Catholic University maintains partnerships with local schools and community-based organizations (for more information check out our Community Partners page), but we are always interested in considering new sites. If your school or organization is located with the NW or NE quadrant of DC, we would love to consider you!
At Catholic University the DC Reads program is run as part of the Campus Ministry department. We hire undergraduate tutors as part of our work-study program. We also take volunteers. Both work-study students and volunteers are asked to commit (on a semester by semester basis) to work at a specific school on specific days of the week. Your site's days and times will be set by you and our tutors will sign up to work at your site based on their university schedule. Though our program's focus is on reading and literacy skills, in the past, tutors have also worked to help local students improve their skills in other academic areas, including math, history, and technology, so please feel free to contact us with any and all tutoring inquiries.
New Site Application
Fill out the application and send it to our coordinator for review.
DC Reads Overview
Find out what a partnership with Catholic University DC Reads would look like.
Frequently Asked Questions
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We are looking for tutors to provide homework help for our students. Should we complete an application?
We try to avoid providing simple homework help, as we have found in the past that students do not benefit much from having a tutor stand over their shoulder and give help here and there. Our goal is specifically to improve literacy and academic skills, and we therefore like to partner with curriculum-based sites and do activities or follow lesson plans related to what the student is learning in class so that they can learn techniques and critical thinking skills to be able to accomplish homework tasks independently.
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How do CUA students get to the site they tutor at?
Unless the site is willing to provide transportation, students must be able to walk to site or access the site by public transportation. Transportation should take no more than 30 minutes.
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For which subjects does DC Reads provide tutoring?
We prefer to partner with sites that have a curriculum in reading and/or math, but are willing to consider those with curriculums involving other subjects as well (i.e. technology, history, etc.)
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When is the prospective partner site application due?
New site applications for the coming school year are accepted until June 30th of the summer before.
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Are DC Reads tutors trained?
All new tutors are required to attend DC Reads 101 Basic Tutor Skills training where they will learn about the DC Education Landscape, how to build student/tutor relationships, and basic coaching skills. The site must provide its own training in specific teaching philosophy and curriculum. CUA will host workshops throughout the semester and we ask sites to volunteer to help facilitate these workshops.
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What is the DC Reads tutor attendance policy?
Tutors are not expected to go to their tutoring session if the University is closed (either for holidays or snow days) or during finals week. Otherwise, tutors are expected to go to all tutoring sessions they have signed up for. CUA has a maximum two-absence policy before tutors are asked to leave the program. If a tutor must be absent, we request that they notify the DC Reads office, their team leader, and their site supervisor at least 24 hours ahead of time.
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Does it cost us anything to have CUA students come to tutor?
No, there is no cost for the organization that we partner with. Our tutors are either volunteers or are paid with our CUA's work-study funds.