other days where we have five students per tutor. (Data File, pp. 92, 97)

But he did indicate that they were selective when it came to family members tutoring

family:

Now one thing they told us is that family shouldn't tutor family, because there is some kind of . . . it loses the main objective. So if you're a cousin, an aunt, you have to look over to another tutor. (Data File, p. 94)

Lynda, one of the assistants at Baldwin Park, talked about how they go about recruiting students into their program:
We asked, "What children are not at third grade level, up to third grade level or behind?" Those were our target population. Then we looked here in the church, because of this bilingual program that now exists. We have a lot of kids that do not know how to speak English, because they're in a bilingual program speaking Spanish. (Data File, pp. 107-108)

At the Spanish-American site, Juan also indicated that they have opened the doors to whomever might come. No student is turned away. Since these programs are operating with sponsorship from churches instead of educational institutions, and since they function during non-school hours, there is not a screening process that takes place. Neither would these churches screen children who came to their Vacation Bible School programs or to Sabbath School classes. They are offering their help to all needy children.

A Regular, Frequent Tutoring Schedule
Most experts recommend that, to be effective, children should work with their tutors for a minimum of 1½ to 2½ hours per week. All three of these programs do meet these "minimums," but they vary substantially on their weekly schedules and how the actual tutoring times are spent.
At Norwalk, they meet each Sunday morning from 10:00 until 12:00. Some of the session is spent as a large group, but the majority of the time the tutors are working with the children. As indicated earlier, there are occasions where several children are with each tutor, depending on the number of children who attend. This is why Marcos said, "That's our main objective right now, to get more tutors" (Data File, p. 94).
The tutoring program at Baldwin Park is open on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 7:00. Half the children attend on Monday evenings and the other half attend on Wednesday evenings. All children attend on Tuesday evenings. Each night they gather first as a large group where they open with prayer, a phonics song or two, and a read-aloud story. Then they break up into one-on-one tutoring pairs.
Juan at Spanish-American indicated that, for now, they meet each Tuesday evening from 5:00 until 8:00, but their goal is to expand to 2 nights per week. This 3-hour time period is broken into 1½ hour sessions with a new group of children coming in half-way through the evening. Some tutors can stay the entire time and work with two children, thereby doubling their effectiveness.

Monitoring of Student Progress
As indicated above, these programs are not directly connected with any schools; rather, they act as a resource to the parents and children of the community. Therefore, the monitoring of student progress is somewhat casual at this point. Coordinators at all three sites indicated that they strive to match students with the same tutor each week in an effort to better know where the child is academically, and to provide consistency in the relationship.
At Norwalk, Marcos indicated no formal efforts to determine reading levels. When I asked about the leveled Keep Books™ that are recommended for use with the SMILIES curriculum, Marcos said that they were not using them, nor were they trying to use library books that were leveled according to difficulty. Monitoring student progress is difficult because of the high numbers of students who were attending. Matching students permanently to one tutor will be much easier and will facilitate close monitoring once they recruit more tutors.
The tutors at Baldwin Park are also striving toward consistency in their program so that students can be more closely monitored. Lynda commented that they have requested SMILIES materials including "the booklets for the testing" because "we really don't know where they [the students] are at" (Data File, p. 109). The phonics program they use does include record-keeping forms, however, and they use this material to do some monitoring of student progress.
They do plan to use the leveled books to determine reading levels at the Spanish-American site, and to continually monitor how the students are progressing. Juan explained that
the plan is, after the tutor thinks that the kid is ready, we evaluate the kid, and then if it's ok to go to the next level, he's gonna' go. If not, he's gonna' go back and work on those issues, the facts that he needs. (Data File, p. 115)

As this program and the others become established, and as their tutoring base becomes stabilized, accurate and meaningful record keeping will be much more feasible.

Lessons Include Plenty of Reading
and Writing

Wasik (1998) recommended that tutoring lessons contain four basic elements: the rereading of familiar text, word analysis, writing, and new story introductions. Pinnell and Fountas (1997a) simply state that lessons should contain plenty of reading and writing with few "meaningless" drills. Part of their concern is that tutors be used for more than limited drill work with flash cards and similar disjointed exercises.
In his comments at the August training session, and in my conversations with Arnold on the telephone during the fall, he indicated that he felt the SMILIES curriculum was "far superior to anything that is out there" (Data File, p. 123), that the manual was "excellent" (Data File, p. 124), and that his core team of teachers "like what they see in the manual" (Data File, p. 124). Therefore, the training that Arnold has provided for the tutors so far has centered around the techniques recommended in the SMILIES curriculum which do center around literature, writing, and word analysis.
The site coordinators indicated that they believe in the basic tenants of the SMILIES curriculum, and they strive to make lessons meaningful for the children. Marcos explains:
First step is to get to know the child. From there you know, they trained us to make stories, sentences, the ABC's. We do the things that they know. OK, so that's why it's very simple. (Data File, p. 92)

