During the 2018–2019 school year, Gale and Project Tomorrow collaborated to design and implement a nationwide study examining the efficacy of using Gale’s cross-curricular databases to support academic achievement and “future-ready” skill development. The results from this study are outlined in our white paper, Keep Students on Track with Database Access. 

The study was made up of a cross-sampling of students, teachers, and librarians from public and private elementary, middle, and high school classrooms across the United States. Each participant was instrumental in helping us evaluate the benefits of using Gale’s primary educational database products for different ages and learning styles. Elementary children used Gale In Context: Elementary (formerly Kids InfoBits), while middle and high school students used resources from the Gale In Context suite of student databases, such as Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints and Gale In Context: U.S. History. Teacher and student experiences with the digital databases were captured through surveys, focus groups, on-site observations, and interviews.

Students and educators from schools across the country participated in a yearlong study to assess the efficacy of using educational databases to support instruction. Read what they had to say below. For more insights, download our best practice guide.

 “I saw a way that I could collaborate with my colleagues more efficiently and get resources to students and make it more effective and personalized for their learning.”         

–Teacher, Central York High School, Pennsylvania

“Access to [trustworthy] databases is one of the first steps in improving student outcomes.”

–Director of Library Media Services, Jefferson County Public Schools, Kentucky

“I like how the information is accurate and that there are different resources I can use to find information about the topic I’m researching. There isn’t anything that I don’t like about using the Gale resources.”

– 6th-grade student, Knight Middle School

Gale databases don’t take the place of traditional classroom instruction; they open new doors for incorporating additional teaching and learning methodologies into lessons. The extent to which these resources support real-world classroom needs is most evident by the overwhelming support from students and teachers who want to continue to use Gale resources in their future teaching and learning activities.

A 12th-grade English Language Arts teacher reported, “I have seen a 200% increase in the quality of my students’ work since they have been using Gale databases. I no longer see these phrases in projects or research papers: ‘According to Google’ or ‘According to this.com website.’ Students are citing their work with a database reference and the proper inserted citation. The quality of their evidence is much higher when they use Gale In Context. Plus, they’re gaining different peoples’ perspectives—the sort of global thinking that we’re promoting at our high school.” 

We want to share the results from this study with school and district leaders around the country who might be considering education databases but don’t know where to begin. If you’re looking to better support collaboration between librarians and teachers who want to bring databases to students, check out these next steps: Watch our on-demand webinar, read the research study, print the case study, and download our best practice guide for more data-driven insights to share with colleagues.