West Contra Costa Unified School District recently announced that it was "cutting all high school sports, eliminating all music teachers and counselors and closing down all libraries." Joan Ryan writes in the SFGate that this is a self-defeating plan:
Supporters of libraries like to say the value of libraries is immeasurable, but that's not true. Study after study has quantified their impact. In a 2000 study of Colorado schools, for example, researcher Keith Curry Lance found higher test scores in schools where library resources were maximized and librarians actively collaborated with classroom teachers. Standardized test scores ran 18 percent higher in fourth grade and 10 percent to 15 percent higher in seventh grade when compared to schools where library resources and staffing were meager. The researchers controlled for factors that people think would explain away the difference, such as per-student expenditures, teacher/student ratios, socioeconomic differences, race, ethnicity and the education level of the adult community.
I wonder if the studies cited above controlled for parental attitudes as well. Ms. Ryan notes that, in response to the West Contra announcement, "much of the angry protests centered on sports." When the parents are more likely to get angry over an endangered football team than a complete lack of books in the school, I'd say the test scores don't stand a chance.
Posted by kswygert at March 31, 2004 01:36 PM