With a little help from tutor Sandra Chieffe, third-grader Deneya Neal cruised through the final chapter of "Catwings," pronouncing difficult words such as "alighted," "disapproving" and "dovecote."

The book about the exploits of four winged kittens was a fitting choice for their tutoring session. Deneya, a student at Pittsburgh Allegheny K-5 on the North Side, likes cats, and Ms. Chieffe, a volunteer with OASIS Intergenerational Tutoring, wants Deneya's reading, writing and thinking skills to soar.

At the end of the book, the kittens found a happy home in the country, but shy, soft-spoken Deneya wanted more adventure. Asked what she would have the kittens do in an extra chapter, she said, "Look at another place."

In all, OASIS, an organization of older or "mature" adults, has nearly 90 tutors working with Pittsburgh Public Schools students in kindergarten through third grade. Schools are happy to have the volunteers because they provide additional help in a key subject.

Superintendent Mark Roosevelt's "Excellence for All" plan, unveiled in 2006, calls for 80 percent of third-graders to score proficient or advanced in reading by the end of the current school year.

Students will take the 2009 state reading test in the spring. On the 2008 test, 64.1 percent of third-graders scored proficient or advanced in reading.

Ms. Chieffe, who said she's in her 60s, decided to join OASIS about seven years ago after seeing a newspaper ad seeking volunteers.

"I was scared to death because this was something out of my league," said Ms. Chieffe, a self-employed computer consultant who has no children and never before had taught a child to read.

She attended the OASIS training program and studied a training manual developed by OASIS Institute in St. Louis. She's worked with nine students in seven years, volunteering one hour per week at Pittsburgh Allegheny, near her home.

"It's very rewarding to you. You're helping them, and you don't think an hour a week will make a difference," she said, adding some students have made "really dramatic" improvement over the school year.

She recalled one student who cut in half the time it took him to read a passage of text and another who, overcoming a slow start, completed 15 book reports in two weeks.

The program has been good for the adults, too. OASIS -- originally called Older Adult Service and Information System -- was created to provide meaningful activities and get members involved in their communities.

Nationwide, OASIS operates tutoring programs in more than 100 school districts in 23 cities. Since 1989, it has worked with 250,000 students, according to the group's Web site at www.oasisnet.org.

At the request of OASIS, Judith Kamper, adjunct instructor in education at Maryville University in St. Louis, studied the effectiveness of the tutoring program in three school districts in 2004-05. The study involved 173 struggling or at-risk students from the St. Louis area, 98 who worked with OASIS tutors and 75 who did not.

She found that 95 percent of the OASIS students increased their reading performance during the year, with 65 percent improving a full school year or more. But the results were mixed; some students who didn't have the tutors also improved, with some making as much progress, or more, than their OASIS peers.

In an interview last week, Dr. Kamper called the OASIS program "very effective" and said the benefits may include boosts in self-esteem that weren't measured in her study.

On its Web site, OASIS lists testimonials from officials in the Pittsburgh and Woodland Hills school districts. The program usually places volunteers in Woodland Hills but hasn't yet done so this school year, said Marlene Rebb, OASIS tutoring coordinator in Pittsburgh.

Ms. Chieffe and Ms. Rebb said the program stresses the nationally recognized fundamentals of reading instruction -- vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, phonics and phonemic awareness. The program also stresses writing, a growing emphasis in Pittsburgh schools.

At a tutoring session, Ms. Chieffe may have a child read aloud, answer questions about a book orally or in writing, play word games or write in a journal.

She said she tries to use books reflecting each child's interests. For one student, that meant reading about Mars. For another, it meant Dr. Seuss. For Deneya, it means reading about cats and crystals.

Ms. Chieffe said she plans to bring Deneya a National Geographic article about huge crystals found in a Mexican cave.

"I just think it's important to encourage girls into the field of science at an early age," she said.

Ms. Rebb said she still hopes to place another 30 or so tutors in Pittsburgh schools this school year. And she's still looking for volunteers -- "as many as we can get," she said.