25 Reasons for 25 Books
The Need:
1. 61% of America’s low-income children are growing up in homes without books.
(Reading Literacy in the United States: Findings from the IEA Reading Literacy Study, 1996.).
2. In middle-income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children.
(Neuman, Susan B. and David K. Dickinson, ed., Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Volume 2, 2006.)
3. The average child growing up in a middle class family has been exposed to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one picture book reading. The average child growing up in a low-income family, in contrast, has only been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading.
(Jumpstart, “America’s Early Childhood Literacy Gap,” 2009, citing Jeff McQuillan, “The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, 1998.)
4. 80% of preschool and after-school programs serving low-income populations have no age-appropriate books for their children.
(Susan B. Neuman, et al., Access for All: Closing the Book Gap for Children in Early Education,” 2001.)
5. Academically, children growing up in homes with no books are on average three years behind children in homes with lots of books, even when controlled for other key factors such as income and parents’ education.
(M.D.R. Evans et al, “Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations,” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, June 2010, as quoted by BookHarvestNC.org.)
The Academic Impact:
6. [C]hildren who have not already developed some basic literacy practices when they enter school are three to four times more likely to drop out in later years.
(National Assessment of Adult Literacy, “National adult literacy survey,” 1993.)
7. [A]cademic success, as defined by high school graduation, can be predicted with reasonable accuracy by knowing someone’s reading skill at the end of third grade.
8. A person who is not at least a modestly skilled reader by that time is unlikely to graduate from high school.
(Catherine Snow, et al., “Preventing reading difficulties in young children,” 1998.)
9. Illiteracy and crime are closely related. The Department of Justice states, ‘The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.’ Over 70% of inmates in America’s prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level.
(U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, “Reduced Recidivism and Increased Employment Opportunity Through Research-Based Reading Instruction,”1993)
10. Limited access to books is a problem for all young children, but for those in low-income areas, it may be tantamount to reading failure.
(Susan Neuman, Access for All: Closing the Book Gap for Children in Early Education, International Reading Association, (2001).)
The Solution:
11. An analysis of a national data set of nearly 100,000 United States school children found that access to printed materials—and not poverty–is the critical variable affecting reading acquisition.
(Jeff McQuillan, “The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions,” 1998.)
12. [G]iving children access to print materials is associated with positive behavioral, educational and psychological outcomes.
(Learning Point Associates, “Access to Print Materials Improves Children’s Reading,” study commissioned by Reading is Fundamental, 2010.)
13. The most successful way to improve the reading achievement of low-income children is to increase their access to print.
(Sanford Newman, America’s Child Care Crisis: A Crime Prevention Tragedy, 2000.)
14. Creating a steady stream of new, age-appropriate books has been shown to nearly triple interest in reading within months.
(Harris, Louis. An Assessment of the Impact of First Book’s Northeast Program. January 2003.)
15. Children with greater access to books and other print materials express more enjoyment of books, reading, and academics.
(Children’s Access to Print Material and Education Related Outcomes.)
How 25Books Helps:
16. Having books in the home is twice as important as the father’s education level.
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 2010
17. The achievement gap that exists between low-income and high-income children can be narrowed or even closed simply by giving books to low-income kids. Just a dozen books selected by the child, at a total cost of about $50, can achieve the same improvements in school performance as $3,000 worth of summer school.
Richard Allington et al, “Ameliorating summer reading setback among economically disadvantaged elementary students,” February 2010.
18. Growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books… A child from a family rich in books is 19 percentage points more likely to complete university than a comparable child growing up without a home library.
Evans, M.D.R., J. Kelley, J. Sikora, and D. J. Treiman. 2010. “Family Scholarly Culture and Educational Success: Evidence From 27 Nations.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 28(2):171-197.
19. Even a child who hails from a home with 25 books will, on average, complete two more years of school than would a child from a home without any books at all.
“Children’s Access to Print Materials and Education-Related Outcomes,” 2010, commissioned by Reading Is Fundamental.
20. Fourth graders who reported having 25 books or more at home had higher scores on the NAEP reading test than children who reported that they had fewer than 25 books.
NCES, (2005)
Program Structure:
21. If more access leads to more reading, and if more reading leads to better reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and a larger vocabulary, this means that the first step any literacy campaign needs to take is to make sure children have access to plenty of books.
Stephen Krashen, Literacy Network News, (2007)
22. The only behavior measure that correlates significantly with reading scores is the number of books in the home.
Jeff McQuillan, “The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions,” 1998.
23. A three-year study of summer reading among low-income elementary school students showed that participants improved their reading scores by selecting popular culture books they had chosen, rather than classics or books deemed at the proper level by the teachers. Children’s gains are larger when they are allowed to select their own books.
Allington et al, Addressing Summer Reading Setback Among Economically Disadvantaged Elementary Students, Reading Psychology 31, 2010
24. When students were asked which book they had enjoyed most, 80% reported that the one they had enjoyed most was one they had selected themselves.
Gambrell, L.B. (1996). Creating classroom cultures that foster reading motivation. The Reading Teacher, 50
25. Students who select what they read and who have a comfortable environment in which to read (such as their home) tend to read more, to be more motivated, and to demonstrate increased language and literacy skills
Krashen, S., The Power of Reading. Englewood, Col.: Libraries Unlimited, Inc, 1993
