Be All You Can Be
New (rigorous) national standards will help create a corps of elite librarians
Staff -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2001
Doctors do it, lawyers do it, and now school
The committee is an offshoot of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), an independent, nonprofit organization of classroom teachers, school administrators, higher education officials, and community and business leaders that has been raising the bar on national standards for classroom and content-area teachers since 1987. Why should librarians and other educators bother jumping through higher hoops? According to NBPTS and studies such as "A Nation at Risk," the 1983 report sponsored by the President's Commission on Excellence in Education, it makes perfect pedagogic sense: the better the teacher, the better the chance of improving student learning.
Although the national certification process doesn't require librarians to enlist in the Marines or go through boot camp, it does entail a pretty vigorous commitment. Librarians who take part in the voluntary program will be required to pass a skills exam (covering topics such as using literature with children, promoting reading, and adapting technology) and prepare a portfolio, including a 15- to 20-minute teaching video. It's likely to take librarians about a year to do that, says Sara Kelly Johns, a member of the standards committee and a media specialist at the Lake Placid (NY) Middle/Senior High School. But those librarians who get their national certificates may find a little something extra tucked into their paychecks. Many school districts, notes Johns, pay nationally certified educators $500 to $4,000 more each year. The cost for a librarian to take part in the program is $2,000. Johns anticipates that the fee will, for the most part, be paid by school districts.
Johns expects the advanced standards for librarians to be field tested and then fine-tuned early this year. If all goes as planned, she says, the more rigorous standards will be in place by 2002. For more information, visit NBPTS's Web site at www.nbpts.org.--R. M.
