The modest increases in diversity in children’s literature continued in 2023, according to the latest Diversity Statistics report released by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC).
In 2023, 49 percent of the books the CCBC documented had significant BIPOC content (up from 46 percent in 2022) and 40 percent had at least one BIPOC primary character (up from 39 percent in 2022). The number of books with at least one BIPOC creator was about the same as 2022. Those numbers continue the trend of slow growth in representation year to year. In 2022, the books with significant BIPOC content went up two percent (from 44 to 46) while BIPOC primary characters jumped three percent (from 36 to 39).
For this report, the CCBC analyzed 3,491 books for children and teens that were published in 2023.
For details, go to https://www.slj.com/story/Books%20%26%20Media/BIPOC-Representation-Childrens-Literatures-Continues-Its-Slow-rise-According-CCBC-Diversity-Statistics
Category Archives: Research
Parent Reading Research
A large-scale Chilean study looked at the relationship between parents’ reading habits and those of their children. Unsurprisingly, the study revealed that, when it comes to adolescents’ leisure reading, the impact of parents’ reading motivation and frequency proved far more significant than socioeconomic status. Writes the author, “The findings reported here should encourage stakeholders to promote the love of reading in not only children but also their parents.
Cubillos, M. (2023). A chip off the old block: Do reading-motivated parents raise reading-motivated children? Reading Research Quarterly.
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Reading Research
Digital Practices for Reading Study
Researchers “used an academic resilience framework to explore how adolescents from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds overcame adversity and achieved high levels of reading proficiency. Our main aim was to investigate whether digital reading practices and reading engagement (reading motivation and metacognitive strategies) could act as protective factors, individually and collectively, promoting academic resilience among students with low SES. Digital reading was related to reading motivation, and then to better awareness of metacognitive strategies, which in turn was shown to be linked to increased reading achievement for all students.
Jang, E., Seo, Y., & Brutt-Griffler, J. (2022). Building Academic Resilience in Literacy: Digital Reading Practices and Motivational and Cognitive Engagement. Reading Research Quarterly.
Reading Intervention Programs Literature Review
Noticing that most scholarly efforts to examine the efficacy of reading intervention (RI) programs reviewed quantitative analyses of changes in reading tests, investigators reviewed 20 years of research, specifically examining two key facets of RI: placement and curriculum. What they discovered was a perpetuating cycle of instruction that keeps students trapped in intervention programs.
Learned, J., Frankel, K, & Brooks, M. (2022). Disrupting Secondary Reading Intervention: A Review of Qualitative Research and a Call to Action. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 65(6), 507-517. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jaal.1234
Secondary School Reading Study in England
A recent study of reading achievement of students in England’s secondary schools revealed several factors that predicted reading gains: leadership of reading such as a deputy head of literacy lead, regular assessment to accurately determine students’ reading needs, training staff on emerging reading strategies, highly skilled librarians to select and promote appropriate books, adequate funding to support reader needs, and staff awareness of students’ reading levels and needs.
‘Now the whole school is reading’: Supporting struggling readers in secondary schools. (2022, Oct.). Ofstead.
Print books preference study
An Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study across approximately 30 countries found that teens who said they most often read paper books scored considerably higher on a 2018 reading test taken by 15-year-olds compared to teens who said they rarely or never read books. Even among students of similar socioeconomic backgrounds, those who read books in a paper format scored a whopping 49 points higher on the Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA. That’s equal to almost 2.5 years of learning. By comparison, students who tended to read books more often on digital devices scored only 15 points higher than students who rarely read – a difference of less than a year’s worth of learning.
Ikeda, M. and G. Rech (2022), “Does the digital world open up an increasing divide in access to print books?”, PISA in Focus, No. 118, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/54f9d8f7-en.
Print and Reading Study
Teenagers who say they most often read paper books scored higher on reading tests than their peers who rarely or never read, according to a study of students in about 30 countries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Findings showed that students who read physical books also outpaced students who read digital books.
OECD. (2022). Does the digital world open up an increasing divide in access to print books? (2022). OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/22260919
Australian students’ reading habits
This study examined Australian students’ reading habits: https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/infographic-student-enjoyment-of-reading