Significant and non-significant results matter: School librarians and assessment

Abstract

Teachers' use of formative and summative assessment to document and enhance students' learning and teachers' instructional practice is firmly established throughout educational research as integral to the teaching profession. However, knowledge about how school librarians, also referred to as teacher librarians, or school library media specialists, use assessment information to shape and inform their instructional practice is far less understood. This study, conducted in a large populous state in the northeastern region of the United States, describes how significant and insignificant results, based on a state-wide web survey of public-school librarians aligned with student achievement data at respondents' school building level, reveal school librarians' assessment practices. Findings reveal that although school librarians use formative assessment to gauge student performance, they rarely share assessment results with teachers or administrators within their buildings. School librarians' demographic factors including prior experience and educational background appear to be associated with assessment practice. The article discusses the need for school librarians to become better versed in how to use assessment information to document evidence of their practice and reveal the contributions they make to various stakeholders within their school communities. Statistical analyses include descriptive statistics as well as regression modeling using school-district-level outcomes and covariates. The results of this study are limited to school librarians in this state and may not be generalizable to all school librarians.