Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Sasha Poor
“In reading… those in our highest-poverty schools are performing on a par with children
in the world’s lowest-achieving countries,” (Ali et al., 2013). There is a discrepancy between
achievement in literacy for children in underrepresented populations and other children. Despite
attempts to close the gap, the issue persists. According to the California Assessment of Student
Performance and Progress (CAASPP) website, 44.25% of African American students did not
meet standards in the Smarter Balanced test, while only 16.13% of white students did not meet
standards (2017). A possible cause of this problem is a lack of resources in communities with
large groups of underrepresented populations. Perhaps a study that investigates the accessibility
of literacy in minority communities through a survey of students could offer a solution to the
question “How can PAUSD and Ravenswood School District school libraries be made more
Literature Review
Even in Silicon Valley, there is an achievement gap between minority students and those
who are not part of a minority. In the Palo Alto Unified School District, minority groups perform
worse on standardized tests than non-minority groups. On the English Language Arts/Literacy
section of the Smarter Balanced Assessment, 9.32% of black students scored in the “Standard
Exceeded” range, while 30.95% of white students scored in the same range (CAASPP, 2017).
Within one school district, there is a noticeable discrepancy between the achievement of non-
report done by the Equity and Excellence Commission created by the U.S. Department of
Education, students in communities that are mainly composed of minorities tend to perform
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worse on exams. The report states that, “in math, the average African American eighth-grader is
performing at the 19th percentile of white students. The average Hispanic student is at the 26th
percentile” (Ali et al., 2013). The report also states that, in minority communities, development
communities, racial isolation can put minority students at a disadvantage. Overall, minority
disadvantage, which is reflected in their performance on exams and overall reading literacy.
these aspects can change the level of literacy that a person will achieve in their lifetime. Three
main factors that can affect the literacy of a child are metacognitive ability, decoding speed and
prior knowledge (Artelt, Schiefele, & Schneider, 2001). A higher degree of these factors allows
children to perform better on literacy tests and develop their reading literacy further. Access to
books and thematic interest also have an effect on literacy development, although it is less than
the effect of the previously stated factors (Artelt, Schiefele, & Schneider, 2001). Each of these
aspects of a person’s childhood affects their literacy development, and therefore their
achievement in reading assessments. Though this research is 17 years old, no other research has
been published showing a change in these factors. Children’s achievement in reading assessment
is one of the main measures of literacy achievement, meaning these factors affect overall literacy
Teacher quality, access to school supplies, and school financing can affect the reading literacy of
children (Ali et al., 2013). Each of these elements of a child’s education can decrease the level of
reading literacy they reach in their life. Various cognitive abilities, access to resources such as
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books and school supplies, subject interest, teacher quality, and school financing are all factor
Many of the factors that affect reading literacy are lower or less accessible in
communities that are mainly composed of minorities or for minorities in communities composed
tend to have underpaid, lower quality teachers, as well as insufficient and lower quality school
supplies (Ali et al., 2013). Because teacher quality is a large factor in the development of reading
literacy in children, this puts minority children at a great disadvantage. Many schools are funded
by donations from the community. However, many minority communities tend to donate less
than non-minority communities (Ali et al., 2013). A lack of funding in minority schools leads to
the issues mentioned earlier. In addition, budgets for school libraries, an easily accessible
resource for books, in minority communities are less than budgets for those in non-minority
communities. For the 2014-15 school year, the Ravenswood City School District had an
expenditure of $1,859,725 (Ravenswood City School District, 2016), while the Palo Alto Unified
School District spent $7,963,458 (Palo Alto Unified School District, n.d.). This great discrepancy
demonstrates the discrepancy in the amount and quality of supplies and books available at
school. These are both aspects that greatly affect reading literacy development in children.
Therefore, children who are raised in minority communities have access to fewer and worse tools
to develop their literacy from a young age, leading to a decreased final level of reading literacy.
Despite this research, there is very little information about the actual accessibility and use of
minority communities and wealthier or non minority communities. This research project aims to
describe this comparison between accessibility and use of literature in minority and non-minority
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communities, as well as a comparison between what students in each group believe would be the
Research Methodologies
In order to answer this question, the best approach was an observational study using
action and descriptive research. Descriptive research was used to determine the main
Action research was used to propose various solutions to possible issues, for which descriptive
research was used to determine the popularity of each suggested improvement. The population
for this study was students in the Palo Alto and Ravenswood school districts, of which some
middle school classes were sampled to take the survey. Middle school classes have been selected
as students are mature enough to answer questions insightfully and the Ravenswood City School
District does not have a high school. The sample used was compiled through requesting that
middle school teachers in both districts present the survey to students in their classes. The survey
was distributed through a link to a Google Form which was emailed to teachers, who then
presented it to the students in their classes. The data has been stored in a spreadsheet compiled
from the Google Form answers and will be deleted once the research has been completed. At the
beginning of the survey, a disclaimer has been provided, explaining the purpose of the survey
and that the students are under no obligation to answer the survey and may exit it at any time.
