A Successful Writing Program: Peer Tutors Make Good Teachers

Abstract

As higher education has become accessible to more p ople, both in perception and in reality, dif ferent kind of student has entered college in numbers not seen before (8:10-11). Unlike their traditionally prepared and academically screened predecessors, these new students were under prepared, often severely so, in one or more of the basic skills necessary for successful college performance (4:6-7). Faced with providing these students with a means of acquiring the skills that they lacked, faculty members and administrators alike sought a solution in the establishment or expansion of basic skills programs. Some institutions, like the City University of New York?which spends an estimated "$35 million a year on remediation" (11:262)?developed elaborate, well staffed programs. Other institutions, and by all indica tions the majority, opted for more limited, less expen sive programs (8:61). The Ogontz Campus of the Penn sylvania State University falls into the latter category.