With Deep Gratitude and Admiration

Posted on January 3, 2022 by Judi Moreillon

This blog will remain an accessible archive until further notice. Please feel free to link to any post on this blog. If you would like to have a Creative Commons Licensed copy of any particular blog post written by me, Judi Moreillon, please contact me at info@storytrail.com. Thank you.

Sunrise over the Santa Rita Mountains, Green Valley, Arizona
December, 2021

Dear School Librarian Leadership Blog Readers,

This is my final post on this blog. It has been my pleasure to share my thoughts, experiences, research, and wonderings with you over these past nine and a half years. With this farewell, there are 503 posts on this blog. Thank you to everyone who has contributed one or more posts or made comments to enrich this blog’s content.

School Librarian Leadership will remain an archive at least through August, 2025. This will allow readers access to two books studies hosted here as well as the weekly posts to this blog.

Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage (Libraries Unlimited 2021)

Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Teaching and Advocacy (ALA Editions 2018)

Updated: 11/9/24 – Although I am now officially retired, I will never tire of advocating for effective state-certified school librarians in every K-12 school—not ever as long as I live (see Pentland 2022). I published my last and coauthored research article in School Library Research Volume 24 “Take Action: A Content Analysis of Administrators’ Understandings of and Advocacy for the Roles and Responsibilities of School Librarians.” I edited and contributed to Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage (Bloomsbury, 2021) and as of September, 2024, I solicited chapter authors and am editing Radical School Librarianship: A Global Response for Facet Publishing in the U.K. (2025 or 2026).

Clearly, my career in librarianship has channeled my passion for literacy and libraries and offered me the opportunity to learn, grow, and share—gifts all.

And with great joy and gratitude, I am returning to a creative writing passion project that I have set aside for too many years and opening space in my life for much more time to be with my young grandchildren and meet the changing needs of my family.

“Gratitude and grace cannot really be measured; nor can they be willed. Each requires that we be open and vulnerable. We are most human and most alive when we allow ourselves to be touched by the wonder of the world and when we feel genuine gratitude for the life we have been given. Practices of giving thanks and giving gifts demonstrate that we know in some way that there is an underlying wholeness and an enduring holiness to life.” Michael Meade

May you continue to be touched “by the wonder of the world” and continue doing the work that matters most to you and in service with and to others.

With admiration for your commitment and courage and wishing you all the best,
Judi

Works Cited
Meade, Michael. 2021. “Gratitude and Grace.” Mosaic Voices. Available at https://www.mosaicvoices.org/events/gratitude-and-grace. Accessed January 2, 2022.

Pentland, Courtney. 2022. “The Advocacy Efforts for School Library Staffing during the Pandemic.” Knowledge Quest 50 (3): 24-32.

Photograph from the Personal Collection of Judi Moreillon

SLIDE Project Data and Tools: Focus on Arizona Results

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Judi Moreillon

The School Librarian Investigation: Decline or Evolution (SLIDE) Project “Perspectives on School Librarian Employment in the United States, 2009-10 to 2018-19” report (Lance and Kachel 2021a) and the SLIDE website offer invaluable information and tools to support school librarian advocates with the data they need to understand the relative health of school librarianship in their states and districts. In last week’s post, I offered information from the SLIDE Research Study: Initial Findings and Perspectives Report.

In this post, I drill down into the Arizona data from the Report and use the interactive tools provided on the SLIDE website that provide users with access to data at the state and district levels and to create graphs and charts that display these data. The following are Arizona data along with some commentary about what these data mean for Arizona’s students, educators, administrators, and families.

My target audience for this post is Arizona school librarians, the Arizona library community, and librarian advocates. Ultimately, I will share this information with Arizona education decision-makers and voters who should know this information and take action to restore school librarian positions. If you believe that literacy learning is fundamental to students’ success in school and in life then…

The “sobering” national reality regarding school librarian positions is even more sobering in Arizona.

I hope advocates in other states will disaggregate their state- and district-level data to get a clearer understanding of the relative health of the school librarian profession in their communities. I hope these data will prompt us all to take action to improve literacy learning for K-12 students through the expertise of effective school librarians with the ultimate goal of at least one librarian per school.

SLIDE state-level data includes:

mandates for employing school librarians,
school library standards and guidelines,
state government school library official,
state data on school librarians,
state funding directly to school libraries,
state-funded or discounted e-resource, and
higher education institutions preparing school librarians.

School Librarians in Arizona
In 2018-19, as the Advanced Search SLIDE data tool shows, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported 412.34 school librarian FTEs. This is the most recent year of data available from NCES. In that year, the student to librarian ratio was 1:2,259.63

Arizona: Total Students, Librarian FTEs, Students per Librarian

Image created on the SLIDE Advanced Search Page

According to data available from the Arizona Department of Education, these are the state-certified FTE (Full Time Equivalents) employees in our field for the 2020-2021 Academic Year:
602 – Librarians – 196.58
603 – Media Specialists – 86.32
Total: 282.90 FTEs

Arizona’s student-to-librarian and student-to-teacher ratio
continues to head in the wrong direction.

In 2020-2021, the classified staff serving in school libraries figure was this.
061 – Library Assistants – 592.27

In studying the NCES data from 2018-19, SLIDE researchers discovered that in Arizona 7 out of 10 districts employ library support staff in lieu of school librarians. This is the highest percentage of all the states (Lance and Kachel 2021a, vii, 66, 70, 72).

This is educational malpractice.

Image showing state-level data from Arizona

Image created on the SLIDE State Survey Page

State Survey Data: Arizona Compared with Other States
As your state intermediary, I reported Arizona data to the SLIDE researchers. Teacher Librarian Division co-chair Jean Kilker and I conferred to make sure the data we provided were accurate.

Criterion	Arizona	Other States and D.C. Notes
State-Mandated School Librarians	No, not mandated	26 states have mandates, only enforced in 10 states
School Library Standards/Guidelines	No	43 states do
State Government School Library Official	No	33 states do
State Data on School Librarians	Yes	18 states don’t
State Funding Directly to School Libraries	No	13 states do
State-Funded/Discounted E-Resources	Yes, thanks to the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records	Only 12 states don’t
Higher Education Institutions Preparing School Librarians	None	45 states do; states with multiple preparation institutions have more school librarian positions.

Table created with data from the SLIDE State Survey Page (Lance and Kachel 2021a)

“School librarians are least prevalent and most likely to experience job loss in states with no institutions of higher education preparing school librarians” (Lance and Kachel 2021a, vi).

