2009 ALISE Conference

4

Exploratory Study of the Relationship between National Board Certification in Library Media and Information Science and Student Academic Achievement

Gail Dickinson, Associate Professor
249-6 Education Building
Old Dominion University

Norfolk, VA 23529

gdickins@odu.edu
Office: 757-683-6683
Fax: 757-683-5862

Exploratory Study of the Relationship between National Board Certification in Library Media and Information Science and Student Academic Achievement

National Board Certification (NBC) of teachers, including those in school library media specialists (LMS), has been touted as a path to increases in student achievement.  However, there is a dearth of scientifically rigorous evidence to support this claim and literally no evidence to link NBC of LMS professionals and student achievement.  The purpose of the Exploratory Study of the Relationship between National Board Certification in Library Media and Information Science and Student Academic Achievement (Explore NBC) is to provide a scientifically rigorous research framework for the study of NBC of LMS on student achievement and pilot that framework with a subset of the nation’s LMS professionals.  Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Service (IMLS) and guided by the Explore NBC Advisory Committee, this is an ongoing two-year study of the linkages between National Board Certification of LMS and student achievement.

Explore NBC directly addresses a need in the library media and information sciences – namely to conduct rigorous evaluation of library and information services professional preparation as well as examine linkages to student performance.  As such, we are implementing a scientifically-based research study designed to draw causal inferences about the relationship between the library and information services provided by school library media specialists and student achievement.

Specifically, we employ a quantitative, quasi-experimental research design to compare successful and unsuccessful NBC LMS candidates with LMS professionals who never applied for certification in terms of student achievement while controlling for other factors that affect student performance.  Our methods include a survey of LMS, analysis of NBC data from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards and facility data from Annual Media and Technology Report (AMTR) as well as examination of student-level standardized test scores.  We term this an exploratory study because we study LMS professionals from North Carolina who make up approximately 25 percent of the NBC LMS population.

The analytic model is straightforward and built from the main research question:  What effect does NBC of LMS have on student achievement?  We compare three groups:  LMS who are certified, those who attempted NBC but failed, and those who never attempted NBC.  The model accounts for possible confounding factors of LMS demographics, facility specifications, collaboration, and district/school factors.  Student achievement is measured by NCAT reading and computing test scores.  Regression analyses are used to gauge the relationships.  We hypothesize that LMS who are NBC will positively affect student test scores to a greater degree than those who failed to gain NBC and those who never attempted.  Results from this methodologically rigorous study will be made available to the public for the first time at the ALISE annual meeting in Denver, Colorado.