ERIC Number: EJ1228110
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Oct
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1387-1579
EISSN: N/A
Equity in Access? The Number of the Books Available in Grade 1, 3 and 5 Classroom Libraries
Hodges, Tracey S.; Wright, Katherine Landau; Roberts, Kathryn L.; Norman, Rebecca R.; Coleman, Julianne
Learning Environments Research, v22 n3 p427-441 Oct 2019
In this study, we examined students' access to text, defined as the number of texts freely available to children in their classrooms. From 60 elementary classrooms across five states, we catalogued the books in first, third and fifth grades in both high- and low-achieving schools (based on state-wide reading test scores) to create a database of more than 50,000 books. From this database, we concluded that the number of books per classroom varied significantly within and between states. However, the quantity of texts available to students did not appear to be related to variations in test scores; 54 of the 60 classrooms surpassed the recommended number of books per child based on previous research; two of the six classrooms that did not were in high-achieving schools. Our conclusion is that classroom libraries can provide children with necessary access to print, but access alone does little to explain differences between states in standardised test scores.
Descriptors: Access to Information, Elementary School Students, Grade 1, Grade 3, Grade 5, Books, Instructional Materials, Libraries, School Effectiveness, High Achievement, Low Achievement, Equal Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Early Childhood Education; Grade 1; Primary Education; Grade 3; Grade 5; Intermediate Grades; Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A