Innovative program gets students reading.

Want to encourage your middle-school students to pick up a book outside of the classroom? That's the goal behind the National Association of Basketball Coaches' four-year-old Ticketing to Reading Rewards program. By this June, the more than 100,000 participants in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and other districts will have read up to 1.6 million books. Here's how it works: Students get rewards--everything from foam basketballs to bookstore gift certificates to subscriptions to Sports Illustrated for Kids-based on the number of books they read. The NABC also provides tickets to local college basketball games and runs clinics for middle-school coaches on encouraging athletes to succeed in the program.

From the program's inception, Chicago Public Schools has been actively involved. David Pickens, deputy to the chief executive officer of CPS, is a big fan. "Over three years, the only thing this organization has asked is to let them help our kids." He says the program is successful because it makes children see reading and schoolwork as a healthy competition instead of a chore, and the association with college basketball gives it a coolness factor.

Boston Public Schools is another active player in this program. "It supports our efforts for independent reading and gets kids to read more," says Jane Skelton, director of English/language arts instruction for the district. "It motivates students by tying reading into something that's fun and familiar and that connects with Boston culture." Like Pickens, she appreciates that the program is free and requires only a minimum of effort on her and her teachers' parts. "It really delivers for kids who don't usually read or who need that extra push," she adds.

According to Pickens, the program has had a measurable impact on reading scores among the participating schools. Although he knows the program is not solely responsible for this improvement, he is confident it played a significant role. www.tickettoreadingrewards.org