The research in this area consists both of correlational studies of the kind Levitt and Fryer did, studies that control for the effects of poverty, as Levitt and Fryer did, as well as experiments, in which one group of children is read to considerably more than another. Read-alouds have been a consistent winner in this research. Reviews of the research using a sophisticated statistical procedure for reviewing large numbers of studies (meta-analysis) include a 1999 article by Blok in Language Learning and a 1995 article by Bus, Van Ijzendoorn, and Pellegrini in the Review of Educational Research.

Freakonomics has many virtues. This error, however, is serious, dismissing a practice that both readers and children enjoy and that has a powerful and positive influence on literacy development.

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