This research is being conducted by professors in the Education and Sociology Departments at Washington College: Dr. Sara Clarke-De Reza, Dr. Bridget Bunten, Dr. Nick Garcia, Professor Erin Counihan, and Professor Michelle Johnson. They have a wide range of experiences as educators, including many combined years of work in K-12 classrooms around the country. Their research interests include community education, literacy, social inequality, and teacher education among (many!) others.

Washington College is a liberal arts college in Chestertown, Maryland, where Robbi and Matthew live and have occasionally taught.

Lots of school administrators, librarians, and teachers say that when authors visit schools, students become more excited about reading and writing, and want to read and write more. However, no one has ever tried to measure exactly how these changes happen for students, or why they occur. Given the size and scale of the Busload of Books project, an associated research project provides an unprecedented opportunity to answer these questions with a huge, diverse, and nationally representative sample. This is a researcher’s dream!

This research is important because it can answer questions that many people have about the value of author and illustrator visits to schools. The results of this study could help school administrators advocate for funding for school visits, or support teachers as they prepare to make visits more meaningful for their students. They could also help school districts make informed decisions about budgeting for literacy enrichment activities or other opportunities that improve students’ attitudes and motivations about reading and writing.

We started this project when we noticed that most of the schools we were being asked to visit were already fairly well-supported in their literacy efforts. As parents in a Title 1 school system, we also understood how difficult it is to fund extra projects and that most of our Title 1 families don’t have the resources to buy books made available for sale at author visits.

For us, book giveaways felt like a great way to level the playing field, but funding them can be prohibitive. Finding grant money and enlisting community and publisher support would be easier if we could better understand and explain the actual impact of our visits.

We hope this study will help us provide a roadmap for other authors and illustrators as to how to have the biggest impact in school visits and how to best advocate for the benefits of funding school visits in otherwise neglected populations.

Schools operating within economically disadvantaged areas may lack resources to provide regular visits and creative projects.  In targeting Title 1 schools, this research focuses on schools that may have fewer resources to provide such programming and better capture the effect of introducing these activities to schools. Moreover, the findings of this research may help schools with limited resources to advocate for activities (like author and illustrator visits) if there is evidence of effective impacts on students.

1. Schools will be asked to share information regarding the research with parents and guardians before the visit.
2. Teachers and students will complete surveys before Robbi and Matthew’s assembly, and again right after.
3. One month later, teachers, students, and administrators will complete one final survey. 

The research team will work with every school to establish a timeline for disseminating parent and guardian information and surveys.

Schools can choose to participate in paper surveys (printed and mailed to the schools at no cost) or online surveys, using the secure and professional survey research platform Qualtrics.

In this study, students will be asked to fill out three brief surveys: one before the Busload of Books assembly, one immediately after the assembly, and then one a month later. Student surveys for kindergarten and 1st grade participants have 11 questions; surveys for 2nd-6th grade participants have 14 questions. All questions measure attitudes and motivations around reading, writing, and drawing in schools, and are written in a friendly and accessible way (see example, below).

These surveys take less than 10 minutes to complete.

The research team will share a range of materials, including print and online video information, with participating schools. We encourage schools to use the existing communication channels they have with families (I.e., papers sent home, email, newsletters) to distribute this information.

The research team is currently working to translate these materials into a range of languages other than English to provide meaningful access to information about the research to a wide range of parents and guardians.

Parents will also have access to the research@busloadofbooks.com email address, where project researchers can answer specific questions about the project.

All researchers who want to study people have to have their work approved through an Institutional Review Board. This federally mandated panel of research experts reads the research project proposal, paying special attention to the ways that it protects the safety and confidentiality of the people who choose to participate in the research.

The Busload of Books research project was approved by the Washington College Institutional Review Board in January of 2022. An approved proposal has met the federal requirements protecting participant’s rights and is being conducted with high levels of expertise and integrity in accordance with all applicable laws, policies, and regulations.

Some schools require parent consent for participation through an “opt-in” process. In these schools, students will only be allowed to participate in the survey if their teacher receives a signed form that gives explicit permission for their child to participate.

Parents and guardians will receive a form that allows them to opt their student in to participation in advance of the study. They can also opt their student in to participation by sending an email to their student’s teacher.

Students who do not participate in the research will still receive a free book and will still be able to attend the Busload of Books assembly.

Some schools use an “opt-out” process for parental consent. In these schools, all students will have the option to participate in the survey unless their parent explicitly withdraws them from the study.

Parents and guardians will receive a form that allows them to opt their student out of participation in advance of the study. They can also opt their student out of participation by sending an email to their student’s teacher.

Students who do not participate in the research will still receive a free book and will still be able to attend the Busload of Books assembly.

