| There has been a decline in the amount of funding school libraries have received over the last decade. Due to funding issues, many schools have been forced to reduce the number of library media specialists or library staff, reduce the amount of books added to library collections, and in some extreme cases, schools have been forced to close school library doors. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of student academic achievement to variables related to the operation and supervision of school library media centers. The independent variables of school library media centers investigated were library collection size, library visits and book checkouts, and the services delivered by library media specialists in selected school library media centers throughout school districts in West Tennessee. Specifically, this study examined the dependent variable of standardized test scores in the area of Reading as measured on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) for students in grades 3, 5, and 8. The sample consisted of 47 West Tennessee elementary and middle schools libraries. These school libraries were associated with schools that contained students in grades 3, 5, and 8. The research questions explored were: (1) Does collection size (number of books, magazines, and audio-visual items) in a school library media center affect the results of student performance as measured by Reading scores on the TCAP in schools located throughout West Tennessee? (2) Does the number of student visits to the library media center and the number of books checked out by students influence the reading achievement as measured by Reading scores on the TCAP of students in schools located throughout West Tennessee? And (3) Do the services performed by library media specialists impact student achievement as measured by Reading scores on the TCAP of students in schools located throughout West Tennessee? Supporting evidence was found to support the first research question that collection size does impact TCAP Composite Reading Test Scores. Results and further implications are discussed in detail in this study. |