The questions were regarding library use, reading habits, and demographic data (see appendix A
for survey questions). This survey collected quantitative and qualitative data from the students.
The survey was completely confidential and anonymous. No personal identifying information
Data analysis comprised inferential statistics, both for quantitative and qualitative data
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(see Appendix B for details). Qualitative data has been assigned a scale, which was used to
were used, with a 0.1 level of significance. In order to determine the efficacy of the proposed
solutions, the percentage of respondents who believed the improvement would be beneficial
In order to evaluate the data that was collected, one of the Ravenswood teachers was
emailed. The email included the analyzed data from the survey as well as some questions
regarding the new information that the survey found and how helpful it is (see Appendix B for
questions). This information was then taken as quotes to evaluate the usefulness of the data.
Over the course of this study, much data has been collected. The following is a
compilation of the survey responses for most of the survey questions (see Appendix E for full
responses).
First, when students were asked to report how many days per week their libraries were
open, PAUSD students reported an average of 4.9 days, while Ravenswood students reported an
average of 3.9 days per week. When asked to rate how welcoming their school libraries were out
of a scale of 1-5, PAUSD students gave a mean of 4.4, while Ravenswood students gave a mean
of 4.1. When asked to rate how useful their school libraries were on a scale of 1-5, PAUSD
students gave a mean rating of 3.8 and Ravenswood students gave a mean rating of 4. It was
found that 83.2% of PAUSD students read for pleasure and 100% of the Ravenswood students
When asked how many books they read per week, PAUSD students gave a mean of 5.8
books per week, while Ravenswood students gave an average of 1.4 books per week. When
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asked to estimate how many books they have a home, PAUSD students gave an average of 306
The following are figures representing data collected in response to survey questions
regarding improvements that could be made to school libraries and students’ reading habits.
Figures 1 and 2. Responses from PAUSD and the Ravenswood School District to the
question: Which of the following would make you more likely to read more?
Figures 3 and 4. Responses from PAUSD and the Ravenswood School District to the
question: Which of the following do you think would make your libraries more welcoming?
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Figures 5 and 6. Responses from PAUSD and the Ravenswood School District to the
question: Which of the following do you think would make your libraries more useful?
Figures 7 and 8. Responses from PAUSD and the Ravenswood School District to the
question: Which of the following would make you more likely to use your library?
Using significance tests, it was found that theres is statistically significant evidence that
the mean number of days that the PAUSD middle school libraries are open is greater than the
mean number of days that the Ravenswood Middle School library is open. There is also
statistically significant evidence that the mean number of books that PAUSD middle school
students read every week is greater than the mean number of books that Ravenswood Middle
School students read every week and that the mean number of books that PAUSD middle school
students have at home is greater than the mean number of books that Ravenswood Middle
Based on the significance tests, there is not statistically significant evidence that the mean
rating students at PAUSD middle schools give to how welcoming their libraries are is greater
than the mean rating that Ravenswood Middle school students give or that the mean rating
students at PAUSD middle schools give to their school libraries’ usefulness is greater than the
mean rating of Ravenswood Middle School students. There is also not statistically significant
evidence that the proportion PAUSD middle school students who read for pleasure is greater
than the proportion of Ravenswood Middle School students who read for pleasure.
From this it can be determined that students’ perceptions of their libraries are not
significantly different when comparing between PAUSD and Ravenswood middle schools.
However, these tests also show that the reading habits of students at PAUSD and Ravenswood
middle schools are vastly different. While both have large percentages of students who read for
pleasure, the amount of reading they do their access to books at home were shown to be
significantly different.