Perspectives on School Librarian Employment in the United States, 2009-10 to 2018-19
The Arizona data from the Perspectives Report (Lance and Kachel 2021a) is telling. The following table shows our national ranking in these criteria compared with 49 other states based on NCES 2018-2019 data. The page numbers are from the report. SLs stands for school librarians. FTEs are full time equivalents.

Criterion	Ranking	Table/Page Number	Notes
Number of SL FTEs – 426.17	31	Table 3, 14	MA – similar total population – 621.15 SLs – ranks 25 (#1 Texas – 4,604.80 SLs)
Percent Change	38	Table 4, 16	30.5% fewer from 2009-10 to 2018-19
Percent Change	28	Table 5, 18	4.3% fewer from 2015-16 to 2018-19
State-level Ratio of SL FTEs per School	46	Table 6, 20	.18 per school
Percent Change	38	Table 7, 22	33.3% fewer from 2009-10 to 2018-19
Percent Change	33	Table 8, 24	6.7% fewer from 2015-16 to 2018-19
Student to SL FTE Ratio	46	Table 9, 27	1:2,679 in 2018-19
Teacher to SL FTE Ratio	44	Table 10, 29	1:114 in 2018-19
District Ratio of SL FTEs per School	47	Table 11, 38 Chart 13, 42	5.6% of schools have at least a .75 FTE 68.7% of schools have zero SL FTEs
% of Districts with Any Librarians	47	Table 14, 53	26.2% of Arizona districts have one or more librarians
States with the Largest % of No School Librarians	46	Table 15, 56	59.3% of Arizona districts have no school librarians

Table created with data from the Perspectives Report (Lance and Kachel 2021a)

District-level Data Tools
Since my advocacy work in Arizona is currently centered on restoring school librarian positions available in Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), the following examples reflect my work. I encourage all Arizona school librarians and library advocates to use the SLIDE tools to access and compare data from their district with other districts within the state or across the nation.

District-level data includes:

school librarian employment,
employment of selected other educator positions, and
selected district characteristics and student demographics.

Profile Tool
The Profile tool allows users to compare data for their own districts with those of comparable districts both within the same state and with similar districts across the nation.

When I first entered TUSD, the tool provided a list of 19 peer districts from across the country based on these criteria:

student population (45K in TUSD), locale (TUSD is a Large, City rather than suburban or rural district), and per pupil expenditures ($8,838).

When I added the number of schools (88 in TUSD), there were only 6 peer districts; when I added English Language Learners (8.54% in TUSD), there was only one peer district: Cherry Creek School District No. 5, Arapah, Colorado.

When I added Free & Reduced-cost Meals (60% in TUSD), there were no longer any peer districts. Other criteria were Majority Non-White (which TUSD is), Majority Hispanic (which TUSD is), and Restrict to Your State.

Comparison between Tucson Unified and Cherry Creek School Districts

Data retrieve/image created on the SLIDE Profile Page

I then used the Cherry Creek School District for comparison. Unfortunately, the NCES data for TUSD’s Library Support Staff is incorrect. In 2020, there were 50.5 FTEs rather than just 1!

What I learned: TUSD is a unique school district in the United States in terms of being a large, urban district, with low per student spending, with a majority Hispanic student population, with a high percentage of students who quality for Free and Reduced-cost Meals. That alone was important information for me in my advocacy work.

As the Perspectives Report notes: “Districts with higher poverty levels, more minority students, and more English Language Learners were less likely to have librarians. Majority Hispanic districts were more than twice as likely to have not librarians and less than half as likely to have the highest level of librarian staffing” (Lance and Kachel 2021a, vii).

Sadly, for the students, educators, and families in TUSD that description accurately describes the district’s demographics.

Inequitable access to the expertise of school librarians is unconscionable and most egregious for high-needs students and schools.

Advanced Search Tool
The Advanced Search tool allows users to access data from the 2019-20 school year, with the following exceptions: Free & Reduced Cost Meals and English Language Learner data is from 2018-19 and Per Pupil Expenditures data is from 2016-17.

For the search for TUSD, I checked every box and asked for percentages in terms of student demographics. The resulting data image is too wide for a screen shot, so I took advantage of the URL feature to share these data:

https://libslide.org/data-tools/advanced-search/?saved=258f

Tool users can also export these data as an Excel spreadsheet.

Conclusion and Call to Action
In Arizona, school librarians are endangered educators nearing extinction. What are we doing to reverse this situation? To meet the needs of today’s students and classroom teachers, schools need the expertise of state-certified school librarians. (See my 7/12/21 blog post “Advocating for State-certified School Librarian Positions.”)

According to the Perspectives Report, “school funding alone cannot explain staffing decisions. Between 2015-16 and 2018-19, districts most likely to have employed librarian consistently were those spending the most—and the least—per pupil” (Lance and Kachel 2021a, 59).

While funding isn’t the only problem, it is a piece of the puzzle. For example, according to a statement by Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo at the July 13, 2021 Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) board meeting and budget hearing, he and the entire TUSD Board are in agreement about restoring school librarian positions to all 86 schools in the district. At present, there are just 13, leaving 73 schools underserved.

Filling this equity gap will take a huge infusion of funds
(more than $6M/year) that the district simply does not have.

On Friday, July 16, 2021, I attended a training offered by Save Our Schools Arizona (https://sosarizona.org/); on Sunday, July 18, I picked up referenda petitions and began collecting signatures. Next week, I will report on the three referenda that Arizonans who care about public education are working to put on the ballot that will reverse Draconian tax cuts that deplete state revenues. Reversing these cuts could impact whether or not school districts in Arizona will have the funding needed to restore school librarian positions, as promised in Proposition 208, which was passed by the voters in November, 2020.

References

Arizona Department of Education. 2021. School District Employee Report. Available at http://www.ade.az.gov/sder/ReportGenerationPublic.asp. Accessed July 24, 2021.

Lance, Keith Curry, and Debra E. Kachel. 2021a. Perspectives on School Librarian Employment in the United States, 2009-10 to 2018-19. Available at https://libslide.org/publications/perspectives. Accessed July 24, 2021.

SLIDE.org. 2021b. Data and Tools. Available at https://libslide.org/data-tools/. Accessed July 24, 2021.

SLIDE.org. 2021c. State Survey. Available at https://libslide.org/state-survey/. Accessed July 24, 2021.

