Abstract:

Educators are continually searching for strategies for providing academic assistance for at-risk students, or students who have a high probability of dropping out of school. Now, in multiple areas around the United States, at-risk students are receiving academic support from an unlikely and overlooked school resource: the school librarian. Studies show that school librarians possess robust opportunities to narrow the learning gap for at-risk students. This paper will explore multiple, fruitful strategies in which the school librarian helps at-risk students to achieve academic success. These approaches have been researched and employed in school settings around the United States. The approaches presented herein include a combination of instructional strategies employed by the librarian, significantly impacting an at-risk student’s life for the better, demonstrating the school librarian is, indeed, an ideal literacy partner to serve the struggling, at-risk student.

Keywords:

School librarians, at-risk students.