A Study of the Role of the Elementary School Librarian in Reading Instruction in the Region II, Education Service Center Area of Texas PDF Download

Author: Vanessa Jane Earp
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ISBN:
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Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
The purpose of this research project was to study the role of elementary school librarians in reading instruction in Region II, Education Service Center area of Texas. By using school web sites and telephoning schools it was found that 51 of the 104 elementary schools did indeed have school librarians while 46 did not. The study found that 7 shared a librarian between campuses. Scores from these 104 elementary schools TAKS reading test were collected from the 2004-2005 School Report Cards found on the Texas Education Agency Web Site. To determine if schools with librarians scored higher on the TAKS an ANOVA was run using SPSS. An ANOVA was used instead of a T-Test because there were three grouping variables (schools with a librarian, schools without a librarian, and schools that shared a librarian). The ANOVA showed no significant difference in the scores on the TAKS Reading Test. (F (2,100) = 2.67, p = 0.074). These findings could be due to other reasons, such as teacher to pupil ratio or differences in how schools prepare for the TAKS Reading Test. These findings are different than findings in other states such as Colorado, Alaska, and Pennsylvania where studies conducted found that having strong school libraries and librarians increased test scores. An electronic questionnaire was sent out to the 51 librarians to gather information on their knowledge of reading instruction and their roles in reading instruction in their specific schools. There were 28 respondents which provided a 54% response rate. Most of the librarians had some knowledge of phonics 23 (82%), whole language 21 (75%), and balanced literacy 21 (75%). While the librarians showed knowledge of reading instruction methods 16 (57%) stated they do not help with reading instruction in their school and 12 (46%) stated they would not want to be involved with reading instruction. Questionnaire is appended. [MS Graduate Research Project, Texas A&M University-Kingsville.].