Are you interested in research about school librarianship? Would you like to become part of an important research agenda to pursue evidence that a strong school library program led by a professionally certified school librarian makes a difference in student learning outcomes? The CLASS: Causality: School Libraries and Student Success Request for Proposals may be of interest to you.

Proposals are due June 15, 2017. Awardees will receive up to $10,000 to support research activities and will be notified by June 30, 2017. Research teams in partnerships with practitioners at the building, system, or state level may be particularly interested in this opportunity.

The CLASS II Research teams have aggregated and synthesized educational research of moderate and strong findings about the school-based malleable factors involved with improving student learning outcomes. Successful applicants should advance our understanding of how school librarians contribute to one or more of the following findings:

Learners Benefit From:

• Direct, explicit, and systematic instruction on new material blended with strategically timed small group reinforcement activities.
• Hands-on experiences in science and mathematics that connect learning with real-world or familiar content and experiences.
• Contextual instruction in questioning, problem-solving strategies, and other metacognitive skills.
• Formative, corrective feedback, including quizzes, that promotes and reinforces learning.
• Exposure to vocabulary through reading and listening as well as explicit vocabulary instruction and acquisition strategies.
• Frequency of instruction may be as or more important than the concentration of time particularly in mathematics.
• The amount and type of intervention or teaching is personalized to meet individual needs.
• Modifying the learning environment to decrease problem behavior, although a positive learning environment alone may not be sufficient.
• Teachers with 2-5 years of teaching experience, especially compared with first year teachers who are generally less effective.
• Visual representations.
• Intensive and individualized interventions for struggling readers.

A webinar was held on April 24 with further details and is archived on the AASL website.

For a full description of the proposal requirements, please review the request for proposals.

Author: AASL ESLS

Categories: CLASS Corner, Community