INCREASING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
THROUGH CONTINGENT ACCESS TO TUTORING
JEFFREY LEVENKRON,
DAVID
A.
SANTOGROSSI
AND
DANIEL
O’LEARY]
State University
of
New
York
at Stony
Brook
Stony
Brook,
N.
Y.
The rising demand for professional services that are constrained both by
limited manpower and financial resources has resulted in ever-increasing utilization
of
paraprofessional personnel in the fields of mental health, law, medicine and
education (O’Leary, 1972; Sobey, 1970). Many functions formerly performed by
professional staff can be handled by paraprofessionals trained in highly specialized
skills. In a discussion
of
the use of paraprofessionals in school settings, O’Leary
and O’Leary (1972) suggested that paraprofessional educator services could be
used to tutor children individually, prepare individualized teaching materials,
teach regular lessons after intensive training, function in behavior modification
programs by dispensing reinforcers,
as
well
as
to perform a variety of administra-
tion tasks, and thereby free the professional teacher for creative teaching and
planning.
Tutoring as
a
remedial supplement to standard classroom instruction long has
been common practice in most school settings. Paraprofessionals who work
as
behavioral tutors can be of invaluable assistance to both teacher and student
if
utilized in an efficient manner (Gartner, Kohler,
&
Reissman, 1971; Staats
&
Butterfield, 1965
;
Staats, Minke, Goodwin,
&
Landeen, 1967
;
Whitlock, 1966;
Whitlock
&
Bushell, 1967; Willis, Crowder,
&
Morris, 1972; Willis, Morris,
&
Crow-
der, 1972). When children are tutored in remedial subjects it may be that additional
utility could be gained by providing
a
student with an individual tutor contingent
upon completion of work.
Numerous classroom studies have demonstrated conclusively that systematic
application of tangible reinforcers contingent upon performance of academic and
social behavior can result in improved performance (O’Leary
&
Drabman, 1971).
It
has been demonstrated that when free time is made contingent upon the com-
pletion of academic tasks, increases in task performance can be produced
(e.g.,
Salzberg, Wheeler, Devar,
&
Hopkins, 1971). Holt (1971) allowed children who
worked in the Sullivan Programmed Reading Series to engage in self-selected
free-time activities contingent upon successful completion of a predetermined
task criterion.
As
a result, output increased by 700% in reading and 16070
in
mathematics as compared to base rate.
It
may be that access to
a
tutor, when
offered on
a
similarly contingent basis,
also
can lead to increased performance rates.
If
so,
the resultant gain would be predicted not only for target behaviors
(ie.,
the behavior being reinforced), but also in the specific area at which tutoring is
aimed.
In a report by Cohen, Filipczak and Bis (1967), two student inmates at
a
‘Appreciation is extended to Mr. Paul Mariboe, Principal, Medford Avenue School, Patchogue,
N.
Y.
for
his
assistance and support. Thanks
also
are due the undergraduates who served as tutors.
Special thanks to Ruth Kass who participated in the initial pilot work for this study, which was
supported by Grant OEG-0-71-2872
from
the
U.
S.
Office of Health, Education and Welfare. The
opinions expressed herein, however, do not necessarily reflect the position or policy
of
the
U.
S.
Office
of
Education, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
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