America Learns partners with FWS, service-learning, and community-based reading tutoring and mentoring programs nationwide to get them the reporting and evaluation data they need while providing guidance and support to tutors and mentors. The idea for America Learns grew from the frustrating experiences of after-school and FWS tutors, including those of company founder Gary Kosman. Those experiences range from attempting without success to get students to focus on work to trying to help them understand a concept but ultimately giving them the answers.

The America Learns Network revolves around an online survey that is designed to give tutors and mentors instant guidance on areas in which they need support. When tutors and mentors complete a survey, they receive back personalized advice and strategies from others in their program (their fellow tutors, mentors and staff), as well as from the company’s experts and strategy development partners (other tutors, mentors, teachers and organizations in the America Learns Network nationwide).

Program managers may pull up their survey data over any time period in a matter of seconds to use for tracking purposes, ongoing program improvement, reports to supervisors and funders, and for grant applications. Survey completion rates (%) average in the mid- to upper 90s across all Network members from week to week.

Danna Belski, former director of the America Reads program at the University of Pittsburgh, found America Learns “a comfortable method of providing honest feedback and individualized, instantaneous tutoring support.” She added her own questions to each week’s survey to collect information specific to her program. Although she originally offered incentives for tutors to complete the survey, she found quickly that such incentive were unnecessary.