Do books make for literacy?

We have long “known” that kids from homes which contain more books tend to be better at reading — but we couldn’t be sure that that wasn’t because of encouragement from parents, who by buying books, might appear to have valued reading more than parents who didn’t and might therefore be assumed to encourage it in their offspring. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reports on a five-year controlled experiment involving 30 schools at which pupils were given books, with 30 schools where no books were given. (Link via Technology * Innovation * Publishing.) Caption: Theory of action: sustained access to books improves literacy achievement. In this randomized trial, we assigned schools to provide sustained access to high-interest, culturally relevant books within existing literacy contexts. Sustained access strengthens the home literacy environment, increases voluntary reading and print exposure, and improves literacy achievement. Effects accumulate over time through…