. . . starting out with the alphabet, writing, & reading. You know like they taught us the different ways, you know, touching, draw, coloring, reading, making the sentence, all that together. (Data File, p. 96)
At the Baldwin Park site they start each evening with a read-aloud story and with "songs with vowels" that are a part of the phonics curriculum introduced by Sylvia. Lynda explained to me that this curriculum uses action, dance, and vocal cues to help the children "really get those sounds" (Data File, p. 106). When I asked about the SMILIES curriculum, she said that they use "little portions of it, because we have not been trained in the whole thing" and that the program they use is "the same concept" (Data File, p. 106).
As the tutors and coordinators acquire experience and training, they expect to become more confident and well-rounded in the lessons they present to the students. The key people at all three sites expressed a real need for more training, which Arnold is making arrangements to provide through L.E.A.R.N.

In the sections above, I have analyzed the tutoring programs organized by Arnold according to critical components of effective tutoring programs as suggested by those with experience in this area. These sites have been at the business of tutoring for a very short time, and all coordinators as well as Arnold indicate that they have much to learn. But their willingness to immerse themselves in their projects in spite of obstacles is admirable, and their efforts (if the research on the historical effectiveness of tutoring is indeed accurate) will bear fruit in the lives of the students and tutors.
I have shown that many of the characteristics of effective programs are evident in these fledgling projects. Arnold and the coordinators are committed to working to minimize or eliminate the weaknesses that exist.

Other Observations

I chose to organize my analysis of Arnold's work around a framework with the major topics of vision, skills, incentives, resources, and action plan (Ambrose, 1987). Each characteristic I analyzed above was classified under one of these major topics. However, I do not want to limit my analysis to these "orienting ideas" and "initial frames" (Miles & Huberman, 1984a) alone. The danger in this is that
merely selecting data for a category that has been established by another theory tends to hinder the generation of new categories, because the major effect is not generation, but data selection. Also, emergent categories usually prove to be the most relevant and the best fitted to the data. (Glaser & Strauss, 1967, p. 37)

One or two other themes seemed to emerge as I read, reread, and coded the transcripts of my conversations with Arnold and his coordinators. Eisner (1991), in discussing these "recurring messages construed from the events observed" clarifies the mechanics of this "formulation of themes":
The identification of themes requires researchers to distill the material they have put together. The notes and transcripts of interviews and index cards on which ideas and comments have been written can be used more or less inductively to generate thematic categories. (p. 189)

My analysis of Arnold's tutoring programs above explored themes that have been demonstrated to be effective in other tutoring programs. The themes I discuss in the next section emerged from the data I collected and have not previously been identified as critical characteristics in successful programs. However, in Arnold's case, these themes can be isolated: relational and emotional support and marketing/public relations.

Relational/Emotional Support

Relational/Emotional Support Offered by Program Administrator

Under the characteristic titled "Committed Tutors" above, I touched on the "fatherly care" that Arnold seemed to have for his trainees. I believe it is important to highlight this phenomenon again. As the initiator and overseer of this project, Arnold expressed his motivations frequently–seemingly genuine and compassionate expressions of heartfelt concern for the tutors and tutees alike. In talking about how he and Jose Rojas became partners in these endeavors, Arnold said that he and Rojas "came to realize that we shared some common vision–our commitment to young people and trying to help young people" (Data File, p. 82). He clarified this concern as he encouraged Marcos:
The time that you are taking with the child is, is the greatest benefit, for that child and for his or her education. Far more important, even, than the content because your caring for him or her helps her and will enable her, will propel her to academic success in her life. So . . . this mentoring aspect of it is every bit as important as the transfer of information or the development of skills. As a matter of fact, it may even be more important. Because when a person comes to believe it, "Oh, I do matter, I really care, I'm somebody, I'm really important, somebody really does care for me that I admire," that really frees them to become successful. It's like Jesus worked. That's exactly how Jesus worked. (Data File, p. 99)

Neither the coordinators nor the tutors in these projects are paid for their work. Their incentives for continuing come from the personal satisfaction they derive from volunteering and from the encouragement and support that their sponsors, the parents, the students, and Arnold extend to them. After each interview, Arnold offered words of appreciation and support like those he gave to Juan,
I appreciate very much what you are doing. You're a part of the pioneers in this program, not only in the Adventist church but in the nation, and you have watched, you have stepped forward, and you have learned an awful lot as you have done that. (Data File, p. 118)

Certainly, it is difficult to ascertain just what effect this emotional support provided by Arnold has on each individual involved in these tutoring projects or on the projects' eventual success. But, Arnold's concerns do seem to be mirrored in the relational concerns expressed by the tutors for the children whom they are tutoring.

