Can You Find the Evidence-Based Practice in Your School Library?

Ask any school librarian what type of data they collect and nine times out of ten they will begin by discussing circulation statistics and numbers of students using the library. With the advent of No Child Left Behind, Adequate Yearly Progress, and school budget cuts, school librarians have had to become more data driven than ever before. Thinking in terms of student learning and achievement has brought about an interest in evidence-based practice (EBP). Our school library community began discussing EBP several years ago, but just recently more school librarians have begun applying the methods and tools of EBP. Perhaps you have been wondering what EBP is and where to begin. You may even be thinking that you already collect enough data and are probably doing EBP already. Before you decide you are an expert on EBP, try answering these questions:

• Can you state the learning outcomes of your school library?
• Are you able to show how your school-library learning outcomes impact student achievement through data from your state tests?
• Are you a dynamic agent of learning?
• If your principal asked you for evidence of how your instruction affects student learning, would you be able to produce the data?

All of these questions can be answered with a thorough knowledge of EBP

In 2004, Drs. Ross Todd and Carol Kuhlthau and the Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA) conducted a study called “Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries: The Ohio Research Study” (referred to as the Ohio study). This groundbreaking study asked over 13,000 students how their school libraries helped them with their learning. With over 10,000 qualitative answers from the students, school librarians began to realize that collecting evidence and knowing what the students have to say about their learning needed to be the utmost priority. The ultimate question for librarians became, How do we collect this type of data, and what do we do with it once we have it?

The answer came from Dr. Todd. He has stated, “You will know when you have achieved evidence-based practice when you are able to provide convincing evidence that you know: What differences do my school library and its learning initiatives make to student learning outcomes?' and What are the differences, the tangible learning outcomes and learning benefits of my school library?'”

It is also important for anyone beginning the EBP journey to realize that there are three steps to understanding the workings of EBP:

• Know the research that demonstrates how school libraries affect learning.
• Mesh this knowledge with your own wisdom to build student learning.
• Work with your own school library to collect evidence that shows you do make a difference (Todd, R.J. (Aug/Sept, 2003); School Libraries & Evidence: Seize the Day Begin the Future. Library Media Connection).

Knowing the Research

Two of the stated outcomes of the Ohio study were helping school librarians develop EBP for their own school libraries and encouraging continuous improvement in effective library services that support academic content. In order to accomplish these goals, OELMA began an EBP professional development campaign. What was needed was an intensive program of training on how to identify learning outcomes, how to do evaluations that collect data showing the knowledge gained by students from those learning outcomes, and what to do with the evidence once it is collected. Kay Gerspacher, a high school librarian for Xenia Community Schools in Ohio mused that:

I’ve always believed that the best way to show that I’m doing a good job is to throw statistics at my administrators. My end-of-the year report was full of numbers: how many books were checked out, how many holds were placed, how many students came to the library from study hall, how many classes used the library. Of course I also included information about what happened in the library, the projects that students worked on, the teachers I collaborated with, and the special events that took place, but what I really counted on were the statistics, especially if I could show that we checked out more books this year than last, or we had more students use the library than in previous years…. The bottom line is student achievement. Dr. Ross Todd reminded me that a school librarian is first and foremost a teacher who works with students to increase their learning. I know that, but with all the clerical tasks that need attention, it’s easy to let that fact take a backseat to more pressing demands. So, I’ve been reminded: my first and foremost job is to boost/help student achievement. But if student achievement is the most important outcome of my job, how do I show/prove that the library makes a difference?

The school-library community has a wealth of research that verifies the value of school libraries and the impact they have on student achievement. The Lance studies have demonstrated key common findings that school library media specialists do make a difference to students using the school library. The Ohio study (Todd, Kuhlthau, OELMA, 2004) showed how school libraries help student learning by surveying over 13,000 students about seven constructs of help based on how the school library helped them ( http://www.oelma.org/StudentLearning/default.asp ). From this study, a model was developed that shows the school library as a dynamic agent of learning. The school librarian, working as a curriculum-partner leader, moves the instructional agenda forward from the informational to the transformational and ultimately to the formational, with the end result being the transformation of learning.

Meshing Knowledge with Wisdom

Next on the EBP journey is meshing your knowledge of the research with your own wisdom to build student learning. You might be puzzled about how to do this, but every school librarian has access to the student learning outcomes listed in Information Power. Also, practically every state has adopted academic content standards, which relate to what the students should know and be able to do. Using state-created academic-content standards in areas such as English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, technology, foreign language, and fine arts can help the school librarian understand what instruction needs to be accomplished. If there are also state-designated school-library standards that focus on instruction, these are an added bonus for demonstrating EBP. An example of state library standards is the “Ohio Guidelines for Effective School Library Media Programs.” Four of the guidelines are program oriented, and three are instruction oriented. This is where the “aha” moment occurs in EBP. In order to collect data about student learning, the school librarian must realize that the data to be concerned with relates to instruction much more than program. School librarians have collected program data (collection statistics, patron-usage statistics, number-of-classes-in-the-library statistics) forever and a day. These program statistics, while valuable, do not show the learning outcomes of the school-library instructional program. What does is data that demonstrates what the students have learned. It is important to collect data directly from the students, which gives you, in the students’ voices, how they feel about their learning. School librarians armed with their state academic content standards or Information Power standards are able to collaborate with their colleagues and design instruction where the students demonstrate what they know and are able to do. In addition, the librarian collects evidence that demonstrates how the library helped the student learn.

