Free books block ‘summer slide’ in low-income students is the headline of an article in USA Today.

Here’s an excerpt:

For a study to be published later this year in Reading Psychology, Allington and colleagues selected students in 17 high-poverty elementary schools in Florida and, for three consecutive years, gave each child 12 books, from a list the students provided, on the last day of school.

In all, 852 students received books each year, paid for mostly by federal Title I money. Three years later, researchers found that those students who received books had “significantly higher” reading scores, experienced less of a summer slide and read more on their own each summer than the 478 who didn’t get books.

I’m adding this post to My Best Posts On Books: Why They’re Important & How To Help Students Select, Read, Write & Discuss Them.