Relational/Emotional Support Offered by
Tutors to the Children

"The main thing we say is that you need to get to know the child" (Data File, p. 92). This is the advice that Marcos gives to his tutors as they begin working with the children that come to them. He goes on to explain the dynamics of this relationship:
The kids look up to you, and when you're there to listen to what they talk about, what they mean and what they say, it makes them feel special. I guess that's what they like the most: The one-on-one conversation they have with the tutor. (Data File, p. 22)
All of the coordinators whom I interviewed had this same attitude about working with children. The relationship that is established is of primary importance, eclipsing the academic help that the tutors offer to the students. When asked about why they volunteer in the first place, their motivations to help children through the relationships that develop were always mentioned early in their responses. Lauren at Baldwin Park said, "I thought ‘maybe there's something I can do to make a difference in a child's life.' That's what motivated me" (Data File, p. 111). Sylvia put it this way:
I really came on because I enjoy working with kids. Some people ask me, "Why do you do it after work, when you're with them all day?" But I still enjoy it. I want to help children who need one-on-one. (Data File, p. 111)

I suspect that any tutor in any program might give this same response when asked why he or she tutors. But none of the experts whom I cited in Chapter Two isolated the importance of building relationships as one of the key factors in establishing a successful tutoring program. This is a curious omission, especially in the light of Princeton's Professor John DiIulio's comment:
When you boil down the last 50 years of empirical research on what works to improve the lives of children, there is one conclusion: No program, public or private, that fails to build meaningful relationships between responsible adults and young people works. (Cited in Gerson, 1997, pp. 33-34)

Marketing and Public Relations
One final theme that seemed to emerge from the data had to do with community relations and the marketing of the projects. This theme is possibly related to the framework components of community support or action plans, but I believe that it is unique enough to warrant a separate treatment.
The Adventist response to Clinton's proposal is one that is tied up in the evangelistic mission of the church. This focus may not separate it from other church-based commitments to help in the tutoring effort (of which the Seventh-day Adventist response is among the most aggressive), but it certainly does set them apart from more secular offers of service. Sahlin (1997) gives this rationale for the evangelistic thrust:
There is clear evidence that a strong community service program positions the denomination's evangelism ministries for greater success. A random sample of hundreds of Adventist local churches from across the nation, followed over a multi-year period, demonstrates that those congregations which sponsor viable community services consistently have greater growth than those who do not. Of course a church which preaches the gospel but does not invest its time and money in helping the less fortunate cannot appear to have a message of integrity in the eyes of unbelievers. (p. 12)

These churches have an overriding mission to reach out evangelistically to the community through their tutoring programs. The coordinators in these projects obviously have heeded the call in this area because they all talked of their efforts to market their programs beyond the walls of their churches and church-sponsored schools.
The Norwalk project under Marcos's care is exemplary in this respect. They handed out flyers in the local Adventist school, they talked to the principal, they sent out letters, and they put information about the program in the church bulletin. Then they advertised the program in the local Penny Saver classified newspaper, and they encouraged word-of-mouth recruitment. Marcos has also designed attractive "identification cards" for the tutors to carry and distribute that have information about the tutoring program on the back (Data File, p. 165). His promotional efforts have been very aggressive, even with the difficulty of not having enough tutors!
Arnold explained to me that the encouragement to market to the community-at-large was part of the initial training:
But in our presentation and in our training we said that we wanted them to go to the public schools, to the community to distribute flyers and let the community know. And also friends of church members. So, to the natural networks in a community. That was our target as far as our tutees. (Data File, p. 87)

In this section I have identified two additional themes–relational/emotional support and marketing/public relations–that emerged from the interview data I collected. In chapter 8, I blend these themes into a revised framework of critical components of tutoring programs.

Summary
This case study analysis examined Arnold's early efforts to implement the Adventist Tutoring and Mentoring/SMILIES initiative in the Los Angeles area. Arnold and the coordinators at three tutoring sites were interviewed to determine the status of their programs as compared to a framework of critical components derived from the literature. No doubt the programs will mature, possibly representing more fully the ideal as time passes. But this chapter has striven to accurately represent the status of these programs at a point in time early in their implementation.