Children lack access to books, especially high-quality, high-interest books.

Complete report

Reading is the foundation of education and vital to children’s success in school and beyond. Regular reading not only improves vocabulary and school performance, but also helps children develop empathy and self-confidence.¹ And when children fall behind in reading, learning other subjects becomes increasingly difficult with each passing school year. Students unable to read at grade level by 4th grade are four times less likely to graduate from high school.

According to the Nation’s Report Card, more than 6 out of 10 U.S. 4th graders are not reading at grade level.² For low-income students at high-poverty schools, that number is worse: 8 in 10 are not proficient.³
 
To understand some of the causes of this reading gap and identify solutions to help close it, Age of Learning recently conducted nationwide surveys of more than 1,000 parents and 1,000 teachers of children ages 2 to 12. Participants reported on children’s access to books and reading habits, and described what they see as the major obstacles to developing confident and successful readers. The data reveals three important factors contributing to the reading gap:

1.Many children lack access to books, especially high-quality, high-interest books.

2.Parents aren’t sure how to support their children’s reading needs.

3.Children don’t spend enough time reading outside of school.

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Key Findings

1. Children lack access to books, especially high-quality, high-interest books.

Parent survey data shows that more than half of American families have fewer than 50 books (of any kind) in their homes, including children’s books. And according to teachers, lack of access to books at home is one of the top three obstacles to getting their students to read.
Unfortunately, many families cannot count on their child’s school to provide access to books. Ten percent of teachers report that their school does not have a school library, and 56% report that their students do not have access to a digital library. This confirms research finding that more than 8,000 elementary schools in the U.S. do not have a school library⁴ and that the number of school librarians has been declining dramatically.⁵


For both teachers and parents, cost and space are the top challenges to providing books for children. Seven out of 10 teachers said the cost of books was an obstacle to building a classroom library, with 77% reporting that they bought books for their classroom with their own money. For parents, cost is the second most cited obstacle to building a home library.

Even when funds are available, teachers and parents report that they don’t have enough room to store books: 54% of teachers and 47% of parents cite lack of space as a major challenge to building a library.

As children learn to read and come to enjoy a wide range of both fiction and nonfiction books, variety and volume of books are key to encouraging their reading development. Based on teachers’ reporting on student performance, students that have access to both a traditional and digital library are 53% more likely to be reading above grade level than peers without such access.