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We compared students from schools with an enriched school library—that is, one with a larger and more up-to-date book collection—with students from schools with a typical school library. We tested effects of an enriched school library on reading motivation, reading frequency, and academic skills. Fourth- and fifth-grade students of 14 schools with an enriched library (n = 272) were compared to fourth and fifth graders from 10 control schools (n = 411). Assignment to the experimental group was external and not determined by participants within schools. Students from schools with enriched libraries scored on average half a standard deviation higher on a standardized reading comprehension test than students from control schools. Mediation analysis revealed that for girls, this effect may have been obtained as a result of an increase in reading motivation and reading frequency. For boys, only reading frequency was a significant mediator.

Background: Previous meta-analyses have shown that feedback targeting text comprehension given when students perform a reading task positively influences learning from text. So far, differences in the effects of feedback were explained by design features, such as the timing and richness of feedback. In the present study, we aim to investigate cognitive and affective processes that might be triggered by feedback targeting text comprehension. Method: Two meta-analyses were performed on feedback intervention studies that included statistics for both the effect of feedback targeting text comprehension on the use of reading strategies (k = 8) or readers' attitudes towards the reading task (k = 10) and the effect of feedback on reading comprehension. We first tested whether feedback significantly affected the use of reading strategies or readers' attitudes. We then performed a meta-regression analysis to test if the magnitude of the effect significantly predicted gains in reading comprehension. Results: Feedback targeting text comprehension had a positive and significant impact on the use of reading strategies (g + = 0.61) and on reading comprehension (g + = 0.34). Additionally, the magnitude of the effect on the use of reading strategies was positively related to the magnitude of the effect on reading comprehension. Feedback targeting text comprehension did not influence readers' attitudes towards the reading task. Also, no significant effect of feedback was found for reading comprehension in these studies. Conclusions: Feedback targeting text comprehension helps students to apply reading strategies more often and/or more efficiently, even when they read new texts without the help of feedback. This transfer of practiced reading strategies in turn fosters reading comprehension. Due to the scarce number of studies, the results of the presentThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.