The following quotes and sources support the importance of The Buis Book Foundation’s mission.

 “Summer reading loss accounts for roughly 80% of the reading achievement gap between more and less economically advantaged children” (Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2007)

“Simply providing students with an opportunity to have access to books (over the summer) showed positive effects on student reading achievement, based on a word reading fluency assessment” (Bell, Park, Martin, Smith, McCallum, Smyth, & Mingo, 2020)

“Because children from so many low-income families have dropped out of school before reaching 12^th grade and only students remaining in school are assessed, the rich/poor reading achievement gap at age 17 is likely wider than the 4 years reported on the National Assessment of Educational Progress” (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2018)

“Consistently making books available to children from low-income families and to struggling readers enhances reading achievement during the summer months” (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2018)

“The more children read, the better their fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension” (National Reading Panel, 2000, p. 12)

“Volume of reading is important in the development of reading proficiency” (Allington, 2009, 2014; Krashen, 2006; Pressley &
Allington, 2014; Stanovich, 2000)

“Children must have easy access – literally fingertip access – to books that provide engaging, successful reading experiences throughout the calendar year if we want them to read in volume” (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2018)

“Children need an enormous supply of successful reading experiences, both in school and out, to become proficient, independent readers” (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2018)

“Simply increasing poor children’s summer access to books that matched their reading development levels has produced reading growth and the elimination of summer reading loss” (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2018)

“For out-of-school reading, children should not be constrained by their reading levels, but instead, should explore the texts on topics or characters that engage them, reading as many books in a series or on a topic as they desire” (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2018)

“When children selected books that were a bit challenging, they made greater reading gains than when they selected books that
were too difficult or too easy” (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2018)

“Providing access to summer books with choice produced effects on reading achievement almost twice as large versus access without
choice” (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2018)

“Interventions that facilitate children’s access to print material (book lending programs and giveaway programs) cause improvements in psychological outcomes (attitudes), behavioral outcomes (reading behavior), and educational achievement outcomes (emergent literacy skills and reading performance)” (Lindsay, 2018)

“Reading more, thus increasing reading volume, can lead to increased reading achievement, even among those from impoverished backgrounds” (Mol & Bus, 2011)

“Reading a lot of material of their choice (that is, texts that do not seem to mimic those of standardized tests) is critical for them to become better readers” (Williams, 2018)

“Placing a supply of self-selected trade books into the hands of high-poverty students during successive summer vacation breaks resulted in outcomes on state reading assessments that indicated a statistically significant effect (Allington, McGill-Franzen, Camilli, Williams, Graff, Zeig, Zmach, & Nowak, 2010)

Sources

Alexander, K.L., Entwisle, D.R., & Olson, L.S. (2007). Lasting consequences of the summer learning gap.  American Sociological Review, 72(2),
167-180.

Allington, R.L. (2009). If they don’t read much…30 years later. In E.H. Hiebert (Ed.), Reading more, reading better (pp. 30-54). New York, NY: Guilford Publishers.

Allington, R.L., Ed, & McGill-Franzen, A., Ed. (2018). Summer reading: Closing the Rich/Poor reading achievement gap, second edition, language and literacy series. Teachers College Press.

Bell, S.M., Park, Y., Martin, M., Smith, J., McCallum, R.S., Smyth, K., & Mingo, M. (2020). Preventing summer reading loss for students in poverty: A comparison of tutoring and access to books. Educational Studies, 46(4), 440-457. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2019.1599822

Krashen, S. (2006).  Free reading.  School Library Journal, 9, 42-45.

Lindsay, J.J. (2013). Impacts of interventions that increase children’s access to print material.  In R.L. Allington & A. McGill-Franzen (Eds.), Summer reading: Closing the rich/poor reading achievement gap (1^st ed., pp. 20-38). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Mol, S.E., & Bus, A.G. (2011). To read or not to read: A meta-analysis of print exposure from infancy to early adulthood. Psychological Bulletin, 137(2), 267-296.

National Reading Panel. (2000).  Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction.  Retrieved from nationalreadingpanel.org.

Pressley, M. & Allington, R.L. (2014). Reading instruction that works: The case for balanced teaching. New York, NY: Guilford.

Stanovich, K.E. (2000). Progress in understanding reading: Scientific foundations and new frontiers. New York, NY: Guilford.

Williams, L.M. (2018). Selecting books and activities to entice boys to read: Research-based strategies for summers. In R.L. Allington & A. McGill-Franzen (Eds.), Summer reading: Closing the rich/poor reading achievement gap (2^nd ed. p. 65). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.