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Raising a Reader (RAR): Classic Red Book Bag Program

Category

Family Support, Literacy

Child's Age

0-1 years, 1-2 years, 2-3 years, 3-4 years, 4-5 years

Participant

Parents/Guardian

Languages

English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Other

Brief Description

Raising a Reader (RAR)’s Classic Red Book Bag Program helps families develop, practice, and maintain shared reading routines critical to early learning success. Through this program, children receive a Red Book Bag each week filled with high quality, culturally responsive books to take home.

Expected Impact

  • Increased frequency of reading behaviors, such as having a regular time for reading, spending time reading or sharing books with their child 3 or more times a week, having a regular reading time of 20 minutes or more, and visiting the library 1-2 to several times per month 
  • Increased frequency of child literacy skills, such as quietly listening, turning pages, and asking questions while reading

Core Components for Model Fidelity

  • Training: Train‐the‐Trainer procedures are used by RAR coordinators to train RAR implementers & parents. Coordinators attend a RAR Coordinator Training and then conduct 2 trainings for implementers each year. Implementers receive onsite coaching yearly during a site visit from the RAR Coordinator. Parents are also provided with two training opportunities each year. 
  • Book Bag Rotation: Red Bags with 3-4 award-winning books each rotate into homes weekly for 6-10 months. 
  • Library: Families are connected to their local library. 
  • Family Engagement: The Classic Red Book Bag Program’s Core Model includes two family engagement sessions that provide families with information and strategies for sharing books and creating home-based literacy routines. All parents are offered training opportunities at least twice each year.
    • Kickoff Orientation: Introduces parents to the book rotation and simple book-sharing techniques.
    • Parent Interactive Book Sharing/Read Aloud Training: Provides training in interactive book sharing/read aloud skills.
  • Evaluation: Evaluation is conducted each year using RAR's evaluation to measure fidelity.

Languages Materials are Available in

English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Other*

*Contact purveyor about additional available languages.

Delivery Mode

RAR’s Classic Red Book Bag Program is delivered in person in settings that serve children and families, including but not limited to:

  • Playgroups 
  • Home Visiting 
  • Library programs 
  • Early Head Start 
  • Head Start 
  • Family Child Care Homes 
  • Childcare and Preschool Centers 
  • PreK-2nd Grade Classrooms 
  • After school programs 
  • Adult-education programs

Dosage

Bags are rotated weekly for 6-10 months per year, exposing children to over 100 books per rotation cycle. 

During the 6-10 month rotation cycle, sites offer at least 2 family engagement events/workshops/trainings.

Infrastructure for Implementation

Materials: Raising a Reader Coordinators purchase materials for the sites they serve that implement the Classic Red Book Bag program. Materials include (but are not limited to): 

  • Red Book Bags w/ Tags; 3-4 Books per Red Book Bag;
  • Implementer manuals (1 per classroom/group); 
  • Pocket Charts and organizational materials; 
  • Coordinator Manual Materials are generally kept at the site/classroom during the program year. 

Space: Enough space to store materials.  Space needed for family engagement events. The structure of Family Engagement events varies from site to site.

Staffing Requirements

The RAR Coordinator and Implementer can be the same individual, when the RAR Affiliate agency is a small organization serving a small number of families.

RAR Coordinator

  • No specific educational or experiential requirements for RAR Coordinator. This is up to each agency that is an Affiliate.
  • RAR Coordinator will spend, on average, 0.025 hours per week per child on Raising a Reader tasks (correspondence, site visits, training, maintaining materials, managing data, etc.) per year. For a program serving 150 children, a RAR Coordinator should expect to spend about 4 hours per week/16 hours per month on program implementation. This amount of time may vary depending on the level of service that the RAR Coordinator provides to each site.

RAR Implementer

  • Individuals providing RAR to children and their parents/caregivers. This may include teachers, home visitors, and parent educators, among others. Implementers may be employees of the Affiliate agency or of partner agencies implementing RAR. 
  • Implementers report to the RAR Coordinator and are responsible for bag rotation, serving as the primary contact with families, ensuring that children and families have meaningful contact with libraries, and collecting data under the RAR Coordinator’s supervision.

NCPC strongly recommends staff receive training in the Standards of Quality for Family Support and Strengthening. Contact Positive Childhood Alliance North Carolina (PCANC) or National Family Support Network (NFSN) for more information, training, and certification. 

Training for Model Fidelity

One person per organization (RAR Affiliate site) is designated as the RAR Coordinator. This person is required to attend RAR Coordinator Training. The training is currently offered virtually by RAR at least 4 times per year. The Virtual Training takes place for 2-3 hours per week over 4 weeks. In 2024, Raising a Reader will resume offering in-person Coordinator training. This 2-day training is offered on the east coast and in the Bay Area of California at least twice per year. Historically, RAR has offered in-person training in North Carolina each summer.

All RAR Coordinators conduct two trainings for RAR implementers during each program year. This training includes a kick-off orientation and implementer skill building training.

All implementers receive onsite coaching at least once a year as part of a coordinator site visit.

Parents have the opportunity to attend two trainings each year, which include an orientation to the program and a training in interactive book sharing/reading aloud.

