The effect of schools’ reading promotion activities on fourth graders’ reading engagement outside of school

Periodical
Bulletin of Educational Research
Volume
63
Year
2017
Issue number
2
Page range
101-133
Relates to study/studies
PIRLS 2011

The effect of schools’ reading promotion activities on fourth graders’ reading engagement outside of school

A study of Happy Reading 101 Program

Abstract

Among educational policies promoting reading, the Happy Reading 101 program (the HR101P) is a large-scale and activity-based reading educational program. The HR101P aims to increase students' reading engagement. In order to assess the effects of schools' reading promotion activities on students' reading engagement outside of school, this study took the three activity elements of concept-oriented reading instruction into account and used the propensity score in multilevel models to analyze data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). The results are as follows. First, the fourth-graders frequently exposed to school reading activities with more opportunities of choosing preferred books and quiet reading became more engaged in reading outside of school on average than those counterparts without these opportunities. Second, the average effect of being frequently exposed to school-wide reading activities did not depend on the extent of the school-level reading promotion activities. Finally, based on the findings, this study concludes with suggestions and references to the authorities of reading promotion activities and to future researchers.