The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) sponsored a trial of 1,530 Minnesota kindergartners to determine the short-term and long-term impacts of the Minnesota Reading Corps program on literacy.  Results from the trial indicated that the average kindergartner with an AmeriCorps tutor realized greater student literacy outcomes then those students without a tutor.  Other key results from the study:

• AmeriCorps tutors helped the average first grade student perform 26 percent better than the expected level for on-track students 
• Students with higher risk factors who received AmeriCorps tutoring significantly outperformed students who did not.
• The Minnesota Reading Corps program is replicable in multiple school settings using AmeriCorps members with varied backgrounds

Source: http://www.nationalservice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Research_Brief_MRC_final.pdf