Quantcast
Channel: school libraries – Library Development
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 2

School libraries shown to have measurable impact on student success

0
0

CTL_poverty_chart-379x600A study conducted by the Washington Library Media Association (WMLA) has shown that students at schools with a school library program and certified teacher librarian perform better academically and have a better chance of graduating.  This Washington based study looked at 1,486, K−12 public schools and found that those with a school library had a student 5 year average graduation rate of 85% versus 79% for those without.

The findings were even more significant for high poverty schools.  Among these schools the 5 year graduation average for schools with library programs and a certified teacher library was found to be 78.8% versus 43.2% for schools without.  “School library programs are positive predictors of student success that poverty cannot suppress,” Keith Curry Lance, a consultant on the study says. “Some people think that poorer students are going to do poorly in school no matter what we do. The findings of these studies challenge that by showing that even poorer students do better in the presence of strong school library programs.”

This study also found that merely having a school library facility was not enough to impact student academic success.  Elizabeth Coker, a senior research scientist for the University of Washington-Tacoma, Center for Strong Schools, developed the Library Quality Scale (LQS) to evaluate school library program performance.  The scale ranges from 0-35 and scores school libraries based on answers to nine questions including hours a school library is open, the number of group or class visits to the library per week, inventory of books and informational databases available, and the number of computers available for direct instruction and use during library programs. Schools with LQS scores of 26 or higher were found to have a greater impact on student academic achievement showing that investments in school library programs do in fact pay off.

Read the full report here.

A similar study has also been done in Pennsylvania and can be read here.

 

 

 

The post School libraries shown to have measurable impact on student success appeared first on Library Development.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 2

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images