Save Our Librarians! Or Maybe Not

A March 11 story in the Arizona Republic cited a trend that seems to disturb some educators more than others. The headline reads: 'Shrinking Budgets Mean Fewer School Librarians.' Here's an excerpt:

Many Arizona school districts are shedding librarians and cutting their hours.

Like most other states, Arizona has no dedicated funding for libraries and no law requiring school libraries to exist. The fate of the libraries and librarians is up to district officials.

"Almost any district at any time facing a funding crisis can say, 'Here's an easy fix,' " said Sara Kelly Johns, president of the American Association of School Librarians. "They're looking at what programs are mandated instead of what programs are effective," Johns said.

Research shows that strong library programs improve student test scores. That has caused some states to maintain or even strengthen K-12 libraries. But Johns said more and more school libraries, especially in elementary and middle schools, are taking a hit….

Traditionally, school librarians have found books to inspire kids to read for the sheer joy of it and helped them to unravel the Dewey decimal system. Now, librarians also build and maintain computer-based libraries, teach kids to sort fact from fiction on the Internet and help teachers find online training or videos for lesson plans.

"The need for the librarian and the expert in the field hasn't changed; it has just multiplied," said Jaqie Gardner, the librarian at Fountain Hills High School. "We have the physical space to take care of, plus we have the virtual space."

When this story was shared in the TLN discussion group, Bill served as “devil’s advocate” in questioning whether there really is a long-term future for school-based librarians in a high-speed Internet world.

Over the course of the conversation, the focus morphed from a debate over the future of librarians and media specialists to a much broader discussion of whether there are differences in teachers’ accountability, determined by whether their subjects are tested in the high stakes accountability system. Here’s a sample from the week-long dialogue.

Bill, a language arts teacher in the middle grades, wrote:

This is a road I shudder to walk down again. The last time I said anything about librarians, all the hockey sticks broke out! But I've got a strictly objective and dispassionate question to ask:

Do you think the need for someone outside of the classroom teacher to teach kids fact from fiction on the Internet and to help teachers find online resources will remain the same over time? Or do you think younger teachers with greater digital savvy will be able to handle those tasks largely on their own in the future?

I know that in today's schools, there are tons of teachers who need help navigating a new digital landscape -- so "media specialists" are invaluable. But I think demand for these services will go down over time only because technology use will be embedded in the lives of young educators.

I know that I never end up using our school's media specialist, not because she doesn't do great things for people but because I'm comfortable without her support.

And my questions don't simply pertain to media specialists. I wonder if we try to "save the assistant principals" and "save the guidance counselors" and "save the shop teachers" and "save the (fill in the appropriate blank for your district)" at all costs because that's what schools do best.

We're inherently traditional, aren't we?

Yet we're working in a time that is rapidly changing, and those changes require non-traditional thinking about the ways we've always done things in order for us to keep pace. If we fail to rethink everything about our schools, we'll likely end up being wasteful somewhere.

Kitty, an elementary school media specialist, had her hockey stick handy:

I would ask you, Bill, if you are aware of the research which has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that those schools that have full time media specialists have students who perform better and achieve higher scores on all achievement tests. There are several studies that have been conducted in recent years, so it truly boggles my mind that in light of that sort of documentation, anyone can justify cutting library media specialists out of the overall instructional program.

I would also have to challenge your assumption that the media specialist is only about teaching the difference between fiction and nonfiction or even about teaching kids how to navigate the ever growing digital landscape. We do WAY more than that -- assuming, of course, that we are doing our full job.

Reading is still the foundation for all other learning, is it not? As the media specialist in my building, I am responsible for maintaining a collection of high quality literature and other reading material that students can read for fun or for information depending upon their specific need at a specific time. How are kids to learn to read for the love of reading if they have no library, no library books, and no library media specialist to guide them through the world of literature? What happens if we neglect teaching reading as a life-long skill as opposed to simply consuming information presented in a digital format?

