CASPER, Wyo. — A new study confirms that Raising Readers in Wyoming is succeeding in its mission to increase immunizations and boost the amount of time families read to their children. Today, 92 percent of all eligible medical care providers across the state participate in Raising Readers.

Over the past four years, Raising Readers has received $350,000 in funding from the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning, which is the charitable arm of Pacific Power. Raising Readers distributes 10 books to each child by the age of five in conjunction with well-baby check-ups and at times of immunizations.

“In addition to receiving books at well-child doctor visits, parents are provided with age appropriate tips for reading to children at different ages, said Jolene Olson, executive director of Raising Readers in Wyoming. “I have actually witnessed a mother and her young child looking through a new book from Raising Readers before even leaving the doctor’s office. Some parents report that they weren’t aware of the benefits of reading to an infant, but they are now doing so as a result of the Raising Readers program.”

The independent study was released this month by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL), a nonprofit education research, development and services firm. It stated that “between 73 and 89 percent of health care providers agreed or strongly agreed that participating in Raising Readers improved their relationships with parents, increased parents’ interest in the importance of early reading, helped to better parent-child relationships, and will enhance children’s literacy development.”

The results of parent surveys supported the perspective of health care providers. A high percentage of the 2,573 parents surveyed, reported improved relationships with their children from receiving Raising Readers books. The percentages increased as children got older – most likely because children’s ability to attend to books increased. In Wyoming, 7,197 children received 26,594 books by the end of 2005.

“This study confirms that we accomplished what we set out to do,” said Rich Walje, the Foundation’s board chair. “We targeted a need – early literacy – identified a strategy and helped implement a program that’s sustainable and easily replicated. For a corporation with a modest Foundation budget, we were able to contribute more than $1 million in states served by Pacific Power and Utah Power and facilitate real, needed change in education.”

The report also shows that many more families are building home libraries and are receiving and using information about how to help their children develop literacy skills than would have without the programs.

Results of another survey last year indicated that it is the perception of participating health care providers that the distribution of books and conversations regarding the books and reading are contributing to better parent-child relationships. In addition, the results showed that health care providers believe it is likely the Raising Readers program will enhance young children's literacy development, and they report parents' increased interest in reading to their young children.

In 2002, the PacifiCorp Foundation selected three initiatives: Oregon Project Optimize, Utah Motheread/Fatheread and Raising Readers in Wyoming. It expanded to fund Idaho’s Parents as Teachers Plus in 2003 and Washington Motheread/Fatheread in 2004. The Foundation is the charitable arm of PacifiCorp, which operates in six western states as Pacific Power and Utah Power.

“The results are encouraging,” said Dr. Steffen Saifer, director of NWREL’s Child and Family Program and Principal Investigator of the recent study. “Participating parents are reading to their children more often and are increasing their own reading skills. This is particularly true among immigrant parents. Participating children are more interested in books and more ready for kindergarten than children who did not participate in PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning-funded programs.”

“All programs we funded exceeded their anticipated goals for the number of families and children served and the number of books distributed,” said Isaac Regenstreif, executive director of the PacifiCorp Foundation. “More than 10,000 children have been reached by the programs’ combined efforts, and it’s clear that these programs are helping kids have a better chance at succeeding in school.”

• At-risk children in schools with Oregon Project Optimize did significantly better on reading assessments than did children from demographically similar schools where the project was not implemented. Seventy-eight percent of the children in Optimize were reading at benchmark by the end of kindergarten as compared to 57 percent of the children in the comparison group.
  
• Families served in Idaho by Parents as Teachers Plus increased the amount of time they spent reading to their children from an average of 14 minutes a day to 21 minutes a day. All children who participated in PAT+ scored at or above grade level on the Idaho Reading Indicator at Kindergarten entry.
  
• The Utah Motheread/Fatheread programs served 2,440 families over the past three years and distributed 1,150 books just in this past year. Sixty-five percent of a sample of parents who participated in the program increased their reading level by at least one level.
  
• The newest program, Washington Motheread/Fatheread, distributed 534 books (and an additional 522 funded by Sundquist). Eleven instructors in the Yakima Area were trained and the program has expanded to Walla Walla.

All programs are building sustainable partnerships and are leveraging additional dollars from other funding sources. They will all likely be sustained beyond the 3-4 years of PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning funding.

Media inquiries: newsdesk@pacificorp.com