Third Colorado Study Is in the Works

Keep an eye out for one more Colorado Study, the third in a series of studies by the Library Research Service (LRS), which proves that school libraries have a direct link to student achievement. This time, however, the research will be led by Nicolle Steffen, who replaced Keith Curry Lance as director of LRS on March 1.

Lance recently retired from LRS—a unit of the Colorado State Library and the state's Department of Education—after 20 years. While there, he gained nationwide recognition for documenting that media centers help students perform better on standardized tests.

While Lance's 1993 and 2000 Colorado studies focused on general reading scores, “CO3,” as the latest study has been dubbed, will be “zeroing in on specific standards related to information literacy,” says Steffen, LRS's associate director since 2001. “The CO3 study will be examining the relationship between school libraries and student achievement, as demonstrated by specific Colorado Student Assessment Program items in the reading content standards.”