My job as the library media specialist has changed more over time than any other job in the building, so I am somewhat dismayed by your perception that maintaining a viable library collection or providing a viable library program is part of some outdated tradition.

My job as the library media specialist is also one of collaborator and instructional assistant in that I work with the teachers in my building to provide instructional units of learning to enhance the instruction in the classroom. I am a teaching partner, a instructional resource, and a provider of professional development programs when the teachers in my building need to be serve in those capacities. Just last week, for example, I taught a fifth grade unit on Reconstruction. Two weeks before, students came to the library and worked their way through five different stations using different instructional modalities to review concepts and facts about the Civil War.

Finally, last but not least, the number of students who come to my library for books to read "for fun" has tripled over the course of the seven years that I have been in my current building. My kids like coming to the library, and I believe they count on me and my library assistant to help them to find books and materials they can read and enjoy. If we were no longer around because of budget cuts, there is no one else who would be able to fill that void, and I shudder to think what would happen to my kids.

I don't pretend to be dispassionate about this issue (I imagine that’s obvious by now), but it is not about just protecting turf or maintaining outdated instructional programs as part of an outmoded tradition. If a library media specialist is doing the job that needs to be done in his/her building, he/she should be viewed as an indispensable part of the faculty and the overall instructional program. It saddens me no end that apparently there are colleagues in my specialty out there who haven't created that niche for themselves.

But that doesn't justify throwing the baby out with the bathwater, either.

Ariel, an eighth grade teacher, wrote:

Bill wrote that “we're working in a time that is rapidly changing----and those changes require non-traditional thinking about the ways we've always done things in order for us to keep pace. If we fail to rethink everything about our schools, we'll likely end up being wasteful somewhere.”

I'm all for rethinking roles in schools, but I'm NOT for putting sole responsibility for everything on teachers, even though teachers are amazing and have seemingly infinite potential. I do want there to be room for me to experiment outside of my traditional role without stepping on someone else's turf, but frankly I don't have time to learn, then plan, then try out, so many of the things I'd like to do in my classroom. I'm very happy to let someone else learn how to use certain technology tools and then share them with me or directly with my students.

As an English teacher I LOVE hanging out at the bookstore and perusing new adolescent literature, and I do maintain a pretty great library in my classroom that my students rely on. But I don't have nearly enough time to keep it as fresh and up to date as I'd like, nor do I have time to jump through hoops to get funding for it (I end up using my own money). I'd be so happy if my school had a full time librarian whose job it was to do just that.

I've also come to appreciate and rely on support staff members who really do their jobs. I've known guidance counselors and social workers who did essentially nothing for students or to support teachers. But I now work with an AP, a social worker and guidance counselor (all on the young end, incidentally, though I've known great seasoned social workers and AP's) who make themselves integral parts of our school's functionality.

We all probably need the chance to rethink our roles, but until then, I'm not comfortable absorbing someone else's job. Like I said, I want the leeway to be able to experiment, but I also want some boundaries I can count on so that I can have a personal life, and be able to participate in things like this Network.

Renee, a high school English teacher, wrote:

Don't worry, Bill, no hockey stick here. I think library/media specialists are invaluable in any school setting. First, because even in this digital age, not every teacher is equally comfortable with the various aspects of information media (there's more than using the Internet). Some teachers may be quite proficient at locating resources related to their own subject area, but not others.

I also appreciate the time and energy the librarian saves me by pulling things together for me and my students (and everybody else in the building), even preparing lessons on how to find and use sources, teaching those lessons to my students for me, and being an available resource for them, so they'll have someone other than me to look for when they have a question. When you teach 100-150 students a day, all those services represent a huge benefit for students as well as teachers.

David, another high school teacher, wrote:

In the past several months I have learned a whole new appreciation for what a librarian can do. Our new librarian has transformed the physical space in the library, and the role of librarian, all for the better. She (of course it's a she -- where are the male librarians?!) has made the library a comfortable, inviting space, where students' portraits are featured on the READ! posters instead of celebrities and athletes, and where you can't turn around without having new books "marketed" to you. She aggressively pursues funding and makes sure to know what students want to read. In fact, she promises to buy any book (within reason) that a student requests if it can't be located within our district system.

