Last fall when Sarah Slayton rolled out "Rowdy About Reading," an incentive-based reading program for first- through sixth-graders, she expected a modest level of participation.

"For a first-year program with no real tradition behind it, my original plan was for 20 to 40 classrooms," said the marketing manager in the California State University, Bakersfield, athletics department.

But with the promotional assistance of a local radio station and sponsoring merchants, the program drew far more interest than Slayton anticipated -- 192 classrooms and 75 home-schooled students, for a total 3,914 kids.

Slayton thinks the program, in which the classroom that read the most books was honored at a Roadrunners home basketball game, succeeded because of its simplicity.

"I think any program that gives some kind of incentive to the kids and keeps it simple for the teacher -- because they have so much going on anyway -- allows it to be successful," she said.

Simple indeed. The program funded by the Bakersfield West Rotary was based on a point system in which classrooms were awarded one point for each book read by a member of the class. Each week teachers were responsible for submitting to Slayton the total number of books read by the class.

"Rowdy About Reading" also promoted teamwork since there was no individual winner. The grand prize went to the class that read the most books, which turned out to be a first-grade class from Munsey School with a grand total of 4,306 books.

For additional incentive, kids were awarded prizes each time the class reached a new points level. Rewards included a life-size growth chart of Rowdy the Roadrunner, Cal State Bakersfield's mascot, book covers, vouchers to Cal State Bakersfield athletics competitions, pens, pencils, pizza parties, pencil toppers, movie vouchers and mini basketballs.

Slayton, who consulted with two librarians and four teachers in developing the program, said "Rowdy About Reading" was structured so that each student would need to read one book a week for the duration of the 15-week program for the classroom to reach the top level of 300 points. That estimate was based on an average classroom size of 20 students.

Bonuses also were built into the mix. For instance, at Christmas break, the leading class at each school earned a free pizza party.

Classrooms also were given an option to request an appearance by a Cal State Bakersfield student-athlete. Slayton said student-athletes from a variety of sports accompanied her on about 150 classroom visits over a two-month period.

"We tried to make it a reachable goal for them because we wanted to give them the opportunity to be successful. We didn't want to put it so far out there that they weren't able to achieve those things," Slayton said. "Even though, yes, they had to only read one book a week to reach all the prizes, we also gave them incentive to read beyond."

As it turned out, the top five classrooms each read at least 1,500 books, and all the classrooms managed to reach the 125-point mark.

Perhaps more importantly, Slayton said, there was real evidence that the program was working to encourage kids to read. In several cases, the children read even more books in the weeks after a visit from student-athletes.

"We had gotten so many weeks' worth of reports leading up to our visit and after our visit in almost half the classrooms we saw up to a 40 to 50 percent increase in their reading after we visited," she said.

The winning classroom, which was notified by way of a surprise visit by school mascot Rowdy, was honored in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 fans during a February 21 home basketball game.

"They were announced at halftime at a lights-out introduction," Slayton said. "We tried to make it as dramatic as possible. They felt like stars for about 15 minutes."

Slayton already has set her sights toward the future and has secured a funding source for another year.

"We're already gearing up for next year because we anticipate a bigger number of participants," she said.