Our Impact
OWNING A BOOK CAN OPEN UP A WORD OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR A CHILD
The term “book desert”* was coined to describe communities where children have limited access to books. It’s estimated that around 32 million children in the United States lack access to books in their homes, schools, and communities**. We believe increasing book ownership is a matter of equity.
More books in more homes equals more reading, more dreaming, more doing.
* Ref: Neuman and Moland, Urban Education 2019 Back to citation 1
** Ref: https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2020/11/04/how-you-can-help-endbookdeserts Back to citation 2
FINDINGS FROM A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL, AND THE IMPACT WE’RE MAKING
Over a five-year period, from 2018 to 2023, we embarked on a journey to build evidence about the impact of book ownership. Specifically, Bernie’s Book Bank participated in a five-year randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to measure the impact of Bernie’s Book Bank providing free, high-quality books on students’ literacy achievement.
In a school-level randomized controlled trial, generously funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and conducted by Dr. Geoffrey Borman in partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools, the study randomly assigned sixty schools to either receive the Bernie’s Book Bank book distribution intervention (the treatment group) or to a waitlist control group that would not receive the books until the conclusion of the study. In the treatment schools, Bernie’s Book Bank would provide all kindergarten through sixth-grade students with an average of seven high-quality free books per year, or a total of 34 free books over a five-year period.
The study findings? Students from Bernie’s Book Bank schools achieved statistically significant reading gains relative to their counterparts in control schools.
Specifically, the study tracked students who were in grades 1 and 2, respectively, at the start of the study and who remained within the school district over a five-year period (2018-2023), through grades 5 and 6, respectively – and found that students in Bernie’s Book Bank schools achieved higher scores on the spring 2023 standardized state literacy assessment (the Wisconsin Forward Exam, the study’s primary outcome). The observed effect on literacy achievement would translate to approximately 25-32% of a school year in additional learning, relative to the controlled group.[1]
For those students who attended Bernie’s Book Bank schools at the beginning of the study and remained in those schools through the five-year follow-up and therefore received multiple years of books, the impact on literacy achievement was even larger – the equivalent of approximately 52-65% of a typical school year’s growth.
All at a cost of $16 per child per year.
To our knowledge, Bernie’s Book Bank is the only active nonprofit organization to participate in an RCT directly evaluating the effectiveness of a comprehensive free book distribution program, and that has been found to produce positive, long-term effects on literacy achievement.[2] It’s simple really – we believe better futures begin with books, and we’re committed to building the evidence.
Read the complete study
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STUDY
Arnold Ventures Summary of RCT Grant
[1] This estimation of literacy growth is based on the study’s findings that, at Grades 5-6, Bernie’s Book Bank students’ scores were 0.100 standard deviations (SD) higher than control students’ scores on the Wisconsin Forward standardized assessment; and national estimates of students’ average growth across various standardized literacy achievement tests from Hill, et al (2008). Hill estimates average student growth on literacy would be 0.97 SD in Grades 1-2, 0.60 SD in Grades 2-3, 0.36 in Grades 3-4, 0.40 in Grades 4-5, and 0.32 SD in Grades 5-6 – for an average of 0.53 SD across grades 1-6. Since the Bernie’s Book Bank study found an effect of 0.101 standard deviations on literacy growth, one could estimate that the effect would translate to around 1/5 (or 20%) of a grade level. Citation: Hill, C.J., Bloom, H.S., Black, A.R., & Lipsey, M.W. (2008). Empirical benchmarks for interpreting effect sizes in research. Child Development Perspectives, 2(3), 172-177. https://doi.org/10.111/j.1750-8606.2008.00061.x (Full text available online).
[1] Prior RCTs have been carried out of free book fairs for elementary school students from low-income families and found to produce suggestive-to-promising impacts on reading achievement (e.g., see Allington, et al. “Addressing Summer Reading Setback Among Economically Disadvantaged Elementary Students.” Reading Psychology, 2010, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 411-427). However, those efforts have taken place strictly within the context of research studies, and there does not appear to be an associated organization to carry out the intervention within communities.
EVERY DOLLAR YOU DONATE IS AN INVESTMENT IN CHANGING FUTURES
A $16 investment in Bernie’s Book Bank provides 8 books a year to a child. A $200 investment provides enough to support a child through the full Bernie’s Book Bank program, building a home library of 96 books.
It’s a proven investment. Books aren’t optional. Literacy is non-negotiable. If you want to make a difference in children’s lives, now and in the future, there’s no better way than to help us get books into the homes and hands of children who need them most.
Why We’re Here
32
Million
An estimated 32 million children in the United States lack access to books in the homes, schools, and communities.1
What We Do
29
million
We’ve distributed 29 million free quality children’s books and counting.
315
Thousand
315,500 children receive 8 free quality books every year, from birth through sixth grade, building a library of 96 books.
<$2.00
The average retail price of a children’s book is $13.30. We source, process and distribute a book for less than $2.00.
5
Year
Completed a 5-year Randomized Control Trial conducted with Milwaukee Public Schools studying the impact providing free books has on students’ reading achievement.4
1. ILA, Literacy Now, 2020 Back to citation 1
2. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Back to citation 2
3. Council on Early Childhood, 2014 Back to citation 3
4. Randomized Control Trial, 2018-2023 Back to citation 4
16 YEARS OF IMPACT
Latest Key Documents
Access the current important public documents for our organization. Transparency is a cornerstone of our mission and we’re committed to keeping our community informed.