The Spring 2011 class of LSC 5530, School Library Advocacy, of the School Library & Information Technologies Graduate Program, Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA, developed background information for the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association to summarize findings from the landmark body of research known as the "school library impact studies."
Begun in the early 1990's by Dr. Keith Curry Lance and his associates at the Colorado Department of Education and the University of Denver, these reports primarily correlated standardized language arts test scores of students to components of school library programs. To date, 22 states and one Canadian province have provided data for such research conducted by Lance and a variety of other researchers.
Students summarized almost all of the major research reports, indexed them by school library program component in a chart, and selected significant findings from each. This is the result of their work. The participating students were as follows; the instructor was Debra E. Kachel.
Dorene Akujobi (PA), Sarah Clayton (NY), Sarah Davis (PA), Lori Dearmore (WA), Aimee Feldman (NM), Elizabeth Galaska (PA), Erin Hildebrand (PA), Valarie Hunsinger (NY), Melissa Leman (NJ), Ronica Luke (PA), Adam Marcus (NY), Diane McLaren-Brighton (MI), Renee Mintz (NY), Kelly Petri (PA), Jeremy Shanly (NY), Pennelope Shobert (PA), Erika Strout (PA), Jessica Von Wendel (WA), Linda Webster (IL), and Todd Wehmeyer (WA).
The Project consists of the following:
School Library Impact Studies Summarized
—including a summary of the Pennsylvania study from 2000
School Library Impact Studies Chart
—indexing school library components found to have a positive association with student achievement with full citations and links to each study
School Library Impact Studies: The Major Findings
—selected findings from the studies grouped by school library components
Note:
We now have a slick booklet merging all of the items above into one PDF document. Check it out!
This work complements the following sites and sources:
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School Libraries Work! 3rd ed. N.p.: Scholastic, 2008. Scholastic. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.
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"School Library Impact Studies." Library Research Service. Library Research Service, 2010. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.
For information about the project, please contact LSC 5530 instructor, Debra Kachel (dkachel@mansfield.edu).
