Academics
Department of Education
Busload of Books Project

Busload of Books Project

Faculty and students from Washington College are collaborating with The Busload of Books Tour, a yearlong project led by author Matthew Swanson and illustrator Robbi Behr to promote literacy and raise awareness of the challenges facing our nation’s public schools. Over the 2022-23 school year, Robbi and Matthew are toured the country with their 4 children (and family dogs) in a renovated school bus. They will visit Title I schools in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. and give out 25,000 hardcover books to students and teachers.

busload of books researchers

The Departments of Education and Sociology have partnered with Robbi and Matthew to conduct a major research project on the impact of author/illustrator visits on elementary student attitudes about reading and creativity. In addition to surveying students, we will also collect survey data from teachers and administrators in 29 states.

For the most recent information on the Busload of Books Research Project, check out the Busload of Books Research Team Blog!

Busload of Books in the news:

Busload of Books Tour Thinks Big - Publisher's Weekly
Chestertown Family Launches Charitable Bus Tour from Wilmington - MetroKids Philly
Traveling Author/Illustrator Family visits L B Elementary - Dakota News Now

Follow Robbi and Matthew on Facebook and Instagram.

About the project

Busload of Books Research Project

Any children’s author or illustrator will tell you that school visits create tremendous excitement, positive energy, and engagement—while spurring reading, creativity, and collaboration for students and teachers alike.

But any teacher, school administrator, or literacy advocate will tell you how difficult it is to quantify the impact of these visits when trying to secure funding or write a grant proposal.

In spite of being sought by many, data demonstrating the effectiveness of author/illustrator visits has long been elusive—because it can be difficult to measure something that only happens once, especially at the necessary scale.

The Opportunity

One of the most exciting (and potentially far-reaching) aspects of the Busload of Books Tour is the related research project being conducted by education and sociology scholars from Washington College to scientifically measure—for the first time ever at this scale—the impact of author/illustrator visits on elementary student attitudes regarding literacy and creativity.

The Research Project

As we travel the country presenting to 25,000 students, teachers, and administrators at Title I schools in all 50 states, we’ll collect a massive, demographically diverse, national data set that allows a rare glimpse into:

How K-6 students and educators think and feel about reading, writing, and drawing
How these attitudes and beliefs vary according to social, cultural, and economic factors that shape literacy experiences in the classroom, school, and community
How an author/illustrator visit and book giveaway impacts these student attitudes, beliefs, and practices. In short—does the experience make students more likely to read, write, or draw?

The Potential Benefits

The impact of this research will be particularly important for students in Title I-eligible public schools, for whom there is a demonstrated achievement gap and opportunity gap when compared to students at more affluent schools.

Opportunities for such enrichment experiences as author/illustrator visits come with a range of associated costs—from speaking fees and travel expenses to books to instructional materials—that often put these experiences out of reach for low-income students.

Demonstrating the benefit and impact of these experiences could help many students, teachers, administrators, grant writers, and literacy advocates by promoting sustained funding for future literacy programs and legitimizing their integration into school curricula as standard learning experiences.

This research will yield insights that help teachers best foster student interest and engagement with reading and lifelong learning—while disrupting the narrative that learning disparities are the product of unmotivated or disengaged learners.