HOME READING CULTURE “Young children who have access to books in the home and who are read aloud to regularly have the best chance of becoming successful readers.” —Dr. Catherine Snow, professor of education, Harvard University
KEY FINDINGS
> > Children raised in homes with more than 500 books spent three years longer in school than children whose parents had only a few books. Growing up in a household with 500 or more books is “as great an advantage as having university- educated rather than unschooled parents, and twice the advantage of having a professional rather than an unskilled father” (Evans, et al., 2010; Miller and Sharp, 2018). > > The results suggest that children whose parents have lots of books are nearly 20 percent more likely to finish college. Indeed, as a predictor of college graduation, books in the home trump even the education of the parents. 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 (Evans, et al., 2010). > > Regardless of how many books the family already has, each addition to a home library helps a child get a little farther in school. But the gains are not equally great across the socioeconomic spectrum; rather, they are larger for families of more modest means. Children from families with less gain more in the first few years of school. Moreover, having books in the home has a greater impact on children from the least educated families, versus children of the university-educated elite (Evans, et al., 2010). > > In general, the books help establish a reading or “scholarly culture” in the home—one that persists from generation to generation within families, largely independent of education and class—creating a “taste for books” and promoting the skills and knowledge that foster both literacy and numeracy and, thus, lead to lifelong academic advantages (Evans et al., 2010; Miller and Sharp, 2018). > > According to the 2013 Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report , having parents who serve as “reading role models”—or with many books in the home—has a greater impact on kids’ reading frequency than household income.
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CHAPTER 5: TEACH 6 FAMILY LITERACY
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