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Developed by a team of early childhood professionals and librarians with deep experience in family poverty and literacy, the Raising A Reader® program fosters Five Anchor Behaviors encompassing its theory of change. Ten independent evaluations have demonstrated the impact of this theory by documenting dramatically increased parent "read-aloud" behavior as well as greater knowledge of print concepts in children entering kindergarten.
According to the Raising A Reader theory of change, this red book bag filled with picture books quickly becomes a child's favorite toy and children beg their parents to read to them. Early childhood professionals are taught theories of early brain development and ways to help parents with "read-aloud" strategies, even when the parents cannot read themselves. With Raising A Reader, parents can revive story-telling traditions as old as humankind, reading aloud with their children and a magical set of picture books rich in language and multicultural themes.
Kindergarten Readiness
When parents share picture books with their children daily, do these same children enter kindergarten more prepared for reading? According to a decade of national research, the answer is a resounding "yes."
All Indicators Show Success
Four phases of Raising A Reader evaluations show all indicators of the program's success are increasing — children are begging their parents to read to them, and parents are sharing storybooks and taking their children to the library with greater frequency. Furthermore, four-year-olds with access to the Raising A Reader program are exceeding national norms for kindergarten readiness when compared with other students from families of low education and income status.
To review evaluations of the Raising A Reader program, download the following Acrobat PDF files:
RAR Evaluation Executive Summary: Silicon Valley
RAR Family "Read-Aloud" & Kindergarten Readiness: Norfolk, VA (2004)
RAR Family "Read-Aloud" & Kindergarten Readiness: San Francisco (August 2003)
RAR Kindergarten Readiness Evaluation: Santa Clara County (August 2001)
RAR Family "Read-Aloud" Evaluation: San Mateo County (July 2000)
RAR Pre-To-Three Evaluation: San Mateo County (2000)
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