How School Librarians Help with Standardized Testing

Fully funded school library programs result in higher reading scores.

It’s no secret that the pandemic has taken a heavy toll on today’s schoolchildren. The 2020–21 academic year was, for all intents and purposes, a lost year, and as a result, many children failed to develop essential skills.

In the following years, school librarians have proven to be some of the most valuable assets in the efforts to make up for lost time. We’ve done some research and published several blog posts on the topic recently and have unequivocally found that school librarians are an essential part of your child’s learning ecosystem, especially in this day and age.

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Libraries, Librarians, and Reading Scores

Studies have shown a strong link between a well-funded library program and higher average standardized test scores. We believe this is due to the school library’s multifaceted approach to literary education. While the school library is a place to find educational resources, it’s also much, much more.

School libraries are often used for group study sessions, book clubs, and other social activities that encourage a love of learning. In addition, the presence of a diverse book collection allows students to read on their own terms, further contributing to elevated literacy scores. 

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Supporting Your School Library

While the positive impact of libraries on standardized test scores is undeniable, they still aren’t receiving the funding they deserve. School libraries nationwide continue to receive budget cuts, forcing them to downsize their operations more and more by the day. It goes without saying that they can’t continue doing all the things they do if they’re underfunded, and ultimately, the responsibility of saving them comes down to us, the voters.

The best way to support your school library is by showing that it still serves its purpose. Encourage your child to spend time there and make use of its resources. If the people writing up the budget see that the school library is being used and that people are directly benefiting from its presence, they’re more likely to give it the funding it deserves. 

In addition, you can take direct action by emailing your representatives. In your email, mention how school libraries have helped your child thrive academically. Representatives largely base their decisions on what the voters want, so if your community comes together to request funding for school libraries, you’re much more likely to get it. Through this coordinated community effort, you can ensure the school library can serve generations of children to come.

Would you like to learn more about how school libraries contribute to your child’s academic and social development? If so, feel free to visit our site at EveryLibrary today!

Visit www.everylibrary.org to learn more about our work on behalf of libraries. 

#librarymarketers: Enjoy this story? Want to use it for your library newsletter, blog, or social media? This article is published under Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International and is free to edit and use with attribution. Please cite EveryLibrary on medium.com/everylibrary.

This work by EveryLibrary is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0