WRC Objectives

	Tutoring and Early Childhood Development:  WRC members and volunteers work with children in Early Learning centers to increase kindergarten preparedness and also tutor students grades K-6 identified as needing reading assistance in reading and/or reading readiness skills in one-on-one or small group tutoring sessions.  Students successfully exiting the WRC program will raise their reading skills by at least one grade level or meet benchmark and show improvement in attitudes and behaviors towards reading.
	Volunteer Generation:  WRC members will assist schools and early learning sites to recruit, train, manage, and recognize volunteers.  Most volunteer tutors will provide 1-on-1 and small group tutoring in reading and reading readiness before, during, and after school during the school year. 100% of volunteer tutors will be trained and report that the tutor training they received improved their ability to provide services to the students.
	Sustainability:  WRC Project Supervisors and WRC members meet with 100% of the sites participating in the WRC and discuss plans for, and progress towards, building capacity and sustainability of the early learning and reading support programs.
	Family Involvement:  WRC members will assist with organizing family involvement activities that support literacy improvement in the home, school, and community and developing a family involvement plan.  These family activities will involve students who have been identified as struggling readers and their parents and/or family members.  Eighty (80)% of WRC families will report the activity was valuable to them and/or to their child.

State funds leverage federal funding to provide 230 AmeriCorps and 40 VISTA members in seven team-based projects.  Members serve in 100 elementary schools across the state.

WRC Members help build the capacity of local school reading programs by working with school staff to design or enhance a volunteer tutor program that is aligned with the school reading curriculum and overall school schedule.  AmeriCorps*USA members primarily perform direct service tutoring one-on-one or in small groups to support struggling readers identified by each host school. AmeriCorps*VISTA members work with their schools to perform community outreach by recruiting community and peer and cross-age volunteer tutors, as well as work with local businesses to provide in-kind donations that support tutoring programs.  Both AmeriCorps*USA and AmeriCorps*VISTA members work with schools to increase family involvement by planning and helping to coordinate activities such as family literacy events and take home reading tips and packets.

The program is administered through a partnership between the Governor’s Office, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the Washington Commission for National and Community Service (WCNCS), the Washington State CNCS Office (VISTA), and the Washington Service Corps (WSC), a program of the Employment Security Department.

Innovative Practices
Do you have an innovative, researched-based practice that you would like to share with other site supervisors, members and project supervisors across the state?  Now you can!  Submit a Washington Reading Corps Innovative Practice! You can submit practices in the areas of tutoring, volunteer management, family involvement, and resource development/ building partnerships.

We will be reviewing submissions submitted and looking for:

1. Research-based practices (whenever possible).
2. Complete forms (all questions addressed).
3. Non-duplication of practice- i.e. if more than one practice for Rotary outreach presentations are submitted, we choose one or combine them into one.

We reserve the right to contact the submitter for clarification or edits before publishing. We may also decline publishing submissions and would contact the submitter in these cases. We highly encourage Site Supervisors, members, and/or Project Supervisors to contribute to what we hope becomes an annual edition of best practices. If you have questions about this form, please contact your local Project Supervisor.

Download the Innovative Practice Submission form here.