BookSpring depends upon education, communication, and health research to guide our program design and operations. We have participated in research projects with several universities, and offer our own Central Texas Reading Survey to help our entire community measure our reading results with rigor every year. Read more about what we do with research and how we’re giving back in this section.

Exploring the 2019 Central Texas Reading Survey
BookSpring’s 2019 Central Texas Reading Survey offers insight into the state of reading in Central Texas and early literacy efforts in our community. The survey provides valuable information about the reading habits of families in Central Texas, while raising many interesting questions about the state of reading in the region, ...
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Summer Reading Enriches Future Academic Success
It is no mystery that summer break can result in an exponential loss of academic skills or the “summer slide.” Research conducted by John Hopkins’ sociology Professor Karl Alexander shows that low-income youth suffer significantly from a loss of academic skills over the summertime. The losses pile up contributing to ...
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Reading is Complex: And That’s Good!
by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director Reading isn't simple. I am noticing more discussion lately in education circles about reading and complexity. By complexity, we mean both the quality of the text that is being read, and what is going on inside the minds and hearts of the people who ...
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Highlights from 2018 The Central Texas Reading Survey
BookSpring’s Central Texas Reading Survey offers intriguing insights into the state of reading in Central Texas, and the implications for early literacy efforts in our community. We launched the assessment to provide you with real-time statistics that measure reading habits among parents and caregivers with children under the age of 12. Low Book ...
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20 Books at Home Significantly Impacts Success
by Christy Anderson The Number of Books at Home Impact a Child’s Educational Success It has long been asserted that parents’ education is the primary factor in predicting the future education level of a child. But in a long-term, worldwide study published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and ...
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Wanted: Healthcare Professionals Who Care About Academic Success
By Rachel Elliot, BookSpringRx Director Social science research shows a statistically significant correlation between the size of home libraries and children’s future academic success. According to Unite for Literacy’s book desert map, which analyzes variables including income, ethnicity, geography and languages, at least 70% US households have fewer than 20 ...
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New Study on Book Gifting for Babies
By Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director The tradition of book gifting has been studied scientifically by researchers in education and healthcare for many years. Practices include bookmobiles, little free libraries, and other early literacy interventions and social programs at the regional, national, and global levels. We at BookSpring look to ...
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Targeting Summer Slide with New Program
By BookSpringEd Director Photos by Tyler Schmitt / The Mill Photography BookSpring is excited to announce the launch of Summer Success, a new full-scale program designed to address the widespread drop in reading skills that occurs in economically disadvantaged elementary students over the summer. Research has shown that over 80 percent ...
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Results of the 2017 Central Texas Reading Survey
Over Half of Austin Children Reading on Mobile Devices A wide body of research consistently shows that reading is one of the most important indicators of personal and professional success, and yet, historically we have known very little about why children and families choose to read. Now, a new reading ...
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New Reading Program Shows Promising Results
BookSpring has just completed preliminary evaluation of the pilot Read For Success program in Central Texas and the results are very encouraging. The program is designed to reduce the summer slide, a phenomenon where children’s academic skills, including reading, decline during the academic year break. According to Reading Is Fundamental ...
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Reading to Young Children Makes Lasting Impact
by Christy Anderson It makes sense: the more a child reads, the better a child gets at reading. But studies are showing that being read to is just as critical to a child’s growing literacy and language development, even in very young children, including infants and toddlers. Even Children Who ...
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