SLIDE Research Study: Initial Findings and Perspectives Report

Posted on July 19, 2021 by Judi Moreillon

The School Librarian Investigation—Decline or Evolution? (SLIDE) Research Project is an exploratory project conducted under the auspices of Antioch University Seattle and funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The project began its work in September, 2020, and will conclude the investigation in August, 2023. This study will determine patterns in the continuing national decline in school librarian positions and how school districts decide to staff libraries for K-12 students in the U.S.

Image Credit:
Kachel, Debra E., and Keith Curry Lance. 2021. “Data Speaks: Preliminary Data on the Status of School Librarians in the U.S.” Teacher Librarian 48 (5): 30-31.

Published Project Reports
Researchers Dr. Keith Curry Lance and/or Debra E. Kachel have published two articles and a poster in Teacher Librarian that illuminate state-level survey data from the SLIDE study that may help you in your district-level advocacy (SLIDE 2021).

Ms. Kachel’s February article “Data Speaks: Addressing Equity of Access to School Librarians for Students” includes these alarming facts: “Nationally there has been a twenty-percent decline in school librarian positions over the past decade” (Kachel 2021, 52), and “seven million students in the U.S. have no access to a school library with a certified school librarian” (49).

“The Status of State Support of School Library Programs” appears in the June, 2021 issue of Teacher Librarian (Kachel and Lance 2021). In it, they share the results of a survey of all 50 states and Washington D.C. The State Survey page on the SLIDE website provides access to state-level data that was collected via the survey. On the website’s Publications page, SLIDE provides reports based on the state-level survey data.

While all states have certification requirements for school librarians, only 43 have school library program standards or guidelines. Ten states plus D.C. have enforced requirements for certified school librarians; 16 states have requirements that are not enforced. Arizona is one of the states that has no mandated requirement.

The researchers found that the school librarian positions decreased between 2009-2010 and 2018-2019 by 9% in states with enforced requirements, 23% in states where mandates are not enforced, and states without mandates experienced an average 29% decline.

Enforced mandates matter.

Arizona is one of 17 states that has no full- or part-time state-level employee at the Department of Education who oversees school libraries. Thirty-six states reported school librarian shortages; 22, including Arizona, reported shortages in the past 3 years. Arizona is also one of just five states with no higher-education institutions that prepare school librarians. The researchers also learned that more preparation programs lead to more school librarian positions.

A table in the June Teacher Librarian article provides a snapshot of data sampling from thirteen states that have ratio staffing that codifies the number of students that are to be served by either a part-time or full-time librarian.

The article also includes a “Data Speaks” poster and references that will be important for advocates in their work. (The image for this blog post is an excerpt from the poster in the June issue of Teacher Librarian).

The important takeaway from this article, poster, and data is spotlighted on the poster. “As of 2020-21, the 50 states and D.C. vary dramatically in the extent of their support for the presence of school librarians in public schools.”

The lack of equity in access to the expertise of school librarians
is a nationwide issue.

Perspectives on School Librarian Employment in the United States, 2009-10 to 2018-19
On July 19, 2021, the SLIDE Project released the Perspectives report (Lance and Kachel 2021a). In a press release for the report titled “Most Vulnerable Students Impacted by Declining Numbers of School Librarians,” the researchers note these facts from 2018-2019 National Center for Education Statistics data gathered from 13,000 local school districts:

Three out of 10 districts had no librarians in any of their schools.
More than 4.4 million students in high-poverty districts (50%+ free or reduced National School Lunch Program) had no librarians.
Almost 3.1 million students in predominantly Hispanic districts were without school librarians.
Almost 4.1 million students in predominantly non-white districts were without school librarians.
Smaller and rural districts were more likely to have no librarians than larger and suburban districts.
Nine out of 10 charter schools had no school librarians (Lance and Kachel 2021b).

The Perspectives Report includes an executive summary, introduction, national-, state-, and district-level perspectives, and a conclusion. Each section is available as a separate .pdf file. Tables and charts throughout the report clearly illuminate these data and the researchers’ analysis.

In the report conclusion, the researchers state this: “If school librarians (regardless of job title) are to have a long-term future in U.S. public education, the school library community needs to better understand the perceptions, values, and priorities of those who make staffing decisions” (Lance and Kachel 2021a, 83).

Endangered Educators
Today’s effective school librarians teach media literacy, online safety, and digital citizenship. They codesign and coimplement standards-based lessons with classroom educators including determining instructional strategies, resources, and technology tools to support the classroom curriculum. School librarians promote reading and teach students to apply comprehension strategies as they read to learn. They select resources and manage the library collection for the benefit of all students, educators, and families.

Research shows that “school librarians provide critical support to teachers and administration by recommending and teaching strategies and sources that develop reading comprehension and analysis of informational text in all content areas” (Gretes 2013, 3). Decades of research shows a positive correlation between the work of school librarians and student achievement, particularly in reading (Lance and Kachel 2018).

Yet, the initial findings of the SLIDE Project show school librarians are endangered educators.

Next Steps in the SLIDE Project
Over the next year, district-level decision-makers will be interviewed to learn what factors are influencing whether or not they employ school librarians to serve the students, educators, and families in their districts. Interviewees will be asked about their current staffing model for school libraries and how and why they made the decision to use the model.

Coming next week: I serve on the SLIDE Advisory Council and as the Arizona State Intermediary for the project. In that role, I provide Arizona data and connections to the research team. I will share information focused on Arizona school librarians in next week’s 7/26/21 post.

References

Gretes, Frances. 2013. School Library Impact Studies: A Review of Findings and Guide to Sources. Prepared for the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Available at https://baltimorelibraryproject.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/09/Library-Impact-Studies.pdf. Accessed July 15, 2021.

Kachel, Debra E. 2021. “Data Speaks: Addressing Equity of Access to School Librarians for Students.” Teacher Librarian 48 (3): 49-52. Available at https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=6b457264-4b51-4275-87a1-c8ed62b44733&pnum=4. Accessed July 15, 2021.

Kachel, Debra E., and Keith Curry Lance. 2021. “The Status of State Support of School Library Programs.” Teacher Librarian 48 (5): 8-13. Available at https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&pubid=eae030fd-f08f-4952-9fd7-f475edae2de1. Accessed July 15, 202l.

Lance, Keith Curry, and Debra E. Kachel. 2018. “Why School Librarians Matter: What Years of Research Tell Us.” Kappan Online. Available at https://kappanonline.org/lance-kachel-school-librarians-matter-years-research/. Accessed July 15, 2021.

