Quick Reads have a positive impact on literacy learning Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 12:14

Quick Reads continue to have an overwhelmingly positive impact as part of literacy learning for adults. This is the overall finding of a new evaluation report from NIACE, who has led the outreach work for Quick Reads since its inception in 2006.

The headline findings of the evaluation are:

• 95% of respondents felt that Quick Reads provided additional benefits to their learners – 85% felt they increased learners’ personal confidence, 73% saw an increase in learners’ communication skills, 53% felt they raised learners’ aspirations and 50% said learners were able to better support their children’s learning.
• Respondents said that Quick Reads opened up other progression routes for learners– 69% of learners went on to read other Quick Reads titles, 68% went on to read other books and 47% enrolled on other courses.
• Working with intermediaries such as tutors, community workers and union learning reps is successful in getting Quick Reads to the people who will most benefit from them.
• Quick Reads continue to reach new audiences.
• Readers/learners and the people who support them place a high value on the books and resources.
• Using Quick Reads has a positive impact on literacy levels and literacy confidence of readers and learners.

NIACE has produced a range of resources and ideas to encourage the use of Quick Reads by around 14,000 practitioners in formal and informal settings. Once again, this year NIACE has encouraged reading groups in workplaces and community settings through promoting learner studies and circulating toolkits and resources to establish and support groups. Seven reading group case studies can be found online here.

Sue Southwood, NIACE Project Manager for Quick Reads Outreach Work, said:

"We are thrilled with the responses to this survey, it gives us vital information on how Quick Reads are still having a strong impact with new and established audiences alike.

...the reason for the ongoing success of Quick Reads is the overwhelmingly positive impact that this initiative has had. Each and every year we meet adults whose lives and attitudes to themselves and reading have been transformed.

Carol Taylor OBE, Director of Development and Research at NIACE

"Findings support previous evaluations and demonstrate the breadth of audience, connecting with new groups of people in a range of settings to encourage them to read and enjoy books. It shows that Quick Reads has a strong positive effect on new readers’ attitude and behaviour towards reading. It suggests that access to Quick Reads supports adults’ progression through literacy levels, by embedding reading habits and a love of books in thousands of people’s lives, many of whom have gone on to transform their attitude to learning, to work and themselves. This positive impact has been consistently shown in each of the impact evaluation studies of Quick Reads undertaken since 2008."

Carol Taylor OBE, Director of Development and Research at NIACE, said:

"As this evaluation report illustrates the reason for the ongoing success of Quick Reads is the overwhelmingly positive impact that this initiative has had. Each and every year we meet adults whose lives and attitudes to themselves and reading have been transformed. For the vast majority of learners with poor literacy, Quick Reads are the very first book that they have not only completed but enjoyed. They then go on to read many more books, discovering a love and enthusiasm for reading which they pass on to their friends and families, perhaps most importantly setting the perfect example for their children and grand-children."

This year’s impact evaluation report is primarily based on an online survey of Quick Reads users sent out to NIACE, Unionlearn and The Reading Agency’s networks and is based on 317 responses. The overwhelming majority of respondents (93%) use Quick Reads with groups of learners and a rough estimate of the total number of learners that respondents work with is around 17,918.