Time Spent Reading Outside School and Comprehension: A Longitudinal Analysis

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Robertson, William A.
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Public Policy

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The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether or not reading outside of school is associated with changes in reading comprehension performance. My study addresses this question by examining student participants of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) in their eighth and tenth grade years. Using nationally representative data from both student questionnaires and cognitive tests to construct the independent and dependent variables of interest, I estimate a series of multivariate regressions to examine the relationship between time spent reading outside of school and reading comprehension. Using probability weights, the study can be generalized to the entire United States. The analyses provide empirical evidence time spent reading outside of school is associated with a 0.27 point increase in reading test scores for every additional hour tenth graders spent reading, holding all other factors constant. Moreover, non-linear regressions reveal that the greatest increases in reading comprehension occur in the first few hours a student reads outside of school on a weekly basis, holding all else constant. All else held equal, the first hour a student spends reading each week outside of school in tenth grade is associated with a 1.13 point increase in reading test scores. These findings support policies that encourage reading outside of school in the later grades for the purpose of boosting reading comprehension.

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Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Visibility	Actions
	Thesis	2019-05-17	Public	Download