Does access to books mitigate the effects of poverty on reading achievement?

[Stephen Krashen]

Does access to books mitigate the effects of poverty on reading achievement? A third study.

Schubert, F. and Becker, R. 2010. Social inequality of reading literacy:

A longitudinal analysis with cross-sectional data of PIRLS 2001and PISA 2000 utilizing the pair wise matching procedure. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 29:109-133.

Schubert and Becker (2010) matched nearly 3000 children in Germany with similar backgrounds and examined their
performance on the 2001 PIRLS test (given at age 9 or 10), the 2000 PISA test
(given age 15) and on their parents' estimation of their literacy level before
starting school.

The home print environment was a strong predictor of reading achievement, even when income, parental education, aspects of schooling, language used at home, and
other aspects of the home environment were controlled. This was the case at age
15 and also at age 10 in Germany. The home print environment was about as
strong a predictor as SES.

This is the third recent study that shows that access to books is as strong a predictor of reading ability as poverty.

The others:

Achterman, D. 2008. Haves, Halves, and Have-Nots: School Libraries and Student Achievement in California. PhD dissertation, University of North Texas. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-9800:1

Krashen, S., Lee, SY, and McQuillan, J. 2010. An analysis of the PIRLS (2006) data: Can the school library reduce the effect of poverty on reading achievement? CSLA Journal, in
press. California School Library Association.

[Yvonne Siu-Runyan]

More books, librarians, and libraries are needed, NOT MORE TESTING.

[Bill Templer]

One heavy tilt in such inquiry is that it's largely Euro-Atlantic, or richer Asian societies. The reading culture in North America or Germany among better-income strata very different from reading cultures and 'home print environment' among the professional working classes and even 'elite' in Neoal, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Gulf Arabia. Home print environment may be a Sahara despite plenty of dough. Comparison research badly needed for much of the real world. In Laos, there's a severe lack of books of any kind in the national language, let alone in the many 'minority' languages. A comparative evidence-based based typology of ecologies of reading [and home & neighborhood print environments] is really needed to offset the pro-Western/richer Asian tilt in research. --Bill, U of Malaya

[Linda Janney]

Not a big surprise. Why don't the decision makers read the studies? Oh, yes, they have their hands in the pockets of those that donate and can't turn the pages.