Frank Ridzi

The Imagination Library Program: Increasing Parental Reading Through Book Distribution

Research has established a connection between print exposure and reading skills. The authors examined the impact of book access on print exposure via a monthly book distribution program. At 10 months of implementation, 170 families enrolled in the Imagination Library Program in Syracuse, New York responded to a survey. Results indicated that length of enrollment was associated with frequency of child-directed reading and story discussion, even when controlling for child age, gender, income, parental education, race, parental nation of birth, and primary language spoken at home. Consequently, the authors conceptualize such programs as catalysts for developing early literacy skills by increasing child-directed reading.

Community Indicators and the Collective Goods Criterion for Impact

Common wisdom holds that communities can accomplish more when people find ways to work together. However, such nuanced sensibilities can be difficult to measure. This is true in the field of community indicators as well as its allied fields of social movements, collective impact, catalytic philanthropy and community coalitions. Due to the elusiveness of evaluation techniques some in the social movements field have argued for a definition of success based on the collective goods criterion (CGC). In this chapter we explore the case of Syracuse, New York on the occasion of its achievement of seven years of positive change in its key community indicator of the four year graduation rate. Though it would be difficult to claim that Syracuse’s community indicators project, CNY.vitals, caused this change, we explore how a CGC approach can be used to examine how the measurement mentality that accompanied the community indicators project is associated with collective benefits that have accrued to members of the community in terms of cultural capital, philanthropic investment and governmental policy change.

The Imagination Library Program and Kindergarten Readiness Evaluating the Impact of Monthly Book Distribution

Literature suggests that reading to children can have a significant impact on their early literacy development and long-term school performance. We examine whether consistent participation (i.e., three or more years) in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL), a book distribution program that provides one book per month to children ages birth through five, is associated with higher kindergarten readiness. This study examines 2,731 incoming kindergartners in the Syracuse City School District in 2013 and 2014 using the AIMSweb Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) test to assess kindergarten readiness. LNF is frequently identified as the best single indicator of risk for reading failure and has been shown to have a strong ability to predict future reading, vocabulary, and language development. Examining both the entire population and propensity score matched groups, we find that a significantly higher percentage of those consistently participating in DPIL were considered as ready for kindergarten. This difference remained even after controlling for key demographic variables.