Summary: These findings suggest that staffing libraries with full-time, certified librarians with support staff can help close achievement gaps.
How does this differ from the Colorado study? It is directly tied to the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, which the Spring ISD librarians are trying to use as a basis for their lessons, together with the TEKS.
Key Findings (Quoted):
- Consistently, reading and writing scores are better for students who have a full-time certified librarian than those who don’t.
- Students who are economically disadvantaged, black, Hispanic, and have IEPs (i.e., students with disabilities) benefit proportionally more than students generally.
- Students who are poor, minority, and have IEPs, but who have full-time librarians, are at least twice as likely to have “Advanced” writing scores as their counterparts without full-time librarians.
- Generally, the benefits associated with larger staffing and collections and increased access to technology, databases, and to the library itself are proportionally greater for students who are poor, black, Hispanic, and disabled. For black and Hispanic students, access to more books more than doubles their chances of obtaining “Advanced” writing scores and cuts their risk of “Below Basic” writing scores in half.
- The association between flexible scheduling and writing scores is more pronounced. With flexible scheduling, all students are about four times more likely to earn “Advanced” writing scores, and Hispanic students are almost seven times more likely to earn “Advanced” scores with flexible scheduling.
- For all students, those with full-time librarians are almost three times as likely to have “Advanced” writing scores as students without full-time librarians.
- Consistently, students are less likely to score “Below Basic” on reading and writing in schools in which administrators, teachers, and librarians assess as “excellent” the library program’s teaching of inquiry-based learning.
- On average, the percentage of students scoring “Advanced” in writing is two and a half times higher for schools with a full-time, certified librarian than those without one. Similarly, the average percentage of students scoring “Advanced” in writing is almost twice as high for schools with a full-time, certified librarian with support staff as for those with only a full-time certified librarian.
Kachel, Debra E. "Latest Study: A Full-time School Librarian Makes a Critical Difference in Boosting Student Achievement." School Library Journal03 (2013): n. pag. School Library Journal. Web. 17 Mar. 2015. <http://www.slj.com/2013/03/research/librarian-required-a-new-study-shows-that-a-full-time-school-librarian-makes-a-critical-difference-in-boosting-student-achievement/#_>.
Results of Pennsylvania School Librarians Association together with Education Law Center and the Health Services Library Consortium studied the impact of school librarians teaching the American Association of School Librarians' Standards for the 21st-Century Learner on the students' reading and writing scores and found direct correlation to improved scores, particularly on writing scores of students in poverty.
See also: Statement released by the Education Law Center, dated October 20, 2012. "New PA Study Show Full-time School Librarian Boosts Student Achievement: Reading and Writing Scores Raised on PSSA Tests for All Student Groups." Contacts: Brett Schaeffer and Sandra Zelno.