This indicates that either perceptions of libraries must be better in Ravenswood, due to
the low access to books at home, or that access to books at home must be improved rather than
the perceptions of libraries. If the route to improve perceptions of libraries is taken, the
Some of these recommendations can be seen in the results of the survey administered
through this study. Including the calculations of margins of error, most PAUSD students said that
more books would make them more likely to read. At 72.05% ± 5.8% choosing it, it was the only
answer that received over 50% approval. For Ravenswood students, more books and more
helpful librarians were the most approved improvements. 70.59% ± 18.2% chose more books
and 76.47% ± 16.98% chose more helpful librarians. These were also the only ones to receive
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over 50% including the extremes of the margins of error. Thus, it can be determined that more
books are preferred at libraries in both school districts, while more helpful librarians are
Regarding how to make school libraries more welcoming, new book displays and new
furniture were the two choices that received over 50% from PAUSD students, including the
margins of error. 54.38% ± 6.5% of PAUSD students said that new book displays would make
their school libraries more welcoming, and the same percentage said new furniture would make
libraries more welcoming. From Ravenswood students, new book displays and more librarians
were the two choices that received over 50%. 86.67% ± 14.4% of Ravenswood students said new
book displays would make help, and 66.67% ± 20.1% said more librarians would make their
school libraries more welcoming. Based on this, it can be determined that students from both
districts believe new book displays would make libraries more welcoming. However, the districts
differ in that PAUSD students think new furniture would help, while students at the Ravenswood
When asked how to make libraries more useful, PAUSD students preferred more or
newer books and more or newer computers. Both of these options were chosen by over 50% of
students who responded. 70.06% ± 5.8% of PAUSD students believe more or newer books
would make their libraries more useful and 52.69% ± 6.4% believed more or newer computers
would do so. Ravenswood students also chose more or newer computers, as well as more
librarians. 58.82% ± 19.7% of Ravenswood students also chose more or newer computers as a
way to improve their libraries’ usefulness, while 47.06% ± 19.97% chose more librarians. While
this was not over 50%, the margin of error was above that mark. This means that both PAUSD
students and Ravenswood students believe their libraries could be made more useful by
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improving the selection of books. On the other hand, only PAUSD students believed computers
could improve their libraries, while Ravenswood students thought an addition of librarians would
help.
With respect to how often students use their libraries, the result was similar. PAUSD
students selected more or newer books and a greater variety of genres as their preferred
improvements to their libraries. Out of the PAUSD students, 75.63% ± 5.6% chose more or
newer books and 63.13% ± 6.3% said a greater variety of genres would make them more likely
to use their libraries. Both of these were the only two that over 50% of the students chose. When
Ravenswood students were asked, most of them said that more or newer books and more
librarians would be the best improvements. According to the margin of error calculations,
70.59% ± 18.2% of Ravenswood middle school students believe more or newer books would
make them more likely to use their libraries, and 52.94% ± 19.97% of them believe more
librarians would do so. This means that both Ravenswood and PAUSD students believe more or
newer books would make them more likely to use their libraries. The difference in their
responses is that PAUSD students believed a greater variety of genres would make them use
their library more, while Ravenswood students believed more librarians would do so.
Overall, both PAUSD and Ravenswood students believed that more books and new book
displays would be the best improvements to their libraries. More books was chosen by over 50%
of Ravenswood and PAUSD students in every question in which it was offered. Students from
both districts suggested more or newer computers as a preferred improvement to their libraries’
usefulness, with over 50% of them choosing that option in the one question where it was offered.
New book displays was also selected by over 50% of students from both districts in the question
that offered it. PAUSD students also selected a greater variety of genres as a preferred
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improvement, which is similar to the option of more or newer books. They also selected new
furniture as a way to make their school libraries more welcoming, as opposed to Ravenswood
students, of whom a majority did not choose this. Ravenswood students repeatedly chose more
students selected this option in every question of the survey regarding improvements, while it
While their views of their school libraries are quite similar, Ravenswood School District
and PAUSD students have differences in their preferred improvements to the libraries. Some of
the options chosen by over 50% of students were the same, however there were differences in at
least one of the choices selected for each survey question. The research question can be answered
by the improvements that students recommended in the survey. It can be concluded that the best
ways to make school libraries in PAUSD and the Ravenswood School District are to add more
books and more computers. A specific improvement to the PAUSD libraries would be newer
furniture, and an improvement specific to the Ravenswood School District libraries would be
more librarians to help students. The students who responded to the survey determined that these
would improve their reading habits and library use habits, thus improving their literacy
For the evaluation of the data, the teacher stated that the information provided by the
survey gives new insight to how the students view their school libraries. The teacher said that she
found that “They like it [the library], but don't necessarily love it and find that it needs
improvement,” a new perspective for her. She also said that the results from the survey gave her
some ideas for how specific ways the library could be improved. Some of these ideas included
extending the library’s hours, adding more comfortable furniture, and giving out free books to
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the students. The fact that the survey did provide new information regarding library use in
PAUSD and the Ravenswood school district shows that the study did provide new information
and thus was a helpful addition to previous research that has been done.
