Community Literacy Engagement: Imagination Library Kindergarten Impact Study (ILKIS) Grant uri icon

abstract

  • The Early Literacy Coalition (ELC) of Eastern North Carolina was conceptualized in 2015 in response to community concerns related to early literacy. This grassroots effort seeks to mobilize community members and resources to address these concerns in Pitt County and to establish a model for implementation across Eastern North Carolina. As members of the higher education community invested in literacy education and research (particularly early literacy development and access to books), we have been involved in this community partnership from its inception. The first initiative of the ELC, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (DPIL), was launched in spring of 2016. The DPIL book distribution program delivers one free, high-quality book per month to Pitt County children from birth to five years old. Supported by the United Way of Pitt County, there are currently 4,250 community children enrolled in the program. As members of the ELC, we were asked to serve as a research team, for the purpose of documenting and evaluating the impact of the coalition's initiatives. Our primary work in this capacity, the Imagination Library Kindergarten Impact Study (ILKIS), is a 5-year commitment to examining relationships between home-based shared book reading practices and children's language/ literacy skills and abilities at kindergarten entry, and how these two factors are influenced by family involvement in DPIL. Now in year 2, we have collected parent survey data and district literacy achievement data on a total of 269 parent/child dyads (year 1 = 152, year 2 = 117). We have also met with each of the children individually to complete narrative retelling and comprehension assessments. Throughout this time, we have also been heavily involved in enrolling children in DPIL. We have focused our efforts on families with children in NC PreK programs, enrolling all younger siblings as well. This allows us to get more books into homes where there are likely to be few. We will continue to support the United Way DPIL enrollment efforts and, over the next three years, will continue to collect data on approximately 125 parent/child dyads per year. We will share back our findings with all stakeholders in the community, with a long-term plan to offer support for similar initiatives across Eastern NC. While the community is supporting the cost of the DPIL book distribution program, there remains a continued need for support of the research component meant to document its impact. Significant costs include gifts of appreciation for research participants, data collection supplies, and data transcription fees.

date/time interval

  • June 2018 - June 2019