epilogue

Numerous national studies document the critical importance of childhood literacy for future academic and life success, as well as the importance of well-equipped, well-staffed libraries in helping children to overcome the impacts of poverty on literacy and learning. The Weinberg Foundation intends to add to this body of research through ongoing evaluation, which continues to demonstrate the Library Project’s impact on academic achievement. The Foundation initially partnered with the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) to evaluate the impact of renovated libraries within the school community. The first two evaluations examined six libraries completed during the Library Project’s first and second years. Then, building upon that research, the Foundation commissioned the first comprehensive evaluation of the Baltimore Library Project looking at impact within the nine schools completed during the Project’s first three years:

• Book checkouts at the first nine schools increased by 400 percent over a four-year period.
• Reading fluency scores among third-grade students in two of the first three Library Project schools rose from 33 percent of students at benchmark to 64 percent at benchmark—a 94 percent increase (*Reading fluency measured through DIBELS; the third school did not collect this data).
• Library Project students in the third-grade were almost three times as likely to meet reading fluency proficiency standards as students in comparison schools.
• The first three Library Project schools outperformed more than 120 Baltimore City Public Schools on PARCC tests in reading proficiency.

In addition, one of the Library Project’s most tangible, impactful connections with the community is SummerREADS. In 2014, the Weinberg Foundation assessed the impact of SummerREADS as part of the larger evaluation of The Library Project. The report, released in 2015, found that SummerREADS effectively reduced summer reading loss for students who regularly attended the program. The largest evaluation to date of the Baltimore Elementary and Middle School Library Project—spanning years one through seven—is underway and expected to be completed by late 2022. The Weinberg Foundation, as well as all of the Library Project’s partners, look forward to continued learning regarding increasing the academic achievement of Baltimore’s students.