Why Should Principals Support School Libraries?

Why Should Principals Support School Libraries? Well, the answer ought to be obvious to all but I guess some of those administrators have to be convinced...



From the site:



Principals should support school libraries because it is in both their students' and their own best interests to do so. Quality library media programs can enhance student achievement, and informed, committed librarians can help principals enhance their own administrative practice.



STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT



Improving student achievement is a vital principal interest, but many principals overlook libraries and librarians as potentially powerful instruments in that work because they have not been educated to the library's value and library media research rarely appears in administrator publications (Wilson & Blake, 1993). Consequently, principals often leave library potential untapped despite fifty years of research evidence that effective library media programs-when led by active, involved librarians-can have a discernible positive impact on student achievement regardless of student, school and community demographics. The evidence is drawn from elementary, middle, and high school studies reaching back to the 1950s. While the volume of evidence alone is cumulatively persuasive, the most recent research is especially powerful because its authors statistically controlled for demographic differences among the schools they studied-a feature missing in the pre-1990 research. This is important because the evidence is largely derived from statistical correlation studies, which cannot unequivocally prove causation. Correlation research can, however, identify relationships and degrees of association among variables. Cause-and-effect probability is strengthened if similar correlations appear in multiple settings over time, which is what occurs here.