The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) emphasis on high-stakes testing and accountability mandates that all students achieve at a proficient level on standardized tests or their school/district will face sanctions. Disaggregation of data by ethnicity has determined an achievement gap between groups of students, a gap that is not lessening as all students increase in academic achievement. In response, educators have implemented various intervention programs. Services and programming available through the school library are noticeably absent from these intervention programs, even though a number of large-scale studies indicate that library services have a positive and significant impact on student achievement. This mixed-methods study proposed a new theoretical model for viewing the school library. Staffing, access, resources and services provided through middle school libraries in California, were compared with academic outcomes for white and Latino student populations. Data from the California Assessment Test, Sixth Edition (CAT/6) and the California State Library Survey were compiled and compared with interviews of certificated middle school teacher librarians. The study determined that there was a significant positive relationship between the level of professional library staffing and student CAT/6 reading outcomes. The data also indicate that at higher performing schools, a higher percentage of library services and resources are provided for both Latino and white students. Implications for library leadership, policy and practice are discussed, with suggestions for different models of information literacy instruction.
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