Lance, Keith Curry, and Debra E. Kachel. 2021a. Perspectives on School Librarian Employment in the United States, 2009-10 to 2018-19. Accessed at https://libslide.org/publications/perspectives/. Accessed July 19, 2021.

Lance, Keith Curry, and Debra E. Kachel. 2021b. Press Release: Most Vulnerable Students Impacted by Declining Numbers of School Librarians. Available at https://libslide.org/news/. Accessed July 21, 2021.

SLIDE. 2021. State Survey Reports. Available at https://libslide.org/news. Accessed July 15, 2021.

#lafcon Learning

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Judi Moreillon

And so many sessions, so little time!

Last week, I participated in the Library Advocacy and Funding Conference. I appreciated that the conference organizers made it so easy for people to participate. All of the sessions were pre-recorded and those of us with other obligations on these days could dip and out of the presentations that met our perceived needs. (I also appreciate the access was extended through to the end of the week. Thank you, @EveryLibrary and #lafcon sponsors.)

When I wrote a conference preview last week, I thought I would write about all of the sessions I attended. However, such a post would be too long for this blog space and I did post thank-you tweets for most of the session I attended (see @CactusWoman and #lafcon).

Instead, I want to share my take-aways from two phenomenal sessions: “Small Doors and Broken Windows” presented by Alvin Irby and an interview with Elizabeth A. Davis, president of the Washington (D.C.) Teachers Union. Each of these speakers had so much to share with school librarians, in particular; the following are just the highlights.

Alvin Irby, Small Windows and Broken Mirrors
Alvin Irby, former classroom teacher and part-time stand-up comedian, is the founder of Barbershop Books, a non-profit which he calls an “identity-based” reading program. Barbershop Books puts books selected by Black boys in child-friendly, male-spaces (barbershops) with the goal of all boys seeing themselves as readers.

Mr. Irby puts this work in a context. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 85% of Black male fourth-graders are not proficient in reading. Fewer than 2% of U.S. teachers are Black and a majority of Black boys are being raised by single mothers. Barbershop Books creates the possibility for access to books and Black role models that can help boys identify as readers.

And many of the books these boys choose for the program make them laugh! Mr. Irby cites information from the Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report. Parents (and likely educators, too) want kids to read books that inspire them to do something good—books with good stories that make kids think and feel. And what do kids want? They want books that will make them laugh—good stories that are humorous.

In that vein, Alvin Irby delivered a critique of the books librarians honor with awards and the lists we curate for young readers. Where are the funny or gross books? You won’t see Captain Underpants or Walter the Farting Dog on these lists, but these are the kinds of books kids who are beginning to identify as readers want and need. (This may be a stinging critique for one of our sacred cows, but I think it is one to seriously consider as we rise to the challenges posed by illiteracy and aliteracy.)

There was so much in Alvin Irby’s session that was memorable and quote worthy for me. Here are two quotes:

“Cultural competency at its core is about humility. It’s about educators/librarians being humble enough to recognize that they (we) don’t know enough to recognize that they (we) don’t know everything that they (we) need to know to make that (reading) experience as relevant and engaging as it could be and that by actually taking time and making space to gain a better understanding of who the audience is and about what’s important to them…”

“If you look at a book list for any child and there are no laugh out loud books on it then I don’t even know what to say other than that book list is not allowing children to see their whole self.”

At the very end of his presentation, Mr. Irby gave librarians a critical key to success. Guest readers will read books differently. If, for example, we want to impact the reading experiences of 4^th-grade Black boys, then we should invite Black readers into our libraries to share.

During the pandemic, many authors have given us the gift of reading their own books online (or giving recognizable celebrities permission to read their books). These recordings can be our guest readers. Let’s look for the ones read by Black men if we want to create relevant and engaging reading experiences for Black boys. (And the same practice will be true for any other group of library patrons.)

Whether or not you saw his #lafcon session, I highly recommend Alvin Irby’s 8-minute TED Talk: “How to Inspire Every Child to Be a Lifelong Reader.”

Elizabeth A. Davis, President of Washington Teachers Union (WTU), Washington, D.C.: Interview with John Chrastka, Executive Director, EveryLibrary.org
Ms. Davis: “Education is a civil right.” When she ran for WTU president, Ms. Davis’s platform was to transform WTU into a social justice union that would come to the table with solutions, not just problems, would amply the voices of teachers, and build respect.

She had been an activist educator who taught students how to write letters to decision-makers. In the interview, Ms. Davis tells an inspiring story of a 6^th-grade student in her class in 2005 who wrote a letter to the principal asking why the library was closed. He responded that there was no librarian but he allowed the student access to the library during lunch. The girl discovered that the same books that were on the shelve in 1953, when the school was all White, were still on the shelves for her and her all Black and Brown schoolmates. After writing another letter, Representative Elijah Cummings invited the student to the Capitol to present her findings at the 50^th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

When schools were on the verge of closing in spring 2020, Ms. Davis asked all teachers to survey their students regarding their tech access. They found 38% did not have computers, and all of them had TVs. Using these data and a commitment to equity, Washington, D.C. schools delivered instruction via TV during spring 2020. Brilliant!

John Chrastka: “Politics is people or money.”

Fully resourced, fully staffed school libraries are a funding issue. WTU sponsors an Annual Fund Our Schools, Fund Our Futures budget campaign to activate parents to speak before the city council in support of school funding. This kind of parent activism could transform how budget decisions are made in every district across the country.

As Ms. Davis noted, leaders must listen to all education stakeholders to learn what matters to them. Ms. Davis found that in Washington D.C. “equity is the thread that connects the dots among school stakeholders.” She also noted that “if logic doesn’t work, shame does!”

I agree with Ms. Davis that educators (especially school librarians) have to realize our power. Through the students we serve in our schools, we are connected to parents, relatives, and caregivers who are voters. Educators must activate voters to change things that aren’t working. We must adopt strategies to change our daily working environments for our own and our students’ and colleagues’ benefit.

Ms. Davis’s advice to school librarians: Look at the power of the services you are providing and where those services are falling short in your school. Then, focus on how your contributions are lifting that up for students and classroom teachers.

This is the second time I’ve heard Elizabeth Davis speak about her leadership and organizing efforts. She is a wonder and her personal stories as a student and an educator are powerful. I wish there was an organization specifically for teachers’ union presidents. If there is/were one, she should be speaking at their conferences and leading their charge.

