Dr. Ken Haycock, Professor

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School Libraries and Teacher-librarians
Connecting student achievement, literacy and
culture

• The Case for Reform and Re-Investment

• Dr. Ken Haycock, Professor
• University of British Columbia
• and Executive Editor, TL
• January, 2004

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What Evidence Says About School Libraries and
Teacher-Librarians

• The Current Context
• What Makes A Difference? An Overview
• Impact on Student Learning
• Impact on Reading
• Best Practice
• A Note About Culture
• So What?

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The Current Context

• Myths and beliefs about us and our work
• But these agencies support school library
  development
• World Bank East Asia Bank I.D.A.
• Open Society/Soros Foundation
• DeWitt-Wallace-Readers Digest Foundation
• Even the U.S. Congress
• But not your Board?

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What Makes A Difference? An Overview

• Where libraries are better staffed, better
  stocked and better funded, academic achievement
  tends to be higher.
• (Lance, 2002)

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School Library Collections

• Larger collections mean higher achievement.
• Networked computers (extensive access) correlates
  with achievement levels.
• Spending on books and other materials, reflecting
  student interests and needs for curriculum
  assignments, correlates with reading scores.
• Relationships with the public library correlate
  with reading proficiency where the
  teacher-librarian exploits the resources of other
  libraries, achievement increases.

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School Library Staffing

• Staffing levels correlate with test scores.
• Improvements are more dramatic where TLs are
  actively involved
• in teaching information literacy,
• in collaborating with classroom colleagues, and
• in technology management and integration
• and where
• TLs play a leadership role.
• Support staff frees the teacher-librarian to plan
  with teachers outside the library.

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School Library Programs

• More staffing means more collaborating means more
  visits means higher reading achievement.
• Flexible scheduling is a critical predictor.
• TLs provide enrichment to the economically
  disadvantaged and those who need additional help
  to succeed.
• The support of superintendents, principals and
  teachers is essential.

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School Library Funding

• Higher achieving schools are not simply better
  funded schools where there is more and better of
  everything higher achieving schools assign a
  higher priority to school library funding from
  the many choices available to them.
• Better school library service results in greater
  gains in reading comprehension in some studies
  boys gain most.

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How strong is the evidence?

• Community socio-economic variables may explain
  some variance in performance.
• Library factors (for example, staffing and
  collections) explain a significant portion and
  are more important than other school factors.
• Relationships between library variables and
  student achievement may have been underestimated.
  
• If teacher-librarians affect reading proficiency,
  their effect on achievement in the content areas
  can be assumed.

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Impact on Student Learning

• School libraries and teacher-librarians have a
  positive effect on student achievement.
• Research dates back to the 1930s.
• By the 1960s schools with libraries and qualified
  teacher-librarians were performing better in
  overall reading proficiency.
• Andproviding numerous opportunities for thinking
  did not impair student achievement (Rogus, 1968)!

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Examples from the 1960s

• The correlation between the service of TLs and
  student achievement is the highest of all
  professional staff (Landerholm, 1960)
• Students who attend schools with libraries and
  certified teacher-librarians demonstrate superior
  gains (Willson, 1965)
• Academic achievement, including scores on the
  Scholastic Aptitude Test, improved more for the
  12th grade group using library services (Hale,
  1969).

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From the 1970s

• Students given professional library media
  services perform at a higher level (McConnaha,
  1972).
• Tenth grade students with expanded libraries and
  qualified TLs show greater motivation (Campbell,
  1974).
• School variables related to achievement are
  student-teacher ratio, level of teacher
  certification and expenditure for library books
  (Saterfield, 1974).

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From the 1980s

• Information literacy is related student
  achievement, performance on standardized tests
  and grade-point average. The level of service is
  related to improvement of overall educational
  achievement (Didier, 1984).
• Eighth grade students who receive instruction
  enhanced by contributions to the subject
  curriculum by the teacher-librarian perform
  better on the Metropolitan Achievement Test in
  eight of eleven sections (Broadway, and
  Baldridge, 1988).

