Putting books in the classroom seems necessary but not sufficient

The authors found statistically significant effects on the educational outc omes of kindergarten students enrolled in the classrooms of teachers who re ceived a large supply of high-quality children's books and who participated in teacher development training. Kindergarten children who were taught by teachers who had a well-stocked classroom library and who had participated in a series of training sessions on the display and use of books in kinderg arten classroom lessons achieved significantly higher scores on every measu re of literacy development when compared with children who were taught by t eachers who were provided with a well-stocked classroom library but not pro fessional development support. Simply providing teachers with a generous su pply of children's books had little effect on the educational outcomes of s tudents.