The D.C. school librarians are doing outstanding work, and it helps their cause beyond measure that they have an advocate like Ms. Davis who will stand up for them and with them and speak truth to power. She is a brilliant impassioned leader. Thank you, @EveryLibrary, for spotlighting her voice and work.

#lafcon 2020
As a no longer practicing librarian, I might not have attended #lafcon without the support of the Lilead Project. I appreciate that they gave me this opportunity.

By participating, I learned that as a literacies and libraries consultant, author, and school librarian advocate there was so much valuable information in the conference for someone like me. Thank you to those in the School Librarians Group who posted reviews of the sessions they attended and engaged in brief exchanges in a discussion forum.

I gained a great deal of knowledge that I will apply in my consulting, writing, and advocacy work. My only wish was that I had had more time to take advantage of more of the session offerings.

Image credit:
Prettysleepy. “Books Library Education.” Pixabay.com, https://pixabay.com/illustrations/books-library-education-knowledge-5430104/

More School Librarian Advocacy 2020

Posted on August 31, 2020 by Judi Moreillon

Congratulations, SLRI!!!

Last week, the School Librarians of Rhode Island (SLRI) Section of the Rhode Island Library Association published a one-minute trailer and a fifteen-minute video to promote the critical contributions school librarians make in today’s learning environments.

Both the trailer and the video are accessible on this page: “Overdue: The Value of School Librarians.” (Hurrah for the title, too!)

Access them directly with these links: Trailer or Video

The goal of this short documentary-style advocacy film is to show the value of school librarians. The film, directed by Alex DeCiccio, follows five Rhode Island school librarians as they teach rural and urban students of all ages, collaborate with teachers, and take on vital leadership roles in their schools.

The SLRI has made the trailer and Creative Commons public license 4.0 film available to anyone who would like to share it with their own library stakeholders. The video was funded by a Kickstarter campaign.

From the landing page, SLRI has provided additional resources such as a sample letter to stakeholders, a screening and film discussion guide, and an advocacy letter template. You can also read about the project in their press release “Rhode Island School Librarians Recognized as Essential in the Short Documentary ‘Overdue: The Value of School Librarians.’”

Here are a couple excerpts:

In the film, Tasha White, a Providence elementary school library media specialist, says. “My goal is to make library as cool as gym class and recess.” Tasha’s principal Brent Kerman extolls library media centers as places “to learn twenty-first century skills” and school librarians as “key educators in raising up the culture of the entire school.”

Library media specialist Kristin Polseno who serves Mount St. Charles Academy says, “We live in a society where there is this ever-growing sea of information, and then somebody in a position to make decisions about education comes to the decision that a librarian is a luxury. That doesn’t add up for me.”

The film sets out to ask and answer this question: “When you think of a school librarian, what comes to mind? Shushing or a compassionate educator?” “Overdue: The Value of School Librarians” responds by pushing back against stereotypes that school libraries (and librarians) are quiet/shushers, boring, or non-essential.

The testimonials in the video do not pull punches. Librarians openly share the impact of their schedules, multiple school assignments, and the barriers they overcome to do their best work for the benefit of students, other educators, administrators, and families.

The video closes with a series of research-based statements about the critical contributions of school librarians to student learning and the tragic loss of school librarian positions nationwide.

The video makes a connection to one of my all-tie favorite quotes and a likely motto as we strive for social justice.

“Do the best you can do until you know better. When you know better, do better.” Maya Angelou

When we create and promote our one-way public relations messages, we intend for all school librarian advocates, including students, education colleagues, administrators, and families, to take up our cause. We need advocates to help us do the work we are passionate about and have trained to do—to make literacy learning opportunities accessible and equitable for every young person in our schools.

“Overdue” has hit its mark.
Check it out and share it widely!

A Conversation with Calvert County School Librarians

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Judi Moreillon

Last week, I had the pleasure of an online conversation with a cadre of outstanding Calvert County Public School (CCPS) school librarians and their district-level Specialist for School Libraries and Digital Learning Jennifer Sturge. This team of librarians serving students in Maryland, led by their colleague Monique, were in the process of a professional book study focused on Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy.

After last week’s blog post “School Librarianship in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 2,” their voices from the field were critical to furthering my understanding of ways to increase school librarians’ service to their learning communities—whether or not our physical library facilities are open. Note: Selected indicators interjected into this post are from the 6/15/20 post and demonstrate the roles effective school librarians fill in their learning communities as leaders, instructional partners, teachers, information specialists, and program administrators.

As a way to engage in reflection, I launched our conversation by posing a “what if” question: “If you are serving your school learning community remotely in fall 2020, what would you do differently from your practice this past spring?” The librarians’ responses fell into four categories: getting physical books in the hands of students, increasing rigor through inquiry learning, communication and collaboration, and working with principals. Although more than one librarian addressed these topics, I have identified one or two people who took the lead in the discussion in each area.

Book Checkout
Many school librarians across the country and around the globe did not have the opportunity to plan for the best ways to get physical books into the hands of K-12 students before schools closed. Theresa shared how she is strategizing some effective ways to checkout and deliver/send books directly to students, especially if they cannot access the physical space of the library. I suspect all of us in the “room” agreed that getting high-quality, diverse books into the hands of youth helps keep their minds engaged in learning and growing as thinking and empathic people. (If you haven’t yet seen it or if you need another smile, checkout Nashville Public Library’s PSA “Curb Side, Baby” | What You Need to Know about NPL’s Curbside Service.”)

For me, this goal reinforces a key indicator in “Reading and Information Literacy Instruction:”

Promote reading for information and for personal enjoyment.

Inquiry Learning
Inquiry learning is a core practice in CCPS. High school librarian Donna would like to see increased rigor in remote learning through a greater emphasis on inquiry. School librarians have a strong commitment to inquiry learning as a way to honor student choice and voice. As authentic learning, inquiry prepares young people for lifelong learning. Classroom-library collaboration for instruction and shared responsibility for guiding students’ inquiry projects could improve student success even more when teaching and learning are conducted online.

Promoting inquiry in the online classroom/library is an essential aspect of “Integrated, Collaborative Teaching;”

Coteach with other educators whether face to face or online to engage students in critical thinking and deep learning.
Co-assess student learning outcomes with other educators to improve instructional strategies and resources and ensure continuous improvement for students and educators.

