Research > Environmental Scan > Programs > Raising a Reader
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:
  • Understand why sharing books regularly matters
  • Excite children and families with award-winning books each week that build the book sharing routine
  • Establish connections to libraries to maintain literacy habits at home

IMPACT
  • 2,500 implementing sites across the country
  • 32 states represented in our national affiliate network
  • 920,000 children and families served since 1999
  • 118,000 children and families served in 2011, almost 75 percent of whom were living at or below the poverty level, and more than half being English Language Learners
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
"Raising a Reader helps families of children aged 0-8 develop, practice and maintain home-based literacy routines critical for school success.

The research is clear — when families are involved, children’s academic achievement improves."

-- About Us: Our Story
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
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.
Sustained effort over time
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
From Performance Summaries
Family engagement After participating in our program, caregivers--
  • Had more knowledge of the importance of literacy for their children’s future success in school and beyond
  • Statistically significant increases in family literacy behaviors linked to school success:
    • sharing books with their children more frequently,
    • visiting the library more frequently
    • establishing a regular routine for sharing books with their child.
Individual attention
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.
Group Dynamic
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.
Partnerships with other organizations
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:
  • Public Libraries
  • Faith-based Organizations
  • Migrant Programs
  • Subsidized Housing Programs
  • Teen Parent Programs
  • Home Visiting Programs
  • Community Agencies
  • Direct Service Settings
  • As an Employee Benefit
  • After School Programs
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--
  • Oral language and early literacy skills
  • Interest in books and reading
  • Book knowledge, comprehension and print knowledge
Cultural Proficiency
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.
Works through existing infrastructures
Core Program: Five Anchor Behaviors
  • Children: The child drives the process. Who can resist a child asking to share a book? When a child is excited about books s/he will ask loved ones to share it over and over again.
  • Implementers: Using a train-the-trainer model, program implementers are trained to communicate early literacy strategies to parents. Raising A Reader helps implementers (often teachers) work directly with parents and build strong communication.
  • Parents: Parents learn and engage in read-aloud strategies. Parent-friendly research-based practices are paired with an award-winning DVD to ensure all parents can share books with children. When children bring home the red bags filled with high-quality children’s books, parents are just as eager to see what’s inside and spend time sharing books together.
  • Bookbags: Raising A Reader’s book bag delivery system is turnkey, making implementation easy. The National Office production team works with each affiliate to identify collections that are right for each community. Books and materials arrive ready to use and can be enhanced with materials and online implementer resources to ensure successful implementation.
  • Libraries: 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.
Fun or gaming element
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.