At this point in the EBP journey, it would be a good idea to stop and check the data available from your district’s state-achievement tests. Most states are testing reading and math achievement at a variety of grade levels. Drilling down into your school’s data about reading, for example, will provide you with an item analysis of how your own students scored on various sections of the test. Generally, these sections have a reference key to which academic content standards were specifically tested. This reference key allows the school librarian to find the correlation between the tested content standard and their school library standards. This information then arms school librarians with specific standards for focusing their collaboration effort. Rita Miller, a middle school librarian for West Carrollton City Schools stated:

I have learned to expand my knowledge of alignments and correlations of the academic-content standards with the library guidelines and match them up with the achievement test my students take each year. Through this process, I learned more about the sixth-grade reading-achievement test and how to read and understand the outcomes. I feel more comfortable knowing what and how the achievement test aligns with content standards. This is the piece I was missing.

School librarians that have this knowledge will be able to focus their instructional work and collect data from the students on how they, the librarians, helped to improve that area of students’ academic achievement.

Collecting the Evidence

This brings you to what Dr. Todd calls, “working with your own school library to collect the evidence that shows you do make a difference.” Dr. Todd has suggested several techniques that can be used to collect the evidence. Examples of what some EBP techniques involve are comment cards, minute papers, rubrics, portfolios, and surveys. There are also several tools available that align with Information Power standards but also could be aligned with state academic content standards that a school librarian can use to begin the data collection work. The first tool is the student survey utilized for the Ohio study, which is available on the Ohio study’s Tools and Resources CD. This instrument consists of the seven areas in which students were surveyed about school library “helps,” including how the library:

• Helped the student get information
• Helped the student use information to complete school work
• Helped the student with school work in general
• Helped the student with computers at school, in the library, or at home
• Helped the student with general reading interests
• Helped the student when the student was not in school
• Helped the student in general.

Within each of the seven areas there are four to five questions that relate to the constructs of help the library gives the student. Since EBP suggests that the school librarian use a variety of techniques to check how students demonstrate that the library has helped fulfill their academic needs, the questions from the Ohio study’s student survey can be very useful. The survey gives the school librarian a starting point for asking the students questions about what they learned after library instruction. The Ohio study’s student survey does not need to be used in its entirety. Feel free to pick and choose questions from one area or all areas that relate to what you want to learn about how your library instruction has affected students. Also, the questions can be altered to fit your situation.

Another free data collection tool is Tools for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy (TRAILS), developed by Kent State University’s Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education (ILILE). Located at ( http://www.trails-9.org ), this tool was created based on Information Power and the Ohio Academic Content Standards. It is a survey of information-literacy knowledge. Although designed for usage with ninth-grade students, students in grades 7-12 can utilize the survey. The tool is Web based and can be used with a class or a grade level as a pre- and post-survey of knowledge of information literacy. The data reported from this tool gives a school librarian a clear pre- and post-survey picture of student learning.

If you are looking for training on EBP methods, the OELMA, in association with Dr. Ross Todd, has designed an EBP training module for the professional development of school librarians. This training module is called Can You Find the Evidence-based Practice in Your School Library? It is a one-day workshop that teaches the steps to use in developing a solid understanding of EBP. This module is conducted as a workshop or can be purchased for training by a district (contact info@oelma.org or ( http://www.oelma.org ) for more information). School librarians have a growing number of tools in their toolkit to help them collect evidence related to their instruction and to student learning, but it is also important to plan how to present the collected data.

Presenting the Evidence

Taking the data collection one step further, it is extremely important to have a plan for how to share the collected data with your colleagues, your principal, or your school board. It is truly important not to keep the data to yourself, and remember never to just drop the data in front of your staff or principal. Early in the data-sharing process, begin by telling your colleagues about the nature of your EBP project, and then continue to supply them with the data from the students. Be sure to emphasize the collaborative nature of the project and the classes you worked with to collect the evidence. Don’t hide the negative data, but rather show how this will help you make changes. Be sure not to use library lingo that no one but you will understand. Dr. Todd often reminds us that not everyone lives in “Libraryland,” so it is important that we communicate with teachers and administrators in terms they understand. One helpful data analysis resource is the Ohio study’s Tools and Resources CD, which includes articles written by Dr. Todd.

As you ponder how to begin your EBP experience, don’t forget the major questions that drive EBP: What differences do my school library and its learning initiatives make to student learning outcomes? and What are the differences, tangible learning outcomes, and learning benefits of my school library? Before you start your data collection, lay out the data you have collected in the past and think about the new data you would like to collect and how this might be accomplished. Think about how you might use this data to demonstrate the true impact you and your school library’s instructional program have on student learning. Keep in mind that “school libraries are all about student learning, and you are dynamic agents of learning.”