About the 2015-2018 Project

The 2015-2018 study will be examining the effect of school librarians on student academic achievement in schools throughout New York State.

This project RE-04-15-0081-15, has been made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The School Librarian Effect on Student Academic Achievement in New York State research project investigates issues and trends affecting library practices in all public schools in New York State.

This study builds upon results of the researchers' prior work (Radlick, M., & Stefl-Mabry, J. (2015, April 16-20). Finally –Convincing Evidence for the Impact of School Librarians paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL), that studied all New York State’s 2,245 public schools (excluding schools in New York City) that had students in grades 3 thru 8. Results of that study revealed that school librarians were shown to have a statistically significant impact on student achievement in English Language Arts. This project will continue that exploration of the effect of school librarians on student achievement and will examine all K-12 public schools throughout New York State including New York City for a total of 4,120 school buildings.

The study will examine school library impact (both staffing and library functions) on student English and math achievement, while taking into account prior academic achievement, a wide range of student demographic variables (such as gender, special education status, limited-English proficiency, minority status, free/reduced lunch participation), and building level characteristics (size, discipline climate, district accountability status, and overall district financial capacity).

The National Research Council (Pellegrino & Hilton, 2012) recommends that foundations and federal agencies should support research that moves “beyond simple correlational studies to include more longitudinal studies with controls for differences in individuals’ family backgrounds and more studies using statistical methods that are designed to approximate experiments” (p. 17). This research project does that by moving beyond correlation and extending the authors’ earlier, preliminary analysis toward the development of more robust causal models to provide evidence of what we have called the “School Librarian Effect.”

The “School Librarian Effect” can be stated more directly by asking “Do school librarians have a direct and positive impact on student academic learning in the schools in which they work, after controlling for a range of student and building characteristics such as poverty and prior academic performance?” The subsequent research question is--if there is a “School Librarian Effect” what specific actions of the librarian might be impacting student academic performance in either ELA or math?

With over two prior decades of library research that used perceptual data, or had small samples of schools, using purely descriptive or correlational techniques, prior research provided, at best, weak causal evidence for the impact of school librarians on student achievement. This study, in contrast, is framed within the context of a strong statistical analysis technique called structural equation modeling (SEM), and reflects a very large sample size, while controlling for a number of other variables including prior year student achievement.

Specifically, the causal models in this study will examine the SL’s impact on building level student English and math achievement, while taking account for prior academic achievement, a wide range of student demographic variables (gender, special education status, limited-English proficiency, minority status, free/reduced lunch participation), and building level characteristics (size, discipline climate, district accountability status, and overall district financial capacity). Data for the study comes from a variety of New York State Education Department sources including the annual Basic Educational Data System survey of schools, which includes a range of data collected each year about school libraries.

The impact of this research project extends to school librarianship and the school library profession, and also to K-12 students, teachers, administrators and faculty in K-12 and higher education sectors. It has the potential to significantly influence how school librarians are perceived by educators and other stakeholders as well as how school librarians perceive themselves. Professional, certified school librarians are educators and information specialists who influence students’ mastery of a wide range of cognitive interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills and competencies. Identifying the elements and variables that influence school librarians’ effectiveness on student learning would be of benefit to all educators. Such characteristics, if demonstrated to positively effect student learning, could then be integrated into K-12 and higher education instructional practices, as well as in school library and teacher preparation programs and curriculum.

This study will examine the impact of school librarians (both staffing and library functions, as well as library capabilities, instructional methods, operation and resources) on student English language arts and math achievement, while taking into account prior achievement, a wide range of student demographic variables, and building level characteristics. Underlying this analysis is the key assumption that what teachers and other staff (including school librarians) do actually affects students and their academic performance. It is also assumed that the relationships between school activities and the resultant student academic achievement outcomes are complex and multidimensional.

The unique strengths of this study are that it will:

• Make new use of the extensive school library data set collected each year by the New York State Education Department

• Focus on Common Core (CC) learning for the first time using the New York State Common Core assessments first administered statewide in May of 2013.

• Focus on the all public school buildings in New York with grades 3 thru 12—with a statewide perspective rather than a sample, and encompass New York City schools, the largest school system in the United States

• Focus on all public high school buildings in New York taking Regents English and algebra assessments—a full state perspective, not just representative samples

• Include a longitudinal growth analysis by school used between the end of year 2013-14, 2012-13 and 2011-12 building ELA and math status measures.

• The study will calculate a building change or growth measure from year-to-year. (Note that the 2011-12 scale score is not based on the Common Core assessment.)

• Use the New York State building level measure (ELA or Math Performance Index) that allows any and all grade levels in a building from grade 3 to grade 12 to be analyzed together, as well as Regents scores

• Use causal modeling via structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine school librarian effects while controlling for student poverty, prior achievement and other demographic and school characteristics via the models.

• Include the investigation of outliers, at both high and low performing school library programs, to reveal specific pedagogical, instructional and programmatic characteristics and factors, which will then be examined further via surveys and follow-up interviews.

Preliminary statistical models analyzing a sub-set (2,960 public schools in New York State excluding New York City) have shown a statistically significant and positive “School Librarian Effect” for 2012-13. This study will extend that research with additional variables and schools to include the 1590 public schools in New York City (total statewide of 4,120 public schools).

The models will examine data from 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years to determine whether there is an effect, and if there is an effect, answer the question of what specific school librarian resources or actions might be most strongly related to this effect on student achievement.

If effective school library characteristics are identified, these results will be shared with the research and professional communities in education and library science. Such results would be important to educational and library science researchers and practitioners, as well as institutions of higher education who prepare preservice and inservice educators. Such findings would be equally important for school administrators to enable them to create strong and effective school library programs within their K-12 settings.