The Busload of Books research team prefers the use of opt-out participation for a few key reasons. First, using this process more students overall participate in the study. This is important because the more students who participate, the more confident we can be in the research findings. Second, studies have shown that opt-out parental consent processes mean that more students from low-income and other socially disadvantaged families are able to participate. This is important because the more diverse the group of study participants is, the more able we are to apply the findings of the study to a wide range of students in the United States.

No student is obligated to participate in this research. If parents or guardians do not want their student to participate in the survey, they should follow the directions on either the opt-in or opt-out consent forms that they receive on paper or online.

If a parent or guardian is confused about how to ensure that their student will not participate in the survey, or cannot find the consent form, they should contact their student’s teacher.

No student is obligated to participate in this research. Even students whose parents or guardians approve their participation are not required to complete the survey. At the beginning of the survey, teachers will describe the research process to students in kid-friendly language. They will let students know that their participation is optional, and that there are no consequences if they choose not to participate. Students who begin the survey are allowed to skip any question they would like, or to stop participating at any time without consequence. Students who do not participate will be allowed to read, write, draw, or participate in another teacher-designated activity while their classmates complete the survey.

Students who do not choose to participate in the research will still receive a free book and will still be able to attend the Busload of Books assembly.

A student who chooses not to participate in one survey may still choose to participate in subsequent surveys.

First, you should know that the majority of researchers working on this project have worked as K-12 teachers. They know better than most how full the daily schedule of a teacher can be! However, they also know that in order to truly make sense of the research findings from students, data needs to also be collected from teachers.

To ensure that the most people possible can participate in the least time-consuming way, all surveys have been designed to take less than 10 minutes to complete. Teachers will be asked to complete one 10-minute survey before the Busload of Books tour visit, and one 10-minute survey a month later. These surveys include questions about how teachers prepared for, and followed up after, the visit, as well as their general observations about the literacy attitudes and beliefs of their students.

We know that school-level personnel are busy, too! However, in order to truly understand the impact that author/illustrator visits have on schools, we need to understand something about what school-level administrators and literacy specialists think.

In order to ensure that the most people possible can participate in the least time-consuming way, all surveys have been designed to take less than 10 minutes to complete. Administrators, librarians, and Title 1 staff will be asked to complete one 10-minute survey one month after the Busload of Books tour visit. This survey includes questions about the opportunities and challenges presented by author/illustrator visits, motivations for providing these visits in schools, and general observations about students’ experiences with the Busload of Books visit.

Students and teachers will share their initials on the top of their surveys. No other identifying or personal information will be collected from participants. Using teacher and student initials makes it possible to match responses from each survey so that we can look at change over time for students, and so that we know which students are associated with which teachers. Once all surveys are complete, researchers will replace participant initials with a unique ID number. Only members of the research team will have access to this data, which will be stored in locked filing cabinets in the research office (paper forms) or on password-protected computers and OneDrive folders.

When researchers design studies that work with people, they are required to take into consideration the risks and benefits of participation, and to share that information clearly with their participants.

The risks of this research are limited. Students may be bored by the survey, and educators may find the process of participating in the research frustrating or confusing, or become bored with the surveys themselves. Teachers may become frustrated with the need to use instructional time for the completion of surveys.

When researchers design studies that work with people, they are required to take into consideration the risks and benefits of participation, and to share that information clearly with their participants.

It is difficult to overstate the benefits of this research. There is much discussion about the value of, and desire for, author/illustrator visit experiences for primary-school aged children, however due to the challenges of conducting this kind of research, little data exists to document its actual impact. This first-of-its-kind project will fill a big gap in the educational literature, providing school-based advocates a solid foundation up on which to build arguments in support of funding literacy-enrichment opportunities for students. This is particularly important for Title 1 eligible schools, who are faced with both achievement and opportunity gaps for their students that result from poverty-based inequity in school funding.

Beyond the huge benefits to the field of educational research, there also more direct benefits to the students, teachers, and school professionals who choose to participate. Completing these surveys may provide participants with a moment to pause and reflect on their thoughts and feelings about reading, writing, and illustration in a way they never have before. Participants may find that participation creates opportunities beyond the survey to connect with others to share their thoughts and feelings about the Busload of Books tour and its potential impact on student learning.

Parents and guardians can show their support for this important project first and foremost by giving their students’ permission to participate in the research, and talking with them about the importance of their participation. We also encourage you to support the goals of the Busload of Books tour by asking your student about their experience with our assembly presentation, and reading their brand new book with them!

You can follow the Busload of Books tour as it makes its cross-country journey on Facebook and Instagram, or on our tour website.

Please direct questions about the research to the research team at research@busloadofbooks.com.

Please direct questions about the Busload of Books tour to info@busloadofbooks.com.