Freshmen Information Literacy

Fabbi, J.L. (2015). Fortifying the pipeline: A quantitative exploration of high school factors impacting the information literacy of first-year college students. College and Research Libraries, 76(1), 31-42.

In this article, Fabbi examines the information literacy (IL) skills (and lack thereof) which high school graduates bring with them to their first year of college. She begins by considering the current role of IL in high schools, stating “emerging Common Core Standards for K–12 education…address information literacy competency by weaving expectations for students into the English Language Arts content area standards”; however, this has yet to be wholly realized. Citing numerous studies examining a variety of instruction methods as evidence, Fabbi demonstrates that the various high school academic tracks (determined by students’ enrollment in honors courses in high school) are not consistent in how IL is taught; she states, “a number of studies report that teachers in classes of high-achieving students are substantially more likely to emphasize higher-order thinking processes than are teachers in classes of low-achieving students.” This suggests that students on higher tracks are much more likely to be better prepared for college-level research. 

Fabbi administered the iSkills test developed by the Educational Testing Service, which “tests the range of Information and Communications Technology literacy skills aligned with nationally recognized Association of Colleges & Research Libraries standards,” to 93 recent college freshmen (seven percent of the total population) and found that students that were on a higher academic track in high school in fact did score higher on the iSkills test. Fabbi correlates this to an emphasis on critical thinking and problem-solving abilities in honors classes. The iSkills test measures information technology literacy on a scale of 500, whereas a score of 260 meets the standards; Fabbi found that the average score of all students was 203, well below passing; but the average of students who took between 1-4 honors classes scored 214, those who took 5-12 scored 275, and those who took thirteen or more scored 268. However, regardless of these scores, all the participants had at least a 3.0 high school GPA and had been admitted and were currently enrolled in the same college.