Study Finds Massachusetts
School Libraries in Poor Shape
Results of a study sponsored by Simmons College in Boston show that many public schools in Massachusetts—12% of the 520 that responded to a questionnaire—do not have a library, while others have libraries in such poor shape that they could affect students’ scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. The report, released October 26, also says that children from low-income families who attend schools with a good library program get higher MCAS scores than similar children who do not.
“Our report shows that a child can be poor, but he or she can learn if given the opportunity,” James Baughman, director of the school library program at Simmons’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science, said in the October 26 Boston Globe.
The class of 2003 will be the first required to pass the MCAS exam in order to graduate from high school. Currently there is no state funding for school libraries and local districts must supply the money, a reliance that Baughman calls “an evasion of duty by the appropriate government agencies.”
A state Senate bill under consideration, S2148, introduced by Sen. Susan Tucker (D-Andover), calls for state funding for school libraries and requires certified professionals on staff.
Posted October 30, 2000.
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