Recent years have seen a plunge in the reading levels of young students nationwide, according to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), with the most extreme losses felt by underrepresented groups that include Black boys. Reversing these declines has been the work of many researchers, teachers, and education experts. Efforts led by former Tools Competition winner and founder of Barbershop Books, Alvin Irby, may yield one of the most impactful and “fun” approaches to improving reading scores yet. In a Q & A with 5 Questions, Irby who most recently partnered with the National Football League and others to broaden his program, discusses the current landscape for improving reading gains and how educators and others can help students build their reading identity and literacy engagement.
What Are Barbershop Books And Reading So Lit?
Barbershop Books is an award-winning literacy nonprofit organization that inspires Black boys and other vulnerable children to read for fun through child-centered, culturally responsive, and community-based programming and content. Our namesake program, Barbershop Books, is a family and community engagement model that creates child-friendly reading spaces in barbershops and provides early literacy training to barbers. Independent evaluations show that this innovative programming helps Black boys identify as readers and increases book access and out-of-school time reading in participating barbershops.
Reading So Lit is a web-based reading identity exploration and assessment platform for grades PreK-5. This groundbreaking reading tool generates actionable, strengths-based data that equips educators to make student-driven decisions about content, reading instruction, and learning environments. Reading So Lit provides students new vocabulary and world knowledge to better understand and articulate their reading preferences and improves non-academic levers of reading success such as reading identity, confidence, engagement, and motivation.
Why are these programs important?
Accelerating reading achievement in the most under-resourced communities with the most underserved students requires content and conditions that cultivate children’s intrinsic motivation to read. Unfortunately and ironically, many academic interventions designed to improve students’ reading skills result in students not identifying as readers and not reading for fun. So, a portion of the reading gains achieved during the school or from tutoring are lost during the summer and long breaks. When reading and learning stop when the classes or tutoring end, children with the least academic supports outside of school struggle to catch up to their peers.
Barbershop Books and Reading So Lit are important because they complement skill-based reading supports needed for early literacy development with reading identity development programming and assessments that improve non-academic elements of reading, which a growing body of research suggests may play an outsized role in the academic success of the most vulnerable students. Fortunately, children can’t read more and get worse at reading so a major key to solving America’s current reading crisis must involve increasing the amount of time students spend reading for fun.
When reading and learning stop when the classes or tutoring end, children with the least academic supports outside of school struggle to catch up to their peers.
What's Been the Biggest Surprise So Far?
I have been most surprised by how infrequently reading identity or reading identity development are mentioned in early literacy curriculum, research, or assessment. Successful professionals in knowledge-based careers tend to identify as readers and learners or tend to attribute their success, at least in part, to their intrinsic motivation to read and learn. However, the vast majority of reading interventions, and the funds that accompany them, are being allocated to identify and address skill deficiencies with little thought, resources, or research dedicated to identifying and scaling content and strategies that inspire the most underserved children to read for fun.
Should more money be spent on purchasing books that kids will actually read when it’s not required? Absolutely, but how much should be spent on highly-engaging books versus reading interventions? I have no idea but someone needs to be studying questions like these because there isn’t enough high-dosage tutoring for all of the students who are most in need of it.
Where do you see these programs in five years?
In five years, I see Barbershop Books supporting child-friendly reading spaces in 2,500 barbershops nationwide and serving more than 150,000 boys per month. I envision partnerships that form a national network of libraries, school districts, municipalities, and organizations – all working in concert to curate content and conditions that inspire America’s most vulnerable children to identify as readers and to read for fun.
For Reading So Lit, I see more than 2,500 Title I schools and more than 50,000 educators leveraging our tool’s strengths-based reading data to make student-driven decisions about pedagogy and procurement that help accelerate reading achievement for the students who need it most.
Not all children’s experiences or interactions with books or reading are positive. Not all children had someone curl up with them and read to them so adults must exercise a lot more empathy, designing learning experiences and environments that simultaneously support reading proficiency and reduce reading trauma.
What Else Should People Know?
As a former New York City kindergarten and first grade teacher, I know that America’s current reading crisis can be solved. Substantial progress on this seemingly intractable problem can be made, if we will it to be so.
When you read about the doom and gloom of low literacy rates among Black boys and other vulnerable children, I want you to remember that many kids’ resistance to reading is a form of self-love. They’re resisting books and uninspiring experiences that aren’t meaningful, relevant, or engaging. No one, including children, wants to be tortured or traumatized. Not all children’s experiences or interactions with books or reading are positive. Not all children had someone curl up with them and read to them so adults must exercise a lot more empathy, designing learning experiences and environments that simultaneously support reading proficiency and reduce reading trauma.
Let’s challenge ourselves and other adults to invite children to be the pilots of their reading journeys. Let their interests and passions, no matter how silly or superficial, inform the content that we curate while still creating space and safe environments for them to explore and discover new things.
