On March 29, 2017, The Chicago Tribune published a commentary by Sam Weller entitled Without School Librarians, We’re On a Dystopian Path.  On March 31, 2017, Stephen Krashen responded with a letter to the editor entitled Libraries and Librarians: What does the research say?

Krashen notes that a substantial body of research by me and my RSL Research Group colleagues and him and his colleagues–and I might add, several other researchers–documents that, across the nation and the world, there is an abundance of evidence that “better school libraries and the presence of credentialed school librarians are related to better reading achievement, as measured by standardized tests.”

For those not familiar with this research, the two best summaries of its findings are:

School Libraries Work! A Compendium of Research Supporting the Effectiveness of School Libraries (2016)

School Library Research Summarized: A Graduate Class Project. Revised edition (2013)

For an infographic summarizing the findings of this research as well as a series of short videos about it, visit the School Library Impact Studies page of the Library Research Service website.