100 Tips the Scale

At Unite for Literacy, we believe a root cause of poor reading performance is lack of access to an abundance of relevant and engaging books in the home—and we found data to prove it.

Proof is in the data

Home library

We’ve sorted and plotted National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data and found hidden patterns to support our theory that the more books students have in their homes and the more they choose to read for fun, their reading proficiency scores go up along with their quality of life.

When we look at students in the U.S. who have 100+ books at home and have a daily habit of reading, we find a group of students that is not only closing the achievement gap, it’s also outpacing the scores of the average American classroom. We found that students from homes with 100+ books and who read every day are on track to reach 80% proficiency in reading by 2025.

We’re convinced that 100 books in homes represents a tipping point—the point at which we see students consistently read at grade level.

 

More proof

Research by Dr. Mariah Evans, professor and director of graduate studies in the University of Nevada, Reno’s Department of Sociology, as well as coordinator of its Applied Statistics Program, also supports the 100-book tipping point conclusion.

In 2010, Evans completed a 20-year study that looked at the best predictors of graduation rates across 27 countries. In that broad and expansive study, the best predictor of graduation rates in every single country was not parents’ educational level, family income or ethnicity. Graduation rates were best predicted by counting the number of books in the home—and 100 books is the inflection point.

Evans concluded that if children grow up in a home with 100 or more books, they have a 90% probability of graduating 9th grade compared with a 30% probability for children who come from bookless homes.

Abundant books

At Unite for Literacy, our vision—picture book abundance—is based on helping families build home libraries of at least 100 culturally relevant books and a family routine of daily shared joyful reading. Our mission is to create the tools and resources to support that vision. Care to join us?

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NAEP data

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Important Reading Test Questions