But wait, there's more! She has turned our library web page into the perfect research portal, with links not only to useful web sites (frequently updated), but more importantly, links to databases that we had never heard of before. She constantly shares her learning with students and faculty, and has made it much easier for all of us to find more and better information.

Could a classroom teacher do these things? Yes, but not as much, and usually not as well. It's a thoroughly different job and different skill set. I hope we have a lot in common, but having a specialist at the hub of all the research, media, and texts on campus makes such a difference. My sophomores are in better shape with their English research projects because of the librarian's experience helping the AP Music Theory students and the seniors in Economics.

Bill, in responding to Kitty’s comments, raised the issue of different levels of accountability for different teachers in a school, based on high-stakes accountability testing.

Kitty wrote: I would ask you, Bill, if you are aware of the research which has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that those schools that have full time media specialists have students who perform better and achieve higher scores on all achievement tests.

I’ve read those reports. The big difference, Kitty, is that media specialists aren't held directly accountable for results on those exact same tests when students fail. The "teacher of record" is. In most buildings, when test scores are low, they don't pull the media specialist in for answers. It's me sitting on the other side of the table.

I wonder if my thoughts (are a) response to the crushing pressures that standardized testing places on some -- but not all --members of a school community. In the end, when our students succeed, everyone in our building takes credit. When our students don't succeed, the finger points at me.

While I love all of the great stories about the wonderful contributions that are made by remarkable professionals outside the classroom to the overall health of a school -- and while those wonderful contributions are made by media specialists, APs, and guidance counselors in my building too -- the only contribution that is considered valuable from me are student scores on end of grade exams.

That's something I struggle with. "Love of reading" means nothing when it's a contribution that I make. It's not tested. "Guiding kids through the world of literature" is also something I do -- but it's not recognized or rewarded. Teaching "healthy living," "life long learning" and "twenty first century skills" happens every day in my room -- but none of those outcomes mean anything because they aren't tested.

I guess what I want is an equal distribution of the pressures and consequences of testing.

Kitty replied:

You make some valid points, Bill, but what occurs to me at this early morning moment is that just because something isn't tested on a multiple choice test, that doesn't mean it's not important. In fact, I would argue that the most important learning that takes place is often that which cannot and never will be tested in any traditional sense. Which, of course, points to part of the problem inherent in the accountability movement. The "love of learning" is an intangible outcome of one's education, but just because it can't be tested, should we forget about trying to encourage it?

You're right about the media specialists not being held directly accountable for the test results of the individual teacher. We are held accountable for many other things.

Nancy commented:

In my experience, "younger" teachers don't necessarily understand the effective use of technology in schools any better than older teachers. They may have vastly more experience in social networking or playing with Blabberize, but in terms of higher-level knowledge acquisition, application and synthesis, not so much.

And besides, if all your media specialist is doing is teaching kids how to find online resources, you need a better media specialist. It's the misunderstanding of what media specialists actually do (or can do) that causes school boards to think: "Oh, they just check out materials; any aide can do that" and pink-slip them.

I give media specialists a great deal of credit. They have had to re-invent their occupation in the past couple of decades, something that English teachers have not been forced to do. Most of them have done a splendid job. To think that, in this media-soaked universe, we would want to dismiss a media SPECIALIST, someone with specific knowledge on how media impacts, molds and influences our thinking, is counter-productive, to say the least.

Let's not get into arguments about whose subject discipline is expendable. (I say this as a music teacher, who has had to defend my program dozens of times.) I fully believe in teacher accountability and responsibility -- if a teacher is not producing satisfactory results (and those results vary by discipline and grade level), then the teacher needs to improve or be let go. But to pit tested teachers vs. untested teachers is folly.

