School Librarians as Equity Warriors

All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association
may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement
granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address
usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.
like so many others, is beset by
poverty, crime, homelessness,
hunger, child abuse, drug abuse,
and an achievement gap.
Despite these challenges, every
day I see an overwhelming amount
of human potential in bright,
talented, and creative students.
When given access to the right tools
and opportunities students show
enormous growth. Strong libraries
fuel this growth by guaranteeing that
every student has the right to read and
receive (or have access to) information
and educational opportunities.
Filling the Gaps: Turning
Obstacles into Opportunities
Closing the Word Gap
“The Early Catastrophe: The 30
Million Word Gap by Age 3,” a study
conducted by University of Kansas
researchers Betty Hart and Todd
R. Risley, found that children from
low-income households are exposed
to thirty million fewer words by
the age of four compared with
their more-affluent peers (2003).
Follow-up studies show that this
difference has lasting effects on a
child’s later academic performance.
Being cognizant of this “word gap”
is critical in creating a library that
meets a wide range of reading levels.
School libraries must be designed
to serve students of all reading
levels, including those reading
below their grade level and English
language learners developing their
vocabularies. School librarians
should provide high-interest,
low-level books like those from Orca
Soundings, Saddleback Educational
Publishing, and High Interest
Publishing, so that everyone can
find books that they can read.
Providing multicultural books that
speak to your students’ experiences
and stories is crucial. ALA
President Courtney L. Young has
Figure 1. Two enthusiastic library users who are proud of their reading skills.
stated that there is “the need for all
children to have access to materials
that reflect their experience”
(Landgraf 2015). To close the word
gap, we must support diversity in
our collections.
Here’s one success story. A student
who entered HLCS as a struggling
sixth-grade student reading below
grade level came from a school that
did not have a fully stocked library.
Seven months later after successful
reading interventions and frequent
visits to the school library, she had
read over 1,500,000 words and 23
books (measured by Accelerated
Reader), and her appetite for
reading just kept growing! The
school library gave her a huge range
of book levels, so she began with
easier books and worked her way up
to some of the most challenging.
Collecting Data to Fill the Gaps
In addition to offering a wide range
of literature, collecting and using
student data are important as school
librarians help close the word gap. It
is crucial that I know every student
extremely well. Discovering learners’
passions and interests is one of the
best ways to support academic growth.
Knowing their reading levels and how
they are performing academically
allows me to give differentiated
support to every student who walks
into the school library. As I look
around our library, I see familiar
faces. I know that the student in the
corner loves biographies, that the
two having an animated discussion
work best with audiobooks, and that
the student making notes thrives in
poetry book clubs.
School librarians have an advantage
over teachers; we can monitor student
progress over many years. We can
observe students having a successful
year and then struggling the next
year. We can advocate for struggling
students and also help them set goals
for reading growth. School librarians
can identify ways to help close the
word gap. Through collaborating
with administrators, teachers, and
students, and by being familiar with
all curricula, school librarians can
E11 Knowledge Quest | Intellectual Freedom — Online Exclusive Volume 44, No. 1 | September/October 2015