Communication/Collaboration
Mary Brooke shared her experience of the importance of school librarians communicating with a collective strong voice. She talked about the previously planned lessons that were ready to implement when learning when online. In addition to the lessons created by CCPS librarians, we talked briefly about accessing published lessons and units of instruction in order to fast-track instruction when time for planning is even shorter than usual.

Later in the conversation, we talked about the challenges of carving out collaborative planning time. While most educators agree that time is in short supply, using online tools for collaborative work is essential whether our academic program is face to face or virtual. School librarians who have developed strategies for using online tools to plan may have been ahead of the curve in meeting the needs of colleagues in spring 2020. In addition, educators must encourage school principals to create dedicated planning time for classroom and classroom-library collaboration, which in turn establishes a value for collaborative teaching.

For me, this conversation reinforced the indicators under “Collaborative Planning:”

Reach out to teaching teams and attend face-to-face and virtual team meetings to support colleagues’ teaching goals.
Reach out to classroom teachers and specialists to coplan and integrate the resources of the library into the classroom curriculum.

Working with Administrators
Again, I believe everyone in the room understood the importance of positive and strong relationships between principals and school librarians. Both Anne and Monique shared their value for working with administrators to address the teaching and learning needs of faculty and students. This spring, many principals and other decision-makers may have been overwhelmed. Anne noted the importance of sensitivity to other people’s stress and monitoring one’s communication accordingly. Monique shared how she worked collaboratively with classroom teachers online this spring. In the process, she created advocates for the library program who may be poised to speak up for the impact of classroom-library collaboration on student learning outcomes.

For me, this is an excellent example of “Library Advocacy & Support:”

Collaborate with administrators to assess students’ and classroom teachers’ needs and develop and implement plans to address them.

Learning from Spring 2020
A belief attributed to John Dewey based on this writing in Experience and Education (1938) can be our guide as we prepare for the 2020-2021 academic year: “We do not learn from our experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” Reflecting on our practice as school librarians is essential and the change and challenge thrust upon educators in spring 2020 created a golden opportunity to learn from our reflection.

Thank you to Jen and the Calvert County Public School Librarians for sharing your reflective process.

Image Credit

From the Personal Collection of Judi Moreillon

School Librarianship in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 2

Posted on June 15, 2020 by Judi Moreillon

I believe a high-quality education is a human right, and literacy is the foundation for all learning. From my perspective, every student and educator in every school across the country and around the globe deserves to have a literacy learning leader in the person of a certified school librarian. However, lack of funding and misplaced priorities at the state-, district-, and school-site levels have resulted in fewer and fewer professional school librarians and a loss of equitable education for all.

Over the past decade, and in some cases longer, many state legislatures have chipped away at district public school funding. (For the unconscionable situation in my state, see the Arizona Center for Economic Progress’s 5/27/20 “K12 Budget Webinar.”) With ever-shrinking funds, school districts have been put in the position of making difficult choices and far too many times school librarian positions have been seen as “extras” and have been eliminated.

In addition, and as unfortunate, our local reliance on property tax-based funding for public schools undermines an equitable education for all. This perpetuates a system that results in “have” and “have not” districts. Districts with less tax revenue struggle to provide complete academic programs, including well-resourced, fully-staffed school libraries, up-to-date technology tools, art, music, and more.

Site-based hiring practices have also negatively impacted school librarian positions. Without leadership from district-level leaders, far too many site-level administrators fail to understand the value of having a professional educator guiding the literacy learning that takes place through the largest, most well-equipped classroom in the school—the school library. If cutting librarians is based on their poor job performance, then the appropriate response would be to put them on plans of improvement or replace them rather than depriving students, educators, and families of professional library services.

What Is a Librarian to Do?
The school closures of spring 2020 created an opportunity for school librarians to demonstrate to administrators, colleagues, and families their many contributions to student learning outcomes whether or not anyone had access to the physical space of the library.

It is in that context that I share indicators that demonstrate the roles effective school librarians fill in their learning communities as leaders, instructional partners, teachers, information specialists, and program administrators. In these five roles, they:

Leader
Culture of Learning

Create a sense of belonging, ownership, and inclusion in the physical and virtual spaces of the library.
Design a welcoming and universally accessible online library presence.
Provide and advocate for equitable access to diverse resources representing all cultures/identities and divergent points of view in multiple genres and formats.

Library Advocacy & Support

Collaborate with administrators to assess students’ and classroom teachers’ needs and develop and implement plans to address them.
Communicate clearly and frequently with library stakeholders (students, other educators, administrators, families, and greater community) in order to share the impact of school library resources and the library program on student learning.
Seek learning community support for library initiatives to improve student learning.

Instructional Partner and Teacher
Collaborative Planning

Reach out to teaching teams and attend face-to-face and virtual team meetings to support colleagues’ teaching goals.
Reach out to classroom teachers and specialists to coplan and integrate the resources of the library into the classroom curriculum.

Integrated, Collaborative Teaching

Coteach with other educators whether face to face or online to engage students in critical thinking, deep learning, and the ethical use of ideas and information.
Co-assess student learning outcomes with other educators to improve instructional strategies and resources and ensure continuous improvement for students and educators.

Reading and Information Literacy Instruction

Promote reading for information and for personal enjoyment.
Coteach how to locate, find, analyze, and use information.
Coteach making meaning from texts in all formats (reading comprehension).

Information Specialist
Information Access and Delivery

Reach out to colleagues to support educators’ and students’ use of digital devices and tools and electronic resources.
Integrate the paper print and virtual resources of the library into the school’s face-to-face and remote academic learning program.
Provide instruction to support students and educators in using electronic resources ethically and safely whether from home or from school.
Provide online tutorials to support students and educators in using electronic resources effectively.

Program Administrator
Library Management

Align the library vision, mission, and goals with those of the school and the district.
Use library management software to generate reports and use data to improve library services.

In-School and Remote Collection Aligned to Curriculum, Classroom Teacher, and Student Needs

Assess and develop the paper print and electronic library collection to meet the instructional needs of colleagues.
Assess and develop the library collection to meet the academic and personal reading needs of students.

Funding & Budget Management

Write grants and seek funding to provide students and other educators with resources, including technology devices and tools.
Manage the library budget responsibly and help guide district-level purchases to meet the academic program and personal learning needs of students, educators, and families.

Taking Action
Serving as an effective school librarian is a complex job. It requires a passion for learning and literacy and a steadfast commitment to serve the entire learning community. There are exemplary librarians serving at this high level across the U.S. and around the globe. For two examples, see last week’s post School Librarianship in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 1.

