On April 5, 2006, a landmark study, School Libraries and Student Achievement in Ontario, was released.
The study:
- Was led by Queen’s University educational researcher, Dr. Donald Klinger.
- Is based on Ontario data: Grade 3 and 6 EQAO data and People for Education Tracking Reports for the same schools.
- Demonstrates similar results to numerous international studies which show the positive relationship between professionally staffed school libraries and student achievement.
The important findings of this research include:
- The presence of a teacher-librarian was the single strongest predictor of reading enjoyment for both Grade 3 and 6 students.
- Schools with teacher-librarians could be expected to have reading enjoyment scores that were 8 percentile points higher than average.
- Reading enjoyment is strongly and positively linked to student achievement.
- Schools with professionally-trained school library staff could be expected to have reading achievement scores that were approximately 5.5 percentile points higher than average in Grade 6 EQAO results.
- Schools without trained library staff tend to have lower achievement on Grade 3 and 6 EQAO reading tests, both in terms of average achievement and attaining Level 3 or higher.
- Eastern and Northern regions of the province are particularly disadvantaged due to lower staffing levels.
At the press conference announcing the study’s release, Dr. David Booth emphasized the importance of teacher-librarians in fostering engagement in reading, a factor that is instrumental in fostering literacy and life-long learning for students.
Download the complete study (.pdf 256KB)
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