Haves, Halves, and Have-Nots: School Libraries and Student Achievement in California Page: 35

State Grade State Test r p
New Mexico (Lance et al., 2002) 8 Language Arts .298** .006
Wisconsin (Smith, 2006) 8 Reading .242** <.001
New Mexico (Lance et al., 2002) 10 Language Arts .214 .092
Michigan (Rodney et al., 2003) 11 Reading .132* <.05
*p <.05, **p <.01.
In Wisconsin, Smith (2006) found significant correlations from elementary school to high
school using a variety of community and school inputs as control variables. See Table 5 for a
summary of these results. In the Illinois (Lance et al., 2005) study, actual numbers were not
reported, but in partial correlations, size of the collection was significant at the high school level
when controlling for household income, per pupil expenditures, teacher-pupil ratio, and student
ethnicity; size of the collection was significant at the elementary and middle school levels for
three of these four variables. While both bivariate and partial correlations show a positive
relationship between the size of a library's collection and student achievement, there is no clear
pattern in terms of the strength of that relationship vis-a-vis grade level.

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