| Summary: | Many African-American congregations in urban settings have established after-school tutorial programs as a means of assisting students toward better academic performance. While there is some consensus that church sponsored tutoring programs in the Black community are welcome and should be encouraged, to date the research documenting what is actually taking place in these programs and what the responses are of those affected by the programs is generally sparse. Descriptive case studies of tutoring activities sponsored by two churches, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Church of Springfield, Massachusetts and the New Covenant Presbyterian Church of Miami, Florida, form the basis of this study. These free tutoring programs are an attempt to offer remediation to inner-city youngsters within the context of volunteer staffing patterns based upon the caring tradition of the African-American church. Background information was gathered from church and tutoring program records, giving attention to program purpose, evolution, and organization. Interviews and questionnaires were used to gather data on the perceptions of those involved with these tutorial efforts (students, tutors, and parents) concerning the program's effectiveness in helping students academically. A telephone survey of twenty other churches located in differing urban areas was taken regarding their tutoring experiences and these responses were compared with the perceptions of individuals involved in the case studies. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Church program's fifteen year history betrayed a continual metamorphosis in the program while the New Covenant tutoring experience was much more brief, slightly more than a year. Similarly, among the churches programs surveyed, some tutorial programs had long histories and others were new. The perception was widespread among persons involved with the twenty-two programs that these activities were of positive benefit to the students involved. Among community-based organizations, many Black churches have long histories and extensive resource networks within their neighborhoods which make them reliable community alternatives for the establishment of relatively low-cost remediation programs that could prove highly effective. Follow-up research documenting actual impact on academic performance is needed.
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