Contact Information

https://raisingareader.org/classic-red-book-bag-program/

Michelle Sioson Hyman: Senior Vice President, Programs and Partnerships; mshyman@raisingareader.org

Rebecca Chrystal: Managing Director, Programs and Partnerships; rchrystal@raisingareader.org

Cost Estimates

The costs associated with implementing Raising A Reader include: 

  • A one-time affiliation fee of $2000 that includes the cost of our 2-day Coordinator training (budget separately for travel and lodging) as well as access to all the resources and tools available through the Raising A Reader Network. 
  • Program material costs can be estimated at $115/child for the first year of the program, $20/child for subsequent years, which over the course of 5 years averages to $35/child a year. 
  • Administrative costs need to also be considered since someone on staff will need to oversee the RAR program. This “coordinator” will spend on average .025 hours per week per child on Raising A Reader tasks (correspondence, site visits, trainings, maintaining materials, managing data, etc.). 

RAR works with Affiliates to identify funding streams, support with grant writing and fundraising and offers yearly training on grant writing for Affiliates.

Purpose Service Code (PSC)

5512 – Literacy Programs

Program Identifier (PID)

Raising a Reader (RAR)- Classic Red Book Bag Program 

Minimal Outputs for NCPC Reporting

FY 24-25:

  • Number of child care facilities participating
  • Number of children participating 
  • Optional: Number of community sites participating

Minimal Outcomes for NCPC Reporting

FY 24-25:

  • Increase in frequency of adult and child shared reading

Minimal Measures for NCPC Reporting

FY 24-25:

  • RAR Parent Survey

NCPC Evidence Categorization

Evidence Informed- 2 evaluation reports.

Research Summary

Two of the most relevant publications on RAR’s Classic Red Book Bag Program include evaluation reports from Shasta County1 and San Joaquin in California.2 Populations sampled in the research primarily included families who spoke English and Spanish, had a child age 5 or younger, identified as Caucasian or Latino/Hispanic, reported an annual household income of $25,000 or less, and had some college education. RAR participants reported increases in reading behaviors such as having a regular time for reading, spending time reading or sharing books with their child 3 or more times a week, increasing their regular reading time to 20 minutes or more, and visiting the library 1-2 to several times per month. There were also increases in child literacy skills, such as quietly listening, turning pages, and asking questions while reading. The greatest changes were seen for adult participants who were participating in RAR for the first time, who had a high school education or less, who primarily spoke Spanish at home, and who had a family income under $40,000 per year.  

  1. ^ See Brisolara (2008). This evaluation report details findings of Raising A Reader's Classic Red Book Bag program implemented in Shasta County, California between July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008. Program participants included 1174 parents/guardians; however, results are limited to families who completed both a pretest and posttest (Raising a Reader (RAR) Parent Questionnaires). This sample is 585 respondents (50% of the total adult participants who enrolled and completed the pretest) representing 1,417 children (35% of all children enrolled). Of the participating children, 38% were under the age of 3 and 62% were between the ages of 3 and 5. Most adult respondents spoke English at home (96%), identified as Caucasian (83%) or Latino/Hispanic (11%), and were participating in RAR for the first time (58%). Many respondents indicated that they earned $25,000 a year or less (45%) and had at least some college education (44%). Measures included the RAR Parent Questionnaire as a pre- and posttest, RAR Year-End Provider Survey for facilitators/educators, a survey of non-participants, and Head Start Work Sampling. RAR participants reported increases in reading behaviors such as having a regular time for reading (p < .011), spending time reading or sharing books with their child 3 or more times a week (p < .0001), increasing their regular reading time to 20 minutes or more (p < .003), and visiting the library 1-2 to several times per month. There was also a significant decrease in the number of RAR participants at the posttest who reported that their child did not or rarely went to the library (p < .009). The greatest changes were seen for adult participants who were participating in RAR for the first time, who had a high school education or less, and who had a family income under $40,000 per year. Participants wither higher education levels, higher annual incomes, or previous RAR experience were more likely to report taking their children to the library at both pre- and posttest and having 20 or more books in the home. The evaluation was limited by implementation challenges, including concerns about the RAR bags containing lead which led to program disruption. For example, sites either used plastic Ziplock bags temporarily, paused implementation until new RAR bags were received, or ended their participation.
  2. ^ See First 5 San Joaquin Early Literacy Evaluation Newsletter (2019). This evaluation sampled 1,504 families and children ages 0-5 through home visitation or participation in a First 5 San Joaquin preschool. Measures included the Raising a Reader (RAR) survey at the beginning of the program and at the 26-week mark. Results indicated increased engagement in literacy activities (reading books most/every day, visiting the library within the last month, and having over 5 books in the home) as well as increases in the child's literacy skills (such as quietly listening, turning pages, and asking questions). Compared to their English-speaking peers, families who primarily spoke Spanish reported greater gains in all 3 literacy activities and were more likely to have a child ages 0-3 (53% compared to 24%) and participate in home visits (79% compared to 30%). Statistical significance was not reported in this evaluation.

Researched Population

  • English language learners 
  • Children ages 5 or younger
  • Families identifying as Latino/Hispanic
  • Lower income families (reporting an annual household income of $25,000 or less)
  • Parents/caregivers with varying degrees of education

Brisolara, S. (2008). The Raising A Reader Program: Results Evaluation.

First 5 San Joaquin Early Literacy Evaluation Newsletter. (2019).



Local Partnerships Currently Implementing

Local Partnerships in purple have adopted Raising a Reader (RAR): Classic Red Book Bag Program. Local Partnership contact information can be found here.