In most places, thank God, kindergarten students are not subjected to statewide assessments. So are their teachers "not accountable?" And I wish my middle school had guidance counselors to save. We lost them in a budget crisis back in the 80s, and they never came back. But the Board said we had lots of moms and dads on the teaching staff, and they could help the kids "adjust."

Sarah, a high school librarian, wrote:

As a teacher librarian, this discussion strand has certainly caught my eye. The past few months in Washington State, we have been working really hard with the legislature to ensure funding (and equity) for school libraries around the state. As specialists, we are first to be cut and in struggling schools, this has an even bigger impact on students who don’t have the support to get to the public library -- if there is one nearby.

Here’s the other side of accountability: We have tried for YEARS to be counted (based on whatever the counting measure is at any given time) but continue to be cut because we are not tested, we are specialists, and we are difficult for principals to evaluate. We have even said, aloud, “I wish we were a tested area -- then we would matter.” We as teacher librarians are often behind the scenes, planning with teachers, working with students one-on-one, or making sure our materials match the curriculum of the school.

On the other hand, as teacher librarians, we are more like public figures in a school. Teachers see what we do, and don’t do, more easily. We can’t shut our doors and hide. We are still fighting the stereotype of the librarian, bun and glasses (and female) who doesn’t want the kids to “mess up” the books. Many people have said “all my librarian does is sit and read.” And the reality is that yes, that is part of our job. But it should be so much more.

The testing frenzy has impacted the library I work in by decreasing use. Teachers are worried about testing, coverage and scope and sequence and then testing some more. The total process of teaching and learning isn’t emphasized. I would argue that research and library skills are useful for all tested areas, but instead of broadening the learning experiences kids have, teaching and learning has been narrowed to “released items” and “practice tests” because they are easy to control and measure. Sad. But it is only Monday. There is hope.

Susan, a family and consumer science teacher, responded:

First of all, Bill, I love that you are willing to ask hard questions.

You are not the average teacher, and while you may be very proficient as a technology user and as a researcher, not all teachers are. If all a librarian does is check out books, then, maybe they are expendable. And if all shop teachers do is make birdhouses, then they may be expendable too. In fact, if Family and Consumer Science teachers focus on chocolate chip cookies and cross stitch, we are unnecessary.

But I would also argue that if a Chemistry teacher is stuck on the memorization of the Periodic Tables or an English teacher focuses on little more than writing research papers that compile and critique existing literary analysis of the "Great Books," then these teachers are also expendable.

Yes, the content area teacher for end-of-year tested subject matter is the teacher of record. That is the burden you bear. Other teaching positions bear their own. How about the Special Ed teacher who has to make accommodations for testing and prepare each child for testing at his or her level? That shop teacher, if he is teaching in a high school program, has been doing competency reports for many years, and he is expected to follow up on whether his former students are gainfully employed in the field.

If he's an auto mechanics teacher, he will be judged based on the number of his students who receive industry certification at the end of his program. (And by the way, he'll be doing this with kids that were probably seen as "lost causes" for college prep.) If he's in a middle school, he's likely to be seeing hundreds of students over the course of the year and many of them are likely to be special ed. He has to insure safety as well as instruct.

Performing Arts teachers are likely to have a 200-plus student load and they take their students to contests where they receive ratings. That PE position you imagine as has less pressure? That's fine if it doesn't involve a coaching position. Those folks are held accountable for every game, and that's after they've finished teaching their classes. A few people around here are old enough to remember when the PE department was held responsible for getting every child in shape so we could hold off the Red Army with push ups, endurance running and doing some sort of balance thing where you held your right foot and jumped over it on your right foot. (This last one resulted in a lot of kids going to the school nurse, definitely an endangered species today.)

Does everyone need to call upon the media specialist, the shop teacher, the literature teacher, the calculus teacher, the PE teacher? Probably not. But they all have something important to contribute.

Comments

[JohnNorton]

Some college folks picked up on our conversation and extended it into their own domain.

Here's the link:

The Student Affairs Collaborative Blog
http://www.thesablog.org/2008/04/when-in-doubt-a.html