A quick and easy way
Sent to This Week in Poverty, the Nation Magazine, comment on “This Week in Poverty: Time to Take On Concentrated Poverty and Education”
Original article: http://www.thenation.com/blog/172589/week-poverty-time-take-concentrated-poverty-and-education#
Missing from This Week in Poverty’s list of projects designed to alleviate the effects of poverty are projects aimed at providing more access to books. There is very consistent evidence showing that
1. children of poverty living in high-poverty areas have little access to books at home, at school, or in their communities
2. more access to interesting, comprehensible reading material means better development of literacy
3. providing access to books increases literacy development.
The major source of books for children of poverty is the library. Studies done in the US and internationally show that library quality (more books, more staffing, presence of a credentialed librarian) is associated with reading proficiency.
Recent results strongly suggest that the presence of a library can cancel the negative effect of poverty on reading achievement.
Improving school and public libraries and supporting librarians, in high poverty areas is a quick and easy way to improve the quality of life and school performance. For a fraction of what we are paying for tougher standards and massive testing, every child in the US could have access to an excellent supply of books and other reading material.
University of Southern California
Lance, K. C. The Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement. http://www.lrs.org/impact.php
Krashen, S. 2012. The Spectacular Role of Libraries in Protecting Students from the Effects of Poverty: iLeader: Journal of The School Library Association of New South Wales 1(4): 3-6. Available at www.sdkrashen.com.