Singer and pop culture icon Taylor Swift has partnered with Scholastic to donate 25,000 books to 25 New York City schools in need of more resources.

The 25 schools will each respectively receive 1,000 books to promote independent reading among its students.

The donation was made through the Scholastic Possible Fund and is a another effort from Swift to support the company’s “Open a Word of Possible” initiative.

In October 2014, Swift helped make a webcast for Scholatic’s site that showed "how books, reading and writing have influenced her and opened her world” which has been viewed over 4.5 million times from students nationally.

The effort comes after the results of a survey of the reading diet of the nation’s 9.8 million students were released.

The survey found that students who read 15 or more minutes a day with comprehension are more likely to meet college and career readiness benchmarks despite being struggling readers, English language learners or on freed/reduced lunch.

The study found that access to books and increased reading has the potential to significantly close the achievement gap in schools. 

And in the most recent Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report, researchers found that " having a selection of texts for independent reading can be a powerful tool to encourage kids to pick up a book. The same report revealed that nine in ten kids agree their favorite books – and the ones they are the most likely to finish – are the ones they pick out themselves,” said the company in a statement.

"Scholastic is honored to join with Taylor Swift who continues to show a passion for literacy and a commitment to spreading the message of how influential books can be in a child's life," said Greg Worrell, President, Scholastic Education. "Through this donation, we aim to encourage independent reading which inspires a love of learning and to 'Open a World of Possible' for more New York City students by making sure they have access to the very best children's books.”

Read more about Scholastic’s World of Possible here.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

11/12/2015