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Session Title: Gauging the Impact of a National Literary Reading Initiative: The Goals, Challenges, and Findings of The Big Read Evaluation
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Panel Session 283 to be held in Room 106 in the Convention Center on Thursday, Nov 6, 10:55 AM to 12:25 PM
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Sponsored by the AEA Conference Committee
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| Chair(s): |
| Kay Sloan,
Rockman et al,
kay@rockman.com
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| Discussant(s):
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| Saul Rockman,
Rockman et al,
saul@rockman.com
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| Abstract:
In 2004 the National Endowment for the Arts published Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, which found that literary reading was on the decline, especially among the young. The NEA responded with The Big Read, a grassroots literary program designed to bring American communities together to read a single book and celebrate great imaginative literature. By 2008, over 300 communities had received grants and held local reading programs. The Big Read also included a national evaluation to study the program's implementation and impact. This panel, with presenters from the evaluation team and the National Endowment for the Arts, will look at the evaluation goals, challenges, and findings. Panelists will describe the methodological and logistical challenges of a study conducted in 300 different communities, and efforts to make the study rigorous and the data reliable, but still keep data collection sensitive to local needs and nuances.
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The Research Behind the Big Read
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| Kay Sloan,
Rockman et al,
kay@rockman.com
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This presentation provides background on The Big Read, discussing its impetus and NEA research that was a reference point for the evaluation. Reading at Risk presented results of the literature segment of the Census Bureau's 2002 Study of Public Participation in the Arts, conducted with 17,000 adults. The report indicated that reading was declining in the U.S. and that declines were steepest among young adults. To address and reverse these trends, the NEA launched The Big Read in 2006 as a pilot in 10 communities. It has grown steadily, and by 2009 some 400 communities will have held Big Reads. An important question for the NEA, one the evaluation could help determine, was 'Is The Big Read making a difference?' That question, and evaluation's focus on teens and young adults, intensified with a second report, To Read or Not To Read, which presented even more troubling news about reading declines.
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Assessing Implementation and Impact: Relative Challenges and Successes
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| Kay Sloan,
Rockman et al,
kay@rockman.com
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The Big Read evaluation was designed to explore and assess both implementation and impact. This presentation will describe the methodological and logistical challenges we faced in the two and a half years of the study, the success of our solutions, and the major findings.
Assessing implementation was relatively uncomplicated because grantees took part in surveys and interviews and eagerly shared information on partnerships, programming, and the value of the program. Many findings were compelling and unambiguous: the numbers of events and attendees were high, and the program built capacity and unprecedented partnerships for organizations, increased status and visibility, and laid the groundwork for future collaborations. Although there were many pieces to the site data population served, funding, prior experience, numbers of events data were easy to tabulate, aggregate, and analyze. The impact on reading habits and attitudes was far harder to assess and quantify.
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Telling the Story of The Big Read: Findings from Qualitative Studies
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| Michelle Honeyford,
Rockman et al,
michelle@rockman.com
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A complement to the quantitative data collected for The Big Read evaluation was the qualitative case study and focus group data. This presentation will share goals, challenges, and findings from these studies, which were designed to tell the story of The Big Read, in a local context, looking at unique partnerships and programming and the program's impact on local communities and readers. Although cases provided some of the most compelling and uncomplicated evidence of impact, this evaluation component had its own challenges how to chose a handful of sites with the appropriate geographical, demographic, and organizational range and variety, and how to be there at the right time to capture that rich and varied story. Focus groups with teens and young adults, conducted during the third cycle of The Big Read, presented a unique set of challenges but yielded valuable findings.
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