Book Buddies Replication Study: Ninety Miles from Charlottesville--So What?

Book Buddies is a community volunteer tutorial that began in Charlottesville, Virginia in the early 1990s as a cooperative effort between the University of Virginia, the Charlottesville City Schools and the Charlottesville community. A replication of Book Buddies was designed in fall of 1997 for two elementary schools in Millville, Virginia. A study investigated replication of Book Buddies in other cities and school districts. Two different schools were chosen to implement the program and a third school was chosen as a control group that would not in any way participate in the tutorial program. Results showed that Millville students achieved higher mean scores than Charlottesville students in 1992. Book Buddies tutors in Millville received more intensive training, and they also benefited from seven years of fine-tuning of the tutoring format. Results from the three sites (two Millville elementary schools and one control group) suggest that this is indeed a replicable model of an affordable, early intervention program and that significant results can be obtained in high-poverty settings. (SC)