2005's Next Big Thing(s)
A prescient look ahead or wishful thinking?
By Evan St. Lifer, Editor -- School Library Journal, 12/1/2004
An end-of-year editorial affords its author the opportunity to speculate on the Next Big Thing, or for the purposes of this forecast, the Next Five Big Things. A prescient look at 2005 or wishful thinking? We'll let you decide.
The 21st Century Learning Skills initiative will gain momentum. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has taken the information and technology literacy standards from the American Association of School Librarians and the International Society for Technology in Education, stirred them, sprinkled in recommendations from a few other entities (Consortium for School Networking and the State Educational Technology Directors Association), and come up with a strategic plan to integrate its own "Information and Communication Technologies Literacies" (ICT) into our nation's schools. School librarians must be vigilant in making sure they have a seat at the table as this initiative gains momentum and increased attention in 2005. Still, the Partnership's biggest obstacle is finding a way to give the 21st Century Skills initiative some teeth. Unlike No Child Left Behind, the plan is not a federal mandate, so schools will not be compelled to integrate its assorted literacies without an incentive and timeframe.
The number of children's books will continue to grow, driven by the exponential growth of series nonfiction titles. Although at press time the number of children's books published in 2004 had not been released, we do know that 2003 saw more than 13,000 books published. Rest assured, 2005's total will only continue to grow, fueled in part by the proliferation of series nonfiction titles. Publishers have expanded their efforts in response to schools' needs for supplemental materials that hew to state-based curriculum standards.
More meaningful research will be published detailing how school librarians enhance student learning. The Center of International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL) has embarked on a number of research projects yielding both anecdotal and statistical evidence as to the role of school libraries. Next up: a Delaware study examining the impact of school libraries on reading engagement. When CISSL can distill its research into a blueprint for assessing enhanced student performance through school media centers, school librarians will indeed have a powerful tool. But this research must be promulgated to the K–12 community, first by being published at the Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse Web site (www.w-w-c.org).
The public sector is primed for a turnaround. Most schools and public libraries didn't feel the impact of a slumping economy until 2002 was well underway, a full year after the private sector felt the squeeze. Likewise, although economic indicators pointed to an economic turnaround from 2003 into 2004, most of the public sector won't benefit from the upturn until 2005. Yet prospects remain strong that the Bush administration will continue to support federal library programs next year, despite its shortchanging of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) by $26 billion. The Library Services and Technology Act will most likely receive around $200 million, while the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program should receive roughly $20 million.
States will continue, one by one, to integrate Pre-K programs into school districts. The emergence of Pre-K as a formalized instructional level creates another critical responsibility for the school media center, as well as the local public library. The accountability requirements of NCLB are trickling down, increasing pressure on earlier levels of learning. Public libraries, many of which have already assumed leadership roles in early learning initiatives, have an excellent opportunity to further cement relationships with schools through collaborative programming. And school libraries have another chance to inject themselves into the reading development and remediation process, a critical step toward receiving Reading First money via NCLB.
Evan St. Lifer
Editor
estlifer@reedbusiness.com
