A Golden Opportunity
Why 'No Child Left Behind' is your chance to become indispensable
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2004
Whether the education community likes it or not, NCLB is here to stay, and now schools must take the steps necessary to ensure that their students attain reading and math proficiency. "[NCLB] is a wake-up call for media specialists, in that they really need to step up to the plate and make their role in the school's education process absolutely clear and unavoidable," says Scott Knickelbine of Lownik Communications Services, a consulting firm for companies that target the K–12 market. "If they're not thought of as being essential to the mission of improving student test scores, then they risk being seen as irrelevant."
Taking the initiative is as simple as approaching reading specialists and department heads to inquire about their needs and offering books and other helpful resources, Knickelbine says. Teachers will appreciate student test-preparation resources that focus on sharpening reading comprehension skills, as well as staff development books geared toward literacy instruction. "If the librarian provides enough reading options, she becomes an integral part of the reading program," Knickelbine adds.
Since the legislation mandates annual standardized tests for students in grades 3–8 and penalizes low-performing schools with harsh sanctions, NCLB is bound to keep administrators and principals up at night. And that's where school librarians come in. "You reach a principal by finding out what's motivating your principal, and what's important to your principal," says Barbara Jeffus, a school library consultant for the California Department of Education. "NCLB is important to the principal because it requires meeting 'adequate yearly progress,' [which] can lead to the reconstitution of a school, or determine funding."
In order for librarians to understand their role in NCLB, they need to understand the legislation. By becoming experts in the law, media specialists will be able to identify less obvious roles they can play. "Read the law and be fully aware of what it is and see where you can fit in," says Mary Lankford, an independent library consultant and former director of library services for the Texas Education Agency. "If you read between the lines, it refers to libraries all over the place—collaboration not just in schools but in the communities."
For starters, librarians need to study their state curriculum standards. Since NCLB standards are derived from state content standards, they will form the basis for measuring academic growth. Jeffus recommends outlining curriculum standards on contact paper and marking areas where there is a natural partnership. Then list all of the specific library resources that are necessary for successful collaboration. "A library media specialist needs to know the content standards so that when they collaborate with classroom teachers, two heads will be looking for ways to create a learning environment to meet those standards," Jeffus says, adding that most standards are listed on state department of education Web sites. (For California's standards, visit www.cde.ca.gov/standards.) In order to effectively chart where progress is needed, media specialists also need to attend staff development courses that teach them how to analyze student achievement data. Studies such as "Rolling Up Their Sleeves" by the Wallace Foundation (www.publicagenda.org/research/pdfs/rolling_up_their_sleeves.pdf) will give librarians a better understanding of the stresses that principals and superintendents are going through to meet NCLB's demands. And The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom and How Learning Can Be Saved (Random, 2003) by Todd Oppenheimer will shed some insight on funding shortages in education. (See "Rage Against the Machine," November 2003, p. 34.)
For Della Curtis, the coordinator of the Office of Library Information Services for Baltimore County Public Schools, the "big hook" for media specialists is literacy. "No Child Left Behind has provided us with an opportunity to get engaged," she says. "What this document has done is prepare a road map for what we need to do under [the new law]." In doing so, Curtis's office, along with district principals, teachers, school librarians, and parents, spent the early part of last year creating a 644-page master plan, outlining strategies and goals for complying with the law. And school and public libraries take center stage. (For more information, visit www.bcps.org/offices/lis.)
The master plan includes a district-wide expansion of the Deep Creek Middle School Project (see News , December 2003, p. 24), a literacy campaign aimed at increasing student visits to local public libraries, and a K–12 read-a-thon that encourages kids to read books to raise money for a literacy fund for underprivileged peers. Also in the works is an independent reading program called Strive for 25, and a Get Carded campaign to distribute library cards by May to all of the district's 7,000 kindergartners. "No Child Left Behind certainly advocates that all students are going to be literate and learn to read," Curtis says. "And library media specialists have a critical role in motivating children to read and helping them choose reading as a leisure activity."
