Hello SLIDE State Intermediaries and SLIDE Supporters,

A FINAL SLIDE report, based on recently released NTPS school-level data, is now available at https://libSLIDE.org/publications/schoolswithoutlibrarians  Below is the Press release. Please share widely. Thanks, Deb

Schools Without Libraries: First School Level Data on the Post-COVID Era
A SLIDE Special Report (February 5, 2024)

It has only recently become possible to assess librarian staffing at school level, due to the long interval between the two most recent datasets from NCES’s periodic sample survey of schools. In 2023, the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) released long-awaited 2020-21 school-level data—the first from that survey since 2015-16. These more precise school-level data provide a clearer picture than ever of the status of U.S. school librarianship at the beginning of the post-COVID era.  

This report reveals that, in the 2020-21 school year, three out of ten public schools had neither a full-time nor a part-time school librarian—a status shared by one out of four schools in 2015-16. It also confirms at school level the existence of continuing—sometimes increasing—equity differences in access to school librarians associated with region, student enrollment, locale, grade level, race and ethnicity, and poverty. In particular, non-white and Hispanic students continue to have less access to school librarians, as schools with a majority of such students report the absence of a school librarian at a higher rate than other schools.  

There is an urgent need for more research to examine staffing, roles, and administrative evaluation of school libraries and for school library advocates and public policy-makers to decide how to respond appropriately. 

https://libSLIDE.org/publications/schoolswithoutlibrarians

For more information, contact Deeth Ellis at deeth.ellis@simmons.edu or Keith Curry Lance at keithlance@comcast.net.

The SLIDE project—The School Librarian Investigation—Decline or Evolution?—was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant RE-246368-OLS-20.

The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.