Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries: The Ohio Research Study

1. Review of the Findings Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries: The Ohio Research Study Spring, 2004

2. “Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries” • Funded through Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) grant from Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through State Library of Ohio • Undertaken by Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA) in collaboration with Leadership for School Libraries

3. State Level School Library Collaboration Leadership for School Libraries (L4SL) Improving communication between education organizations which support school libraries. • Ohio Educational Library Media Association • Ohio Department of Education • INFOhio (Ohio’s K-12 Information Network) • State Library of Ohio

4. When effective school libraries are in place, students do learn. 13,000 students cannot be wrong.

5. The Researchers ROSS J. TODD PhD, MA, Grad. Dip School Librarianship Cert. Sec. Teaching rtodd@scils.rutgers.edu CAROL COLLIER KUHLTHAU PhD, Professor Coordinator, School Library Media Specialization kuhlthau@scils.rutgers.edu

6. Background • Keith Lance: 12+ State-wide Studies in USA • State test scores increase as school librarians specifically • spend more time: • planning cooperatively with teachers • identifying materials for teachers • teaching information literacy skills to students • providing in-service training to teachers • managing a computer network through which library’s learning program reaches beyond its own walls to classrooms, labs and offices • qualified school librarians • How else do school libraries help • students with learning?

7. Defining the Study Central question that drove the research: What is the evidence that shows school libraries in Ohio help student learning?

8. Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries • 39 school libraries participated from list selected by the Ohio Expert Panel using criteria of “effectiveness” validated by the International Advisory Board • Grades 3 - 12 • Web-based data collection with security and ethical protocols built into process (Rutgers – 3 backup sites) • Data collected from 28th April to July 3rd 2003 • 13,123 valid student responses (13,328 logged) • 879 teacher/administrator responses (935 logged) • Data “cleaned” - unable to match some to IRNs

9. 7 “Constructs of Help” • How helpful the school library is with getting information you need • How helpful the school library is with using the information to complete your school work (l.L. skills) • How helpful the school library is with your school work in general (knowledge building, knowledge outcomes) • How helpful the school library is with using computers in the library, at school, and at home • How helpful the school library is to you with your general reading interests • How helpful the school library is to you when you are not at school (independent learning) • General school aspects – Academic Achievement

10. Critical Incident • “Now, remember one time when the school library really helped you. Write about the help that you got, and what you were able to do because of it.” • To validate – “witness” quantitative data; to elucidate “helps” not identified in 48 statements; to provide the “voice” of the students. • 10,328 written statements were received, and these were cleaned to 10,316 valid statements.

11. Responses to the Surveys

12. Celebrate School Libraries 13,050 students (99.44% of the sample) indicated that the school library and its services, including the roles of school librarians, have helped them in some way, regardless of how much, with their learning in and out of school as it relates to the 48 statements.

13. Q11: The school library has helped me know the different steps in finding and using information 96.84% Q12: The information in the school library has helped me work out the questions for the topics I am working on 95.95% Q13: The school library has helped me find different sources of information (such as books, magazines, CDs, websites, videos) for my topics 95.10% Q43: Computers have helped me find information inside and outside of the school library 94.35% Q34: The school library has helped me learn more facts about my topics 94.27% Q21: The school library has helped me know how to use the different kinds of sources (such as books, magazines, CDs, websites, videos) 93.74% Q14: The school library has helped me know when I find good information 92.81% Q41: Computers in the school library have helped me do my school work better 92.41% Q26: The school library has helped me think about how I should go about finding information next time 92.36% T O P L E V E L S O F H E L P

14. Q22: The school library has helped me work out the main ideas in the information I find 92.07% Q33: The school library has helped me get the first facts about my topics 92.05% Q27: The school library has helped me know that research takes a lot of work 91.05% Q15: The school library has helped me find different opinions about my topics 90.94% Q17: The school library has helped me feel better about asking for assistance when I go there 90.73% Q16: The school library has helped me feel better about finding information 90.58% Q35: The school library has helped me when I do not understand some things 90.02% Q44: The school library has helped me search the Internet better 89.63% Q28: The information I have found in the school library has helped me become more interested in my topics 89.21%

15. BLOCK NUMBER MEAN RANK OF MEAN FROM HIGHEST TO LOWEST 1 13123 2.535 1 (GETTING INFORMATION) 4 13123 2.529 2 (COMPUTERS) 2 13123 2.251 3 (USING INFORMATION) 3 13123 2.070 4 (KNOWLEDGE BUILDING) 7 13123 1.966 5 (ACHIEVEMENT) 5 13123 1.907 6 (READING) 6 13123 1.772 7 (INDEPENDENT LEARNING) Ranking of Each Block

