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• App. A

IV. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIBRARY RESOURCES AND ACTIVITIES AND STUDENT PERFORMANCE

The data compiled in this study consisted of more than 200 library, school, and community variables. To examine the relationship between library resources and activities and students' performance as measured by the percent of students who met minimum expectations on TAAS reading, the first step in the analysis was to identify the variables that best represented the library's programs, resources and activities. These variables (predictors) were identified by computing bivariate correlation coefficients. Based on the School Library Programs: Standards and Guidelines for Texas and recent studies, library variables were grouped into five areas:

• Library program development
• Leadership activities
• Teaching/Collaboration activities
• Library technology
• School technology with access to networked library resources

Similar analytical procedures were also used with the large number of school and community variables.

The next step was to move from a group of single library variables to the creation of groupings (factors) in order to examine the relationship among these variables. This was achieved by using factor analysis.

The third step in the analysis was to examine the relationship between student performance on TAAS reading (i.e. the percent of students who met minimum expectations of TAAS reading) and the library variables and identify which group of variables was most strongly associated with TAAS performance.

The fourth step was to expand the factor analysis by adding school and community variables. The objective of this step was to identify factors that are uncorrelated with each other for use in a multiple regression analysis. Using uncorrelated factors in a regression analysis is important in order to avoid multicollinearity.

The last step in the examination of the effect of library variables on TAAS performance was to measure the degree to which TAAS performance can be explained by library variables and identify those variables that contribute most to TAAS performance.

Library Program Development

1.1 Elementary School Libraries

The survey collected data from librarians on a wide range of library program infrastructure elements. Among these elements, six variables were identified as having positive and significant correlations for elementary school libraries. The bivariate correlations between these variables were typically moderate to high. These variables, all expressed as ratios, include:

• Size of the library staff per 100 students
• Library staff hours per 100 students
• Library hours of operation per 100 students
• Print volumes per student
• Current newspaper and magazine subscriptions per 100 students
• Library's operational expenditures per student

1.2 Middle/Junior High School Libraries

At the middle/junior high school level, program development variables that correlated significantly included:

• Library staff per 100 students
• Library staff hours per 100 students
• Library hours of operation per 100 students
• Library's print volumes per student
• Library's video collection per 100 students
• Library's operational expenditures per student

The bivariate correlation coefficients between the program development variables were moderate to high.

1.3 High School Libraries

At the high school level, eight program development variables were identified as having positive, high, and significant correlations. These included:

• Library staff per 100 students
• Library staff hours per 100 students
• Library hours of operation per 100 students
• Library's budget per student
• Print volumes per student
• Current subscriptions to newspapers and magazines per 100 students
• Library software packages per 100 students
• Volumes purchased in 1999-00 per 100 students

The variables representing library collection play a significant role at the high school level. The four library collection variables constitute an important part of the high school library infrastructure. These represent both the range and variety of materials in the collection and the degree to which the collection is recent. At the high school level, the size of the print collection, the magazine and newspaper collection, and the software collection appear to be significant indicators of the library's program development. Equally important is the extent to which the collection is recent.

Continue on to Chapter 4, Section 2