Canada Links Libraries with Achievement
Ontario Library Association study documents that libraries spark higher test scores
By Laura B. Weiss -- School Library Journal, 5/1/2006
In an effort to shore up funding for school libraries, the Ontario Library Association (OLA) recently released a study that links student achievement to well-stocked and professionally-staffed media centers.
“School Libraries & Student Achievement in Ontario” found that students in schools with trained librarians are more likely to say they enjoy reading and score higher on standardized reading tests. Schools without librarians, however, scored lower on the same exams. The report also says that there’s a direct correlation between the decline in students who say they like to read and the lower number of elementary school librarians in the last five years.
Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and People for Education, a parent research group, surveyed test scores from 50,000 third-and sixth-grade students in 880 elementary schools and matched them against school library hours, collections, staffing, and funding. Like the U.S., Canada’s federal government has slashed education funding over the years, to the detriment of school libraries.
OLA’s Executive Director Larry Moore hopes the report will lead to increased funding for school libraries now that his country has a new minister of education, Sandra Pupatello, who was sworn in on April 5.
“We have an opportunity for something new and fresh to present to her,” Moore says. A copy of the report is available on the Ontario School Library Association’s Web site at www.accessola.com.
