Title of Article: Key to literacy, librarians now "highly endangered"

Publisher: The Seattle Times

Date: September 12, 2007

Author: Lynn Thompson

Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/snohomishcountynews/2003881008_librarians12n0.html

Summary:

I chose this article for somewhat personal reasons, which I will explain toward the end of my summary.

This article reflects on a worrying trend amongst too many school districts, that of cutting librarian positions. The article cites several reasons for this, but notably the restraints of budgets in the efforts to raise state test scores. Rather than acknowedging the absolute necessity of librarians and the tremendous level of knowledge and experience they can bring to a school, it appears that more and more disctricts are using their money on increased instruction in those areas most affected by state tests.

"The reality is that some districts and principals tryto get test scores up by spending more time ontest-taking and less time on open-ended projects, whatwe call discovery learning,"

This quote in the article from Marianne Hunter (president of the Washington Library Media Association) succinctly sums up the worrying trend plaguing large amounts of school districts and individual schools across the USA. The article continues to explain that the situation has reached such levels of concern that a task force has even been set up, and they are now calling school librarians "highly endangered." This same task force believe that when administrators place such unwaivering levels of judgement about school successon ELA and Math scores, it "denies the instructional value of libraries and the teaching role of librarians"

"We know the research shows that students who go to schools with strong library programs do better onstate tests," is one quote within the article that demonstrates how important libraries and librarians are. When considered carefully and openly, it is not too difficult to see that librarians are (and should be) central to any literacy program, because their support, experience, and knowledge can be of the highest value in classroom settings where teachers use the development of literacy.

But, as the article explains, budget-cutting is affecting this invaluable resource to the extent that librarians are often one of the first positions condsidered unessecary when it comes time to budget for a school year.

"When your back is against the wall and you're trying to keep reductions out of the classroom, those are the positions you turn to," highlights just how little emphasis is placed on the value of library space and librarians.

The author also explains how vital librarians are in the educational process, especially in terms of developing technology related skills such as reserach and citical thinking. Many students, as we know, can easily use the Internet in ways that are unsuccessfull and produce results that are often not relevant nor cited correctly. In recent years, librarians have become a classroom teachers best resource for helping in this area, and their knowledge in areas of reserching text,books, journals, and articles is simply invaluable to students presented with such vast arrays of information technology.

One example of this is explained in the article, notably a program called the "Big 6" developed by the University of Washington. Through the program, librarians are provided with opportunities to work with teachers and students to help collect and collate necessary research, and evaluate the accuracy of results. By working with teachers and their curriculums this approach is designed to develop the critical-thinking skills so many stuents desperately lack.

"Their mental processes are still being built. They still need help in selecting resources; they still need someone to talk it over with and guide theirthinking," states one librarian conveying the importance of working together to develop those skills necessary in todays society. One of the quotes that most resinated with me was from the dean of the University of Washington Information School who said that when interviewing incoming freshman and outgoing seniors what students value above all else wasn't the content of a particular class "but rather the life skills of problem-solving and critical thinking, the same skills librarians are trained to develop and promote"

There appears, as always, to be a total lack of understanding on the part of those responsible for making the most crucial of decisions within our schools. Is it, in part, due to the lack of pedagogical experience our administrators have? Is it the fact we have non-educators in some of the hightest positions within our education systems? Or, is it the fact that the issues surrounding state testing have taken precedence over all other issues within education? Personally, I feel it is a disgraceful combination of all three.

As I said in my introduction, I chose this article for somewhat personal reasons because this issue has now affected my own school. We were created as a school in 2004 out of the need for restructuring a failing school. By separating one existing school, the city and state created two schools who were immediately placed on the Impact list (we were part of the original "dirty dozen" city schools). Both schools were also considered "in need of improvement" and so placed on another list. As part of the restructure, however, we were required to share the one library that existed in the building. This worked reasonably well (though not ideal) and at least all students in the building had access to a librarian and the resources she provided.

Whilst we (as a our own school) demonstrated progress, improvement, and many gains in terms of academic acheivement, the school downstiars has been less successful. It was placed on the SURR list earlier this year, and the State spent a week in the building to assess and make recommendations for this coming September.

One of those recommendations very quickly became a requirement, and that was to remove all library facilities from my school allowing the other school 100% access to the librarian and library. This leaves our students withoout ANY access to the libray at all. Students are not allowed to enter the room, and our teachers are not allowed to ask for assistance from the librarian. As part of the state recommendations, the school also received 2 state of the art Science labs, and all the wonderful things associated with having access to this resource.

So, the reward for making progress it seems is that one group of students receives far less resources and zero library time, whilst the other is provided with all the necessary resources.

As I said in my response to "America's Perfect Storm", what angers me the most about these kinds of decisions, is that both schools serve the very same students. They are from the same neighborhood, have the same issues, and need the samea ccess to the same resources.

What's also disheartening for me, is that in recent years a great deal of investement has been made in terms of training librarians to become technologically literate themselves and, as a result, they have become some of the greatest advocates of change in terms of integrating technology tools into literacy and ELA curriculums (and all other subject areas). By cutting such vital positions, we are losing the very people who can help schools better integrate technology in relevant and meaningful ways.