Our Research
Book Harvest is committed to continuous self-assessment, including rigorous external evaluation, to identify best practices as we expand our efforts to rewrite outcomes for all children.
In 2013, Book Harvest launched Book Babies, a home visiting literacy coaching intervention that starts at birth and continues for five full years, through kindergarten entry. Our professional staff works alongside parents, at their kitchen tables and on their living room sofas, to identify their goals for their children, provide them with the resources, modeling, and information they need to thrive in their role as their child’s first and best teacher, and build social capital networks with other parents.
Our model is parent-led and parent-informed. Its unique dosage, frequency, duration, and affordability makes it a candidate for population-level scaling; it holds the potential to confer large-scale kindergarten-readiness, a critical milestone that has long eluded low-income families and families of color stuck in conditions of generational poverty and systemic racism.
Book Babies Randomized Control Trial
In 2018, Book Harvest was proud to collaborate with Imprints Cares to launch Book Babies in Winston Salem. Imprints Cares has a distinguished 50-year track record of providing excellent home visiting support to families in Forsyth County.
Between 2017 and 2020, Book Harvest engaged external researchers to conduct a longitudinal randomized control trial evaluation of the Book Babies program.
Documents
2021 Reports
By Iheoma U. Iruka, Ph.D., Ximena Franco, Ph.D. (Principal Investigator), and Fernando Andrade, Ph.D. from Equity Research Action Coalition at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute with The Center for Early Education Research and Evaluation at HighScope Educational Research Foundation
2019 Report
For more information about this evaluation, please contact Meytal Barak at meytal@bookharvest.org. Learn more about HighScope, visit highscope.org. To learn more about Imprints Cares, visit imprintscares.org.
In their own words: Parents’ voices about a book-provision program
Journal of Early Childhood Literacy Publication (2022)
Drawing on research conducted by the Book Babies literacy coaches, this article, as well as the initial report, describe the integral role parents play in children's development, and the importance of Book Babies literacy coaches working alongside families in culturally responsive ways to create sustainable in-home literacy practices.
Documents
by Meytal Barak, Book Harvest's Director of Early Literacy, and Dr. Cristina Gillanders, Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver
Book Babies Research Briefing Webinar
Since 2013, Book Babies has collaborated with parents to co-create a rich and nourishing home literacy environment. Book Harvest is deeply committed to understanding if and how this novel collaborative approach makes a difference in children’s early language and literacy development. How do we measure the impact of this work to realize equitable early literacy for every child?
Upon conducting research on Book Babies, we found that PARENTS make the difference - acting as catalysts and accelerators for their children's early literacy development from birth.
Ginger Young and the principal investigators from these studies held a webinar on September 8th, 2021 to share the results and implications of the research studies.
Book Babies 2022 Parent Survey
Ninety-seven Books Babies families responded to the 2022 Book Babies Survey.
99%
reported that books provided by the program make reading routines at home easier.
100%
agreed that Book Babies supports parents in including early literacy strategies at home.
98%
reported that the program supports parents in creating a daily reading routine at home.
98%
said Book Babies impacts how satisfied they feel about helping their child develop interest in books or reading.
91%
reported the program had a positive impact on their knowledge about early language and literacy development.
98%
said they trust their Book Babies Literacy Coach.
96%
reported reading with their child at least twice per week.