Curtis's office has definitely planned ahead. In addition to preparing kids for reading and math assessments, it's already begun to tackle another requirement—standardized tests in science scheduled to begin in 2007—by providing school librarians with a series of workshops on ways to integrate information technologies into the science curriculum. Curtis, who met with H. B. Lintz, Baltimore County's new district-level science director, convinced him that school libraries have a lot to offer science teachers and their students. "But in order to ensure that resources are used and kids are challenged to do science research in the library, I needed to get all teachers on board," she says.
Getting others on board means being vocal. Librarians needs to take part in local curriculum committees to "make sure they're an integral part of the school governance and provide leadership to meet the stronger accountability that's involved," says Margaret McNeely, manager of the U.S. Department of Education's Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program, the only NCLB grant devoted solely to school library materials. Lankford suggests forming library advisory groups so that everyone understands that the media center belongs to the entire school. "Become an advocate of the library, but show it in relationship to the entire school, and show it in relationship to what it does to improve student achievement and tie it into NCLB," she says.
One of the main reasons media specialists fail to carve out a role in NCLB is because many haven't taken leadership roles in their schools to prove their programs are a vital part of the curriculum, says Curtis. That's why it's imperative to get involved at the district planning level, where key decisions are made about the distribution of NCLB funds, says Jeffus. "Most library media specialists say, 'All I need is another committee,' but this one could be crucial," she says. "The decisions on how that money is put to use, and the programs that would benefit from it, is determined at the local-level planning table. If there is no library presence, then libraries won't get funding at all." What if no one asks you to participate? Then send a note to your district library coordinator or your principal or superintendent. "You can't wait for the invitation, and you can't ignore it," Jeffus says. Find out where those meetings are taking place and show up.
Librarians can't directly apply for NCLB grants such as Title I, Reading First, and Enhancing Education Through Technology, but states can earmark those funds for library materials if the librarian has made a convincing case that her program contributes to student learning. "It's programs like Title I and Reading First that offer a tremendous amount of opportunities for those librarians who see the connection and are able to take the initiative," says John Bailey, director of educational technology at the U.S. Department of Education, suggesting that librarians should convince those at the district level that those funds should be used for library materials. "There are a lot of implicit roles that you can read into the legislation."
Take technology, for example. NCLB provides a great opportunity for media specialists to extend the mission of the library into the digital age, says Bailey, and grants such as Enhancing Education Through Technology can help libraries acquire badly needed tech resources. "We're seeing Title I and Reading First funds being used to acquire a lot of technology-based reading solutions," he says. "[The library] happens to be using technology, but the focus isn't on technology, it's on reading and providing instructional resources for teachers and the classroom." Media specialists also need to promote the fact that Internet access and electronic databases must be accompanied with instruction from a certified librarian. "As much as students are great users of the Internet, they still need people to guide them in appropriate use and identifying appropriate sites," Bailey says. "For years, librarians have been teaching kids to be critical thinkers and readers and [have shown them] how to evaluate what's in the book. Now it's just translating that over to the Internet."
North Carolina is one state that got creative with its NCLB technology grant. Instead of buying the latest gadgets or software, it honed in on staff development. Its district-level office of library services felt it was important for school librarians and other educators to collaborate on NCLB. So the state department of education chose 11 schools with high poverty rates and little technology and sent its principals, librarians, technology directors, and two teachers on a five-day training camp. The goal? To ensure that educators were prepared to incorporate technology into the law's requirements. "You can't isolate technology and school media programs because technology is such a big part of information literacy that ripples throughout classrooms," says Frances Bradburn, the director of instructional technology for North Carolina's Department of Public Instruction.
North Carolina saw NCLB not as an obstacle, but rather as as an opportunity—and so should media specialists. Besides, cautions Knickelbine, "If libraries are not a part of the solution, they'll risk seeing funds being pulled and diverted to programs that schools and districts do see as part of the solution."
| Author Information |
| Debra Lau Whelan is SLJ's senior editor for news and features. |