If you are an effective school librarian or other educator, please share with me what I missed. If you are a school administrator or school librarian educator, consider how we can shore up the school librarian profession to ensure that all students, educators, and families have equitable, high-quality library services.

Image Credit

Wokandapix. “Equity Fairness Equitable Letters.” Pixabay.com. https://pixabay.com/photos/equity-fairness-equitable-letters-2355700/

School Librarianship in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 1

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Judi Moreillon

Perhaps like me, you are an educator who believes that part of achieving restorative social justice in the U.S. involves creating and supporting a high-quality public school system that is equitable and relevant for all preK-12 students regardless of where they live. Such a system would require at least one state-certified school librarian in every public school across this country.

It is in this context that school librarians and our state-level organizations and national association have conducted surveys, held meetings, and worked to develop flyers, posters, and other marketing tools to share how school librarians support student learning—even when the physical space of the library is shuttered and its paper print resources are, for the most part, inaccessible to students, classroom teachers, specialists, and families.

In times such as these, it is important that we look for the bright spots of success that flourish across the U.S. and around the globe as we describe school librarianship in the time of coronavirus and adapt exemplary practices to our own teaching and learning situations.

Two Brilliantly Bright Spots
Last Friday, I attended “Building Strong Partnerships with School and District Leaders,” a webinar sponsored by Future Ready Librarians^®. The teacher librarians and administrators from two distinctly different districts shared how they met the challenge of school closures.

Van Meter Community School District (VMCSD) (IA) Superintendent Deron Durflinger and Shannon McClintock Miller, Future Ready Librarians® spokesperson and VMCSD K–12 district teacher librarian shared how their digital learning efforts align with the district’s vision, mission, and culture. Shannon noted that the district was able to build on the communication and collaboration practices that began when they implemented a 1:1 program eleven years ago and fine-tuned in the last few years. In VMCSD, they attribute their success to a focus on empathy and “being there” for their classroom teachers, students, and families. They also noted that having confidence in the support they would receive and “being in it together” gave educators the essential right to fail, learn, and grow.

Vancouver Public Schools (VPS) (WA) teacher librarian Traci Chun and Jeremy Tortora, Associate Principal and Athletic Director, shared how they partnered with one another and their faculty, staff, students, and families to meet the needs of their learning community during the shutdown. Although VPS has had a modified 1:1 program for ten years, it wasn’t the devices alone that Mr. Tortora attributed to their success. He noted that the district and the schools in the district focus on sustaining a culture of collaboration supported by teacher librarians. As Mr. Tortora noted, librarians know the strengths of individual educators and what they need. In addition to tech support, this knowledge helped Traci and other school leaders provide social emotional support for educators.

Both Shannon and Traci shared how the curation tools they had developed with classroom teachers and used with students prior to the pandemic were instrumental in ensuring that students, educators, and families had access to resources and were comfortable using these pathways. In both districts, teacher librarians and administrators were careful not to overwhelm classroom teachers. They provided information and support but enacted the “less is more” concept in terms of covering curriculum and implementing new digital tools.

Reoccurring Themes
As readers of this blog know, I listen and light up when I hear the words “collaboration” and “coteaching.” This webinar did not disappoint. The focus on communication and listening in both districts provided a foundation on which to build their collaborative work. At the building level and at the district level, Shannon, Traci, and all teacher librarians can share their global perspective of the learning community to support educators transitioning to remote learning as well as guide district-level tech tool purchases.

Communication was another reoccurring theme. In both districts, teacher librarians and administrators listened to other educators’ needs and responded promptly and with sensitivity for where the teachers “were at.” They monitored the frequency of their communications and carefully considered the level of support they offered based on individual educators’ needs and capacity to utilize new strategies and tools.

The emphasis on relationship building in a culture of collaboration and clear communication in both districts were in evidence throughout the webinar.

Adapting Practices
Clearly, school closures highlighted the grave injustice created by the inequitable distribution of technology devices and resources needed for students to conduct learning from their homes. In the webinar, moderator Mark Ray noted that some librarians and others listening to this webinar would be thinking about how to adapt the practices in VPS and VMCSD to their own learning environments. I was one of those.

When schools closed in Arizona, 100,000 or more students were without the necessary devices to engage in remote learning. In Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), 18,000 lacked these tools. With about 40,000 students, TUSD, the second largest district in the state, serves an urban, high-needs student population. The district scrambled to provide devices to all students and families. For more on the specifics of the situation in our state, see my 5/15/20 op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star: “What the pandemic has taught us about K-12 schooling in Arizona.”

In light of this situation, my big take-away from the FRL webinar was how many years VMCSD and VPS had been (unknowingly?) “preparing” for the pandemic. While they were ramping up their 1:1 programs and their technology tools support for students and educators, they were focused on the big picture—their districts’ vision and mission and developing a culture of learning and collaboration that carried them through this spring’s school closures.

Bottom Line
It was in this network of communication, caring, and sharing that their efforts succeeded. It was collaboration at all levels—among students, educators and teacher librarians, administrators, and families—that made their move to fully online teaching and learning a success.

Collaboration is the difference we can make… with the support of our administrators. Shannon McClintock Miller

Say, yes! and “be brave before perfect.” Traci Chun

Thank you, Shannon and Superintendent Deron Durflinger, Traci and Associate Principal Tortora for sharing your exemplary work. Thank you, Mark Ray, for moderating this webinar. I highly recommend that all school librarians view this webinar and reflect on their capacity for leadership as they plan and go forward into the 2020-21 academic year.

Image Credit: From the personal collection of Judi Moreillon

Spotlight on #AASL19

Posted on November 12, 2019 by Judi Moreillon

Perhaps you are packing your bags today or about to travel to Louisville, Kentucky, for the American Association of School Librarians Conference and Exhibition. Or perhaps you’ll be learning from the conference via #AASL19, Facebook, or other social media.

The School Library Journal Staff posted a blog article last week to spotlight Attendee’s Top Picks. It is my privilege to be involved in three of these picks as well as additional conference learning experiences that I will highlight here (in chronological order).

Thursday, November 14, 2019
On Thursday morning, the Educators of School Librarians Section (ESLS) will hold a Research Symposium from 8:30 a.m. until noon in M103 in the convention center (KICC). One of the presenters, Dr. Daniella Smith wrote about it on the Knowledge Quest blog last week: “Let’s Talk about Research.” I was invited to kick off the symposium with a review and discussion of “Researching and Educating for Leadership.” You can access the research base for the discussion and learn more about my part in the event on my presentation wiki archive.

