This study reviews the effectiveness of an extracurricular paired reading program to enhance the reading of struggling readers. For the first time, two program conditions are compared within one study: parent tutors and volunteer tutors. The program was implemented within a randomized controlled field trial; its effects on reading fluency and reading ability were investigated on a sample of 198 Swiss third graders with reading difficulties. The findings revealed that volunteers outperformed

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... nts: Children who trained with volunteers developed significantly better reading fluency after 20 weeks (d = .21). However, the main effects on reading fluency did not last at follow-up and no effects on general reading ability were found. Children with higher reading fluency at the pretest benefitted significantly more than very poor readers (post-test: d = .47; 5 month FU: d = .39). The study highlights the benefit of volunteer tutoring and the necessity of ongoing, adaptive support for very poor readers.