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From the 1990s

• The first Colorado study (Lance, Welborn
  Hamilton-Pennell, 1993)
• academic achievement is higher where libraries
  are better funded
• the size of the staff and collection is second
  only to the absence of at risk conditions
• academic achievement is higher where
  teacher-librarians participate in the
  instructional process.

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More

• There is a significant increase in the scores of
  students who are taught through
  curriculum-integrated teaching methods in the
  library over those who are not (Bingham, 1994).
• Evaluation of the achievement levels of students
  in the top 50 and bottom 50 Ohio school districts
  indicates a positive correlation between
  commitment to the library through funding and
  student achievement levels (Bruning, 1994) and
  overall critical thinking (Lewanski, 1998).

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And today

• More of the samepositive connections
• Colorado Student Assessment Program
• Pennsylvania System of School Assessment
• Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment
• Alaska, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico,
  Oregon
• Texas higher academic performance at all
  educational levels in schools with TLs than in
  schools without them

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More?

• School libraries and teacher-librarians have a
  positive impact on student achievement in
  English, Language Arts and Social Studies.
• School libraries and teacher-librarians have a
  positive impact on student achievement in
  Mathematics and Science
• School libraries and teacher-librarians have a
  positive impact on student proficiency in
  information skills and research strategies.

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Technology alone is not the answer.

• Kids have more problems using these than we
  think
• About the Web
• About Databases
• About Library Catalogues
• Positive implications for success in college and
  university (but declining abilities of first year
  students due to high school cuts)

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Impact on Reading

• The positive correlationability to read,
  motivation to read, quantity read, results on
  reading assessmentshas been true across grade
  levels, socio-economic class, urban/rural areas,
  and for several decades.
• school library qualified teacher-librarian
• access time for free voluntary reading
• reading environment, including comfort and quiet,
  as well as larger library collections.

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Culture

• Effect on self-concept
• Effect on achievement
• Effect on democracy
• All with connections to
• qualified teacher-librarians

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Best Practice

• Clarify and Promote the Role of the TL
• Encourage Collaboration
• Insist on Flexible Scheduling
• Engage Exemplary Teacher-librarians (mirror
  plus)
• Encourage Staff Development/TL as Staff Developer
• Ensure Relevant Education for TLs
• classroom experience
• education at the graduate level
• all agree on what should be taught
• emphasis on collaboration what gets taught gets
  done
• provide continuing education

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But Who Cares?

• Are school libraries and teacher-librarians
  valued more than before? No.
• Has the level of support increased with these
  results? No.
• Are there lessons from the great improvements of
  the 1960s? Yes.
• Are there lessons from research and experience?
  Yes.

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Issues and Dilemmas

• Role Clarification
• (full-time mixed schedule vs. part-time flexible
  schedule)
• Resource Management
• (classroom collections deja vu)
• (IT lead, follow, get out of the way?)
• (access vs. control)
• School Priorities and Support
• (attitudes gt economics)

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Issues and Dilemmas

• Districts Role
• (refusal to acknowledge realities)
• Parents Attitudes
• (most important of non-essentials)
• Policy and Practice
• (seeming lack of relationship)

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Keeping Up To Date

• Begin by knowing the evidence
• the main studies (see, e.g., LMC Source site and
  LRS site), plus
• Journals
• School Library Media Research
• Teacher-Librarian www.teacherlibrarian.com What
  Works
• Research Fora
• AASL
• IASL
• Treasure Mountain Research Retreats

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Suggestions for Further Research

• Roles and Relationships
• Achievement/Replication
• Dissemination Issues
• Action Research
• and
• why this has no effect

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Conclusions

• School libraries and qualified teacher-librarians
  affect reading proficiency and achievement in the
  subject content areas.
• The effect is greater with an emphasis on
  collaboration and TLs not covering teacher
  preparation periods.
• In spite of the evidence, school boards cut
  libraries, book budgets and teacher-librarians
  while promoting literacy

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To Your Success

• Feel free to contact me for information, advice
  or training
• Dr. Ken Haycock
• voice 604.925.0266
• ken_at_kenhaycock.com

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Now in our 31st year
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