16. Comparison of Mean Scores BLOCK MEAN F MEAN S RANKS 1. GETTING INFORMATION 3.2103 2.535 1S 2F 2. USING INFORMATION 2.7420 2.251 3S 3F 3. KNOWLEDGE BUILDING 2.5080 2.070 4S 6F 4. COMPUTERS 3.3081 2.529 2S 1F 5. READING 2.6553 1.907 6S 4F 6. INDEPENDENT LEARNING 2.3119 1.772 7S 7F 7. ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT 2.5283 1.966 5S 5F

17. What the Students Said

18. “Yeah, the school library rocks.” …a student response

19. Students’ Voices • 1015 I had to find information for my history paper. The librarian helped me search for info in the library by looking through the rows of books, helping me search on the internet for sites, and even looking through what books the city library had on the topic through her computer. I would have never have found the sources I needed for the paper if not for the school library, the public library, and the helpful people who staff those places. They even showed me steps to work through to do the research and complete it. They ran some classes specifically for us and they were very very very helpful.

20. 100 I needed help doing a project for government that had to do with presidents and they had so many books and then the librarian helped me find web sites. But then they gave me ways of sorting through all the ideas to extract the key points so I could get my head around it all • 66 I needed to write a paper and I went to the Library where I was ultimately able to write a paper successfully. My ideas were a mess and talking to the librarian gave me a way to organize my ideas and present the argument. I did really well!! I’ve never forgotten that – used it to do many other assignments.

21. 1532 The school librarians don’t help me at all like they make me do all the stuff myself and wont tell me where the things are even when I already looked – they show me and make me learn how to find the stuff myself and its hard work!!!! You gotta use your brain, they say • 4155 I remember when I came up to the school library for math. We turned the library into a co-ordinate grid. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!! And I could know about grids in my tests

22. 433 It helped me find info on racism for a 10th grade project, and made me really think about that, especially I didn’t realize how racist some of my ideas were • 465 We had a big research project my sophomore year of high school. I had to do my report on heart attacks and the library helped me out with Powerpoint and finding information. I actually learned the food I eat is not so good for me, so I’ve made a few changes there

23. The School Library as a Dynamic Agent of Learning

24. School Library as Dynamic Agent of Learning • The effective school library helps strongly in terms of providing access to information resources necessary for students to complete their research assignments and projects successfully, and the role of information technology in providing access to both print collections within the library and resources through databases and the World Wide web • What is clearly perceived to be of help is the library’s part in engaging students in an active process of building their own understanding and knowledge – the library as an agency for active learning. Understanding how to do research effectively, understanding how to identify key ideas, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information, testing their own ideas, developing personal conclusions are fundamental to students constructing their own understanding of a topic.

25. School Library as Dynamic Agent of Learning • An effective school library, lead by a credentialed school librarian, one who is particularly engaged in an instructional process centering on the development of students’ intellectual scaffolds for engaging with and using information for building knowledge, clearly plays a vital role in facilitating student learning. Studentsappear to indicate that the school library – not as a passive supply agency, but as an instructional agency – helps them substantially in their learning.

26. School Library as Dynamic Agent of Learning • What the data convey is the notion of an effective school library not just as an INFORMATION PLACE, but also as a KNOWLEDGE SPACE where students develop the appropriate information literacy scaffolds to enable them to engage with information, make decisions about the information they encounter in terms of its worth and appropriateness, and build their own understanding. • An effective school library in not just INFORMATIONAL, but FORMATIONAL.

27. Recommendations and Implications from the Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries Research Study

28. Recommendations and Implications • For Ohio this study recommends… • -- all school library programs provide instructional intervention, through a credentialed school librarian, which centers on the development of information literacy skills for inquiry learning. • --all school libraries, including elementary schools, be staffed with credentialed school librarians who have educational certification and who engage in collaborative instructional initiatives to help students learn and achieve.

29. Recommendations and Implications For Ohio this study recommends … -- all school librarians have a clearly defined role as information-learning specialist, with expertise as an instructional designer who creates and delivers information literacy instruction at class, group and individual levels;  as an educational partner-leader who mutually collaborates, negotiates, and plans with school administrators, teachers, students and parents to implement information literacy instruction in the curriculum;  as a school library program administrator who mutually negotiates, plans and implements a whole-school library program which articulates the integration of information, transformations and formation, as well as the managerial and organizational dimensions of the role; and  as a partner-leader in the provision of learning-oriented professional development targeted to whole school success of learning goals.

30. Recommendations and Implications For Ohio this study recommends… -- all school libraries provide a learning-centered space supported by a strong technology infrastructure. -- all stakeholders engage in sustained and action-oriented discussions in the context of continuous improvement of the necessary resources, technology and staffing requirements needed to maximize the learning opportunities through school libraries.

31. In Ohio, the provision of opportunities to learn through effective school libraries is critical to ensure that no student is left behind.

32. How to Get Information on Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries

33. www.oelma.org Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries

38. Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries Thank You! Gayle Geitgey Assistant Project Director gayleg1650@aol.com Ann E. Tepe Project Director ann@hccanet.org