Welcome to LIB5080

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Welcome to LIB5080

• The School Library Media Program

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LIB 5080 The School Library Media Program

• Agenda
• Updates
• Revisit Program Planning Evaluation
• Education Policy the School Library Media
  Specialist
• Course evaluation

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Updates

• Questions, issues, problems?

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Program Planning Evaluation

• For which strategy and/or objective did you feel
  it was relatively easy to create evaluation
  question(s), determine data sources, etc?
• For which strategy and/or objective did you feel
  it was very difficult to create evaluation
  question(s), determine data sources, etc? What
  did you do to get over this difficulty?

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Education Policy and the School Library Media
Specialist
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Think about .

• Jot your thoughts on a piece of paper
• What is policy?
• What policy issues have arisen from your action
  project?
• How do you as teachers or media specialists
  influence policy?

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What is Policy ?

• Educational policy consists of laws (both
  judicial and legislative), regulations, and
  procedures that govern the educational services
  provided locally, by the state, and nationally.
• Policy becomes confounded with politics, because
  in our society there is no shared view of the
  role of schools and the nature and content of
  schooling.

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A History of Federal Policy Regarding School
Libraries

• 1958. National Defense Education Act (NDEA),
  provided funding for materials and equipment to
  support science, math and foreign language
  instruction.
• 1965. Elementary and Secondary Education Act
  (ESEA). Title II provided direct federal
  assistance for the acquisition of school library
  resources and other materials.

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Federal policy continued

• Under ESEA Title II, states had to submit a plan
  to the US Office of Education demonstrating how
  the funding would be used, and that library
  standards had been developed or revised to ensure
  quality programs.
• Under Title II school district and school media
  staff gained new responsibilities and were
  expected to serve in leadership roles in
  selecting acquiring, organizing and using
  instructional materials.

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Federal policy continued

• 1981. Education Consolidation and Improvement
  Act (ECIA), consolidated 32 categorical programs
  into a block of funds that could be used for
  any purpose. Funding could go to school library
  resources, but that was a local decision.
• 2001. ESEA reauthorized. Law included the
  Reed-Cochran bill which included funding for new
  books and advanced technology for school
  libraries.

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Standard-Setting as Policy

• Standards are usually developed from professional
  associations and are not mandatory.
• 1945. School Libraries for Today and Tomorrow.
  ALA
• 1960. Standards for School Library Programs.
  AASL
• 1960. Standards for School Media Programs. AASL
  and DAVI
• 1975. Media Programs District and School.
  AASL and AECT
• 1988, Information Power Guidelines for School
  Library Media Programs. AASL and AECT.
• 2007, AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

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The Policy Circle NCLB

• NCLB (reauthorization of ESEA) passed in 2001.
  Established a deadline for states to meet
  standards in the following areas
• Teacher quality
• Student achievement
• Students must pass state tests
• Subgroups received additional funding and
  required to meet same standards
• Focus on key academic areas
• Use research-based curricula and interventions

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The Policy Circle NCLB cont.

• Prepare state tests that can be used to show
  student growth.
• State plans must be approved by ED in order to
  receive NCLB funds.
• States then set in place requirements that school
  districts and schools were required to implement.
• Likewise, states require school districts to
  submit their implementation plans for approval.

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The Policy Circle - completed

• School districts and schools complied with
  federal and state directives by passing new laws
  or revising their policies
• Smaller classes
• Competitive hiring practices
• Salary bonuses
• Others

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The Policy Circle

• The results are in and they are mixed.
• States, districts and schools are not meeting
  goals for staffing and for student achievement.
• Other positives
• Other negatives
• Now Congress is reauthorizing NCLB, probably will
  be completed next year (2009). Where is the
  school media center in this reauthorization?

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Policy Activity

• Various advocacy groups have points of view about
  the changes to be made to NCLB as it is
  reauthorized. Select one of these groups (or
  another of your choice) and find out their
  suggestions. See if they have provisions for
  school media centers.
• - ALA - AASL
• - NEA - AFT
• - NSBA - Education Trust

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A Policy Role for the SLMS

• Use School Libraries Work!
• Find supporting evidence for the following policy
  issues
• Flexible scheduling
• Technology integration
• Application of curriculum standards
• Role of a qualified media specialist
• Importance of serving on decision-making,
  policy-making teams
• Provide an example of how could you use this
  evidence.

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Course Evaluation

• What worked?
• Why?
• What, if anything, would you change?
• Why?