About
http://www.raisingareader.org
Location: National Contact: Dr. Gabrielle E. Miller, National Executive Director gmiller@raisingareader.org |
From About Us: Our Story
Raising A Reader (RAR) is an early literacy and family engagement program for children ages 0-8 that helps families develop book-sharing routines with their child. RAR's proven, award-winning program helps families:
IMPACT
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How does RAR differ from other nonprofit literacy programs?
Raising A Reader fits right in the middle of this literacy organization spectrum. Raising A Reader has strong outcome data, is cost effective and is also easy to scale. -- From FAQs |
From FAQs
"In the landscape of nonprofit literacy programs there are three basic types: book distribution, home-visiting parent training, and family engagement. Book distribution organizations serve many children across the country by providing books for them to own. They are relatively low in cost to implement and are easy to scale; however, have limited outcome data. We don’t know if these programs are changing family behaviors or if there are any outcomes other than number of books owned. Home-based programs have staff that go to individual homes for education and support. There are very strong outcome data that accompany these programs; however, they are costly and difficult to scale. Raising A Reader fits right in the middle of this literacy organization spectrum. Raising A Reader has strong outcome data, is cost effective and is also easy to scale." |
How It Works
Family Engagement Affects Academic Achievement |
From Programs: Program Overview
3 Part Program 1) DEVELOP -- Parents: Building Reading Routines Raising A Reader helps parents develop the habit of sharing books through RAR’s train the trainer model. It offers agencies who work with families the opportunity to build a positive connection with families to help them learn family friendly versions of research-based practices that will support book sharing at home. Raising A Reader’s award-winning DVD Read Aloud: Share a Book with Me, translated into 14 languages, enables parents to listen to other parents who face the challenges of sharing books with children and how they overcame them. 2) PRACTICE -- Children: Book Bag Rotation To practice the habit of sharing books, each week children bring home a bright red book bags filled with award-winning books; so that each day children invite a loved one to "share a book with me." Every week each child brings home a different bag of books so that, on average, more than 100 high quality books will rotated through children’s homes over the course of a typical rotation cycle. 3) SUSTAIN -- Introduction to the Library Finally, to help families sustain the habit of borrowing and sharing books, Raising A Reader connects families to libraries. Each rotation cycle concludes with an event that celebrates families, the literacy routines they’ve developed and practiced, as well as the powerful change this habit will make in their child’s life. Each child receives a blue Raising A Reader bag to keep and continue the practice of book borrowing. |
Target Audience: High-risk students
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Since RAR's inception, they have helped more than 900,000 families build and sustain reading routines in their homes, with special attention to highest-risk for educational failure.
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Sustained effort over time
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Each week children in the Raising A Reader program take home 2-4 different books, exposing them to approximately 100 high quality children's books each year.
The length of the program cycle depends on the needs of each individual affiliate. For example, the program cycle could last just 8 weeks in a summer bridge program and more than 45 weeks in a year-round home visiting program. |
Active involvement of participants
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From Performance Summaries
Family engagement After participating in our program, caregivers--
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Individual attention
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Each week, the children each bring home bright red book bags filled with 2 to 4 award-winning books. At "graduation," the children each get a blue bag and get their own individual library cards.
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Group Dynamic
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All the students, as a class, receive red bags filled with 2 to 4 books. The class experiences the excitement of receiving new books every Tuesday and returning them every Friday. The program promotes a shared experience and excitement of reading.
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Partnerships with other organizations
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From Programs: Program Profiles
The Raising A Reader program is flexible and can adapted to meet the unique needs of children and families in diverse settings. Raising A Reader Affiliates Include:
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Assessments
20 independent evaluations prove that Raising A Reader makes a positive and lasting impact |
From Our Impact: Independent Evaluations
Research shows that family engagement directly affects academic achievement. To date, twenty independent evaluations prove that Raising A Reader makes a positive and lasting impact, significantly improving both family reading behavior, parent-child bonding and kindergarten readiness across diverse culture and language demographics. NPC Research, Portland, OR (2008) Multnomah County Public Library 1. The number of parents who read to their child at least three times per week increased by 46% over the previous level. 2. Parents reported using positive read aloud practices 63% more than before RAR. 3. Children chose to read books 33% more often than other activities with an increase of 31% in frequency of asking to be read to. 4. 52% of families reported that RAR books were used by more than one child, with 20% of those families reporting that the books were used by three or more children. From Performance Summaries Child outcomes Key evaluations, including most recently a large scale randomized control trial through the University of Texas, point to positive outcomes for children’s--
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Cultural Proficiency
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Raising A Reader’s award-winning DVD Read Aloud: Share a Book with Me, is translated into 14 languages. This DVD enables parents to listen to other parents who face the challenges of sharing books with children and how they overcame them.
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Works through existing infrastructures
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Core Program: Five Anchor Behaviors
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Fun or gaming element
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Through ‘graduation’ events, visits to local and school libraries and the distribution of Raising A Reader’s blue library bags families utilize vital library resources, continue to borrow books and sustain reading routines they have established through the program.
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