Based on the data that was collected during this study, it cannot be concluded that there is
a significant difference in students’ perceptions of their school libraries in the PAUSD and
Ravenswood school districts. This counters the idea that their school libraries are of significantly
different quality. However, there is a significant difference in the reading habits of those
students, as expected from the discrepancy in literacy achievement. This is consistent with the
idea that access to books and the amount of reading that children do is correlated to their
achievement in literacy. Thus, it can be concluded that either libraries in the Ravenswood School
District must be improved more than the libraries in PAUSD in order to counter the lack of
access to books at home or libraries should not be the target when trying to improve literacy
It can also be concluded that, in order to improve libraries and their usage in the
Ravenswood School District, new books could be added and more librarians could be hired. This
information can be used by others looking to research the literacy gap and ways to close it. It
could also be used by others who choose to implement these changes directly in order to improve
the libraries, including people within the Ravenswood School District or in the community of the
San Francisco Bay Area. These changes could then be researched through more action research
to determine whether these changes are truly effective in increasing library use and literacy
achievement. This could be used as the next phase of this study, researching the effects of these
Though inferential statistics were used to determine how this survey’s results could be
applied to the entire population of middle schoolers in PAUSD and the Ravenswood School
District, there were some weaknesses in the data. While the sample size for PAUSD students was
around 165 for each question, the sample for Ravenswood students was significantly smaller, at
around 17 students. Some of the teachers did not reply to the emails that were sent about
administering surveys, which led to a smaller sample than was expected. It also led to not having
a random sample, which could have led to a sampling bias. These flaws should have been
substantially mitigated through the significance testing and margin of error calculations, but they
could still have had some effect on the conclusions drawn from the data.
The extension of this into a study of the effects of the implementation of the proposed
changes would help to remedy these possible errors. By doing this study, the results of the survey
could either be reinforced or refuted. This would allow for either a stronger conclusion or an
opportunity for further study. Either way, the continuation of this investigation would allow for
more insight regarding possible improvements to be made to school libraries in order to improve
literacy achievement.
The next step of this study should be to implement some of the recommended changes to
the libraries in the Ravenswood School District and study the effect that has on reading habits
and literacy achievement. This would help to fully determine what changes would be effective, if
any, and help focus the efforts of people and organizations hoping to decrease the literacy gap in
the San Francisco Bay Area through the improvement of school libraries.
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References
Ali, R., Brown, C., Casserly, M., Cuéllar, M.-F., Darling-Hammond, L., Glenn, S. D., …
Williams, D. T. (2013). For each and every child—A strategy for education equity and
https://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/eec/equity-excellence-commission-report.pdf
Artelt, C., Schiefele, U., & Schneider, W. (2001). Predictors of reading literacy.
https://www-jstor-org.ez.pausd.org/stable/23420339
California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. (2017). [Bar chart and
tables divided by section of test and various other categories]. 2017 Smarter Balanced
ps=true&lstTestYear=2017&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00
000&lstSchool=0000000
Palo Alto Unified School District. (2017, July 20). 2017-18 budget book. Retrieved from:
https://www.pausd.org/financial-services/budget-book
information/fy-2016-2017/Budget_Board_Letter/D17_Ravenswood_City_Board_Letter-
2016-17_Adopted_Budget.pdf
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Appendix A
Survey Questions
Introduction: This survey is part of a high school research project about literacy development
based on accessibility to literacy in the Bay Area. This survey will be used to determine
differences in book and library access between students from different schools and school
districts. If you do not wish to take this survey, you may exit at any time by closing the tab. You
are not obligated to answer any of these questions. You may answer as many questions as you
would like to and leave any questions blank if you would prefer not to answer them. However, if
- Proceed
Libraries:
a. 0
b. 1
c. 2
d. 3
e. 4
f. 5
b. 2
c. 3
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d. 4
e. 5 (very welcoming)
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4
e. 5 (very useful)
c. Once a week
a. School reading
b. Research
c. Pleasure reading
d. Study space
e. Schoolwork help
a. Yes
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b. No
a. Fantasy
b. Realistic fiction
c. Poetry
d. Science fiction
e. Graphic novels
f. Informational
g. (Auto)biography
h. Literary fiction
a. ________
4. How many books do you estimate you have at your house? (please provide a number)
a. __________
Improvements:
1. Which of the following would make you more likely to read more? (select all that apply)
2. Which of the following do you think would make your library more welcoming? (select
a. New furniture
c. More librarians
d. Longer hours
3. Which of the following do you think would make your library more useful? (select all
that apply)
a. More/newer books
b. More/newer computers
c. More librarians
d. Longer hours
4. Which of the following would make you more likely to use your library? (select all that
apply)
b. More/newer books
c. More librarians
d. Longer hours
Personal information:
a. 6th
b. 7th
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c. 8th
a. ____________
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Appendix B
● Does this data give you new insight regarding how students view their libraries?
● Does this data give you new insight regarding what improvements could be made to their
libraries?
● Does this data give you any ideas for how you or your school could work to improve
reading habits?
Appendix C
Appendix D
Proportions
ME=z ⋅ √ ❑
❑
ME = Margin of error for percentage of students who chose one particular improvement
Appendix E
All survey answers compiled in a spreadsheet (some answers removed due to improbable
answers or blank answers). Green = answers below are from PAUSD. Yellow = answers below