V. STUDENT PERFORMANCE IN SCHOOLS WITHOUT LIBRARIANS

According to the Public Education Information System (PEIMS) of the Texas Education Agency, 1806 of 7,467 schools in Texas (24 percent) do not have any librarians. Of those 1806 schools,

  • 1,012 are elementary schools (56 percent)
  • 303 are middle/junior high schools (17 percent)
  • 279 are high schools (15 percent)
  • 185 are combined elementary and secondary schools (10 percent)
  • 27 schools did not have educational level designations (1.5 percent)

The analyses were performed on the 1,779 schools identified as elementary, middle/junior high, high, and elementary/secondary.

1. Student Performance on TAAS

The performance of students on TAAS in schools without librarians was compared to TAAS performance in schools with librarians. At all educational levels, TAAS performance was lower in schools without librarians than in schools with librarians. Across all educational levels, over 10 percent more students in schools with librarians than in schools without librarians met minimum TAAS expectations in reading.

Table V. 1: Mean Percent of Students Who Met Minimum TAAS Expectations
Level Schools with Librarians Schools without Librarians
All schools 89.3% 78.4%
Elementary schools 89.3% 79.2%
Middle/Junior high schools 89.0% 79.2%
High schools 89.8% 78.6%

* Includes elementary/secondary schools.

Graph V.1: Mean percent of students who met minimum TAAS expectations. This graph represents the information in the table above.

Furthermore, in 52 percent of the schools with librarians compared with 21 percent of schools without librarians over 90 percent of the students met minimum TAAS expectations in reading. That is, 2.5 times more schools with librarians than schools without librarians had over 90 percent of students meeting minimum TAAS expectations.

Table V. 2: Percent of Schools Where Over 90 Percent of Students Met Minimum TAAS Expectations
Level Schools with Librarians Schools without Librarians
All schools 52.0% 21.1%*
Elementary schools 53.9% 20.3%
Middle/Junior high schools 46.1% 21.6%
High schools 52.7% 25.5%

* Includes elementary/secondary schools.

Graph V.2: Percent o fschools where over 90 percent of students met minimum TAAS expectations. This graph represents the data in the table above.

The percent of lower performing schools (i.e. schools where 70 percent or less of students met minimum TAAS expectations) among schools without librarians was significantly higher than the percent of such schools among those with librarians.

In five percent of the schools with librarians compared with 21 percent of the schools without librarians, 70 percent or less percent of the students met minimum expectations on TAAS reading. Four times more schools without librarians than schools with librarians were low performing. One-fifth of the schools without librarians were low performing.

Table V.3: Percent of Schools Where 70 Percent or Less Students Met Minimum TAAS Expectations in Reading
Level Schools with Librarians Schools without Librarians
All schools 5.2% 20.6%*
Elementary schools 6.6% 19.1%
Middle/Junior high schools 2.9% 17.4%
High schools 3.8% 21.1%

* Includes elementary/secondary schools.

This graph represents the information in the table above.

The following tables present detailed data on TAAS performance overall for all schools as well as by educational level. Please note that the following tables do not show a comparison between elementary/secondary schools with librarians and without librarians because the sample of schools with librarians included only 14 elementary/secondary schools; too small of a sample for a meaningful comparison.

Table V.4: Percent of Students Who Met Minimum TAAS Expectations At All Educational Levels in Schools With and Without Librarians
Percent of Students Who Met Minimum

TAAS Expectations in Reading		 Schools With Librarians Schools Without Librarians
#

(500)		 % #

(1541)*		 %
60 percent or less 9 1.8% 160 10.4%
61 to 65 percent 7 1.4% 68 4.4%
66 to 70 percent 10 2.0% 90 5.8%
71 to 75 percent 17 3.4% 161 10.4%
76 to 80 percent 30 6.0% 186 12.1%
81 to 85 percent 53 10.6% 268 17.4%
86 to 90 percent 114 22.8% 282 18.3%
91 to 95 percent 139 27.8% 213 13.8%
96 to 99 percent 92 18.4% 94 6.1%
100 percent 29 5.8% 19 1.2%
Mean 89.3%   78.4%  

* TAAS data were not available for 238 schools without librarians. Includes elementary/secondary schools.

On average, in schools without librarians 10 percent fewer students met minimum TAAS expectations in reading than in schools with librarians.

Table V.5: TAAS Performance in Elementary Schools With and Without Librarians
Percent of Students Who Met Minimum

TAAS Expectations in Reading		 Elementary Schools With Librarians Elementary Schools Without Librarians
#

(267)		 % #

(893)*		 %
60 percent or less 6 2.2% 67 7.5%
61 to 65 percent 6 2.2% 45 5.0%
66 to 70 percent 6 2.2% 59 6.6%
71 to 75 percent 9 3.4% 103 11.5%
76 to 80 percent 12 4.5% 112 12.5%
81 to 85 percent 27 10.1% 164 18.4%
86 to 90 percent 57 21.3% 161 18.0%
91 to 95 percent 72 27.0% 121 13.5%
96 to 99 percent 57 21.3% 54 6.0%
100 percent 15 5.6% 7 0.8%
Mean 89.3%   79.2%  

* TAAS data were not available for 119 elementary schools without librarians.

Table V.6: TAAS Performance in Middle/Junior High Schools With and Without Librarians
Percent of Students Who Met Minimum

TAAS Expectations in Reading		 Schools With Librarians Schools Without Librarians
#

(104)		 % #

(259)*		 %
60 percent or less 1 1.0% 26 10.0%
61 to 65 percent -- -- 9 3.5%
66 to 70 percent 2 1.9% 10 3.9%
71 to 75 percent 5 4.8% 24 9.3%
76 to 80 percent 9 8.6% 34 13.1%
81 to 85 percent 13 12.5% 51 19.7%
86 to 90 percent 26 25.0% 49 18.9%
91 to 95 percent 30 28.8% 35 13.5%
96 to 99 percent 13 12.5% 14 5.4%
100 percent 5 4.8% 7 2.7%
Mean 89.0%   79.2%  

* TAAS data were not available for 44 middle/junior high schools without librarians.

Table V.7: TAAS Performance in High Schools With and Without Librarians
Percent of Students Who Met Minimum

TAAS Expectations in Reading		 Schools With Librarians Schools Without Librarians
#

(129)		 % #

(247)*		 %
60 percent or less 2 1.5% 32 13.0%
61 to 65 percent 1 0.8% 8 3.2%
66 to 70 percent 2 1.5% 12 4.9%
71 to 75 percent 3 2.3% 25 10.1%
76 to 80 percent 9 7.0% 24 9.7%
81 to 85 percent 13 10.1% 37 15.0%
86 to 90 percent 31 24.0% 46 18.6%
91 to 95 percent 37 28.7% 43 17.4%
96 to 99 percent 22 17.0% 16 6.5%
100 percent 9 7.0% 4 1.6%
Mean 89.8%   78.6%  

* TAAS data were not available for 32 high schools without librarians.

The TAAS performance of elementary/secondary schools without performance was lower. In elementary/secondary schools without librarians, on average, 70.9 percent of the students met minimum expectation on TAAS reading.

Continue on to Chapter 5, Section 2

 

Page last modified: March 2, 2011