I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a part of my day sharing an author visit with K-4 children at the Walden School in Louisville. Being with children (and teens) reminds me why this work is so important to me. Thank you to Walden for inviting me.

Thursday evening after the exhibits close, Drs. David Loertscher and Blanche Woolls are co-hosting “Symposium of the Greats: Wisdom from the Past and a Glimpse into the Future of School Libraries.” The event will be held at the Seelbach Hotel, 500 S. 4^th Street, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The evening will be divided into two one-hour sessions. The first will be focused on the papers submitted for the proceedings; the second hour will focus on table top discussions on future thinking for the profession. My paper is entitled: “School Librarians as Teachers of Reading.”

Friday, November 15, 2019
From 10:30 – 11:30 a.m., we will share “Taking Our Case to Decision Makers: Effective State- and District-Level Advocacy.” Room L017-018, KICC. I will be on a panel with Kathy Lester, from Michigan, Christie Kaaland, from Washington State, and Pat Tumulty, from New Jersey. I will be sharing information about the Tucson Unified School District School Librarian Restoration Project. Deborah Levitov will be our panel moderator.

Other events on Friday include meeting with the School Library Connection Advisory Board and the AASL School Leader Collaborative, where I will represent the Teacher Librarian Division of the Arizona Library Association.

Saturday, November 16, 2019
From 10:10 – 11:10, I have the privilege of sharing: “Collaborate! To Build Influence.” Room L013, KICC. The content and activities we will discuss during the session come directly from my book Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018), which will be on sale at the ALA Store. (Thank you, ALA Editions.)

From 1:10 PM – 2:10 p.m., I have the pleasure of moderating a session for school librarian supervisors from the Lilead Project. The session is called “Collaborate, Evaluate, Advocate: Tales from the Trenches in Assessing Readiness for Change!” Room L007-008. The presenters/authors contributed articles in the January/February, 2019 issue of Knowledge Quest: “Evaluation and Assessment for Learning.” In addition to moderating, I will follow up my KQ article with a look at a Coplanning/Coteaching Checklist from my book.

Attendees and Followers
Attendees can download the conference app. The entire program book for the conference is available online.

If you are unable to join us in Louisville, please be part of the #NOTATAASL Crew. Jane Lofton wrote a blog post to help virtual attendees get the most out of their conference experience: “Unable to Come to Louisville for #AASL19– Join the #NOTATAASL Crew as a Virtual Attendee.”

Whether in person on social media, I look forward to sharing this ultimate school librarianship learning experience with you.

Truly,
Judi

Classroom-Library Coplanning

Posted on October 8, 2018 by Judi Moreillon

Through coplanning, school librarians and classroom teachers engage in reciprocal mentorship. They learn with and from one another during the planning process. As they negotiate learning objectives, they identify alignment and connections between classroom curriculum, state and national standards, and literacies, including information literacy skills. They approach their collaborative work as equal partners who share responsibility for gathering resources and materials, developing and analyzing formative and summative assessments, modeling strategies, and guiding students through the learning process.

Coplanning Forms
I have found that coplanning forms can be quite useful in guiding school librarians and classroom teachers through the collaborative planning process. These forms help educators apply the Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe 2005) as they plan with the end in mind. From objectives to assessments and all of the components in between, forms help educators cover all the bases.

Elementary Collaborative Planning Forms

Secondary Collaborative Planning Forms

Coteachers will identify various subskills such as notemaking that students will need to learn, review, and practice. They may create graphic organizers to scaffold student learning. These scaffolds guide students and help educators identify areas of mastery and areas where students need more instruction, guidance, and practice. These formative assessments as well as summative assessments that measure student achievement at the end of the learning event are important to prepare in advance or prepare with students so that students’ path to success is supported and clear from the beginning.

Responsibilities in Coteaching
Educators’ roles during direct instruction will likely need to be discussed in advance of lesson implementation, especially if one or the other educator is new to coteaching. When school librarians coteach, they may be engaged in direct instruction alongside classroom teachers. One or the other may take the lead in teaching specific subskills.

Direct instruction involves educators in sharing information and modeling strategies and tasks to help students learn and meet learning targets. When two educators coteach during direct instruction, they can authentically demonstrate various pathways for thinking using think-alouds. They can model collaboration, communication, discussion, debate, and other skills. For example, if educators are coteaching/teaching questioning strategies, notemaking skills, website/information evaluation, ethical use of information/citation, and more, they may take different roles such as question poser and responder or note identifier and recorder.

Both educators will monitor student practice and conduct inquiry/reading/writing conferences with individual students or small groups. Lowering the student-to-educator ratio offers coteachers the opportunity to interact with more students and offers students more individualized interventions.

Co-Assessment Responsibilities
Direct instruction is followed by formative assessments that help school librarians collect and analyze data on students’ progress as well as on the effectiveness of their teaching. Two or more educators look for gaps in comprehension and reteach individuals, small groups, or whole classrooms of students, if necessary. They also use summative assessments to measure students’ overall achievement in terms of the learning objectives and the overall success of the unit of instruction.

As equal partners in planning and implementing instruction, school librarians must be equal partners in assessment.

Engaging Relevant Learning Opportunities
In my experience, coteachers inspire and energize each other’s instructional planning and teaching. They bounce ideas off one another. They may push each other to take calculated risks to stretch their teaching and students’ learning. During instruction, they may take a playful attitude and demonstrate that wondering, puzzling, and problem solving is fun. They model communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity in an authentic context.

School librarians have an important role to play in guiding the planning and teaching process toward involving relevant questions, challenging problems, exciting resources and tools, and increased opportunities student-led learning.

Coplanning with classroom teachers gives school librarians the opportunity to influence curriculum as well as instructional practices. This is leadership work. Misti Werle, school librarian supervisor in Bismarck, North Dakota, and I created a “Levels of Library Services and Instructional Partnerships” matrix. School librarians and classroom teachers in her district are using it to co-assess and chart their understanding of cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. Their goal is to increase classroom-library coteaching in their district.

You can access the matrix as a Web Extra or find it on page 28 in the book.

Questions for Discussion and Reflection

What is your role in recording ideas and decisions made during coplanning?
Why should school librarians share their coplanning activities with their administrators?

Reference

Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. 2005. Understanding by Design, 2nd ed. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

School Librarian Leadership

Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy

Category Archives: School Librarianship