Literacy Skills Are in Vogue
But are librarians? SLJ Summit to jump-start national conversation
By Evan St. Lifer -- School Library Journal, 2/1/2005
The Educational Testing Service (ETS) is rolling out a new test for college students, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Literacy assessment, to measure their proficiency in evaluating the importance of information from various sources, according to the New York Times. And ETS may eventually create a similar test for high schoolers.
Perhaps the phrase "Information and Communications Technology Literacy" sounds vaguely familiar. It happens to be the exact same wording the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (www.21stcenturyskills.org) uses to describe its initiative to integrate "Information and Communication Technology Literacy and core academic subjects." Maybe you've heard that the bulk of ETS's new test is comprised of information and technology literacies that are derived from the American Association of School Librarians' Information Power standards and the International Society for Technology in Education's National Educational Technology Standards, respectively. Yet neither of these organizations has anything resembling a collaborative role with ETS or the Partnership for 21st Century Learning.
ETS's latest move, coupled with the Partnership's efforts, lead me to a few conclusions:
The good news is that the education community is now acknowledging that information-literacy skills are a fundamental building block in a student's ability to acquire knowledge. The bad news is that the library community is not an active participant in ETS's new test or a major player in the Partnership for 21st Century Learning initiative. I find this ironic, considering that information-literacy skills form the philosophical backbone of both projects.
While I applaud ETS's efforts to recognize the importance of ICT Literacy skills, launching this exam for college students can basically be summed up by the maxim "too little, too late." If a student performs poorly on this test, who will remediate him at the college level? By the time a student graduates high school, his research habits—for better or worse—are often ingrained. Countless students from today's cut-and-paste generation only perpetuate the bad habits they've learned in past grades. A middle school assessment in which the school librarian plays a key role would be of greater benefit, thus giving schools time to help children attain the necessary skills so critical to authentic learning.
Now that a "literacy" movement is gaining momentum, we need to integrate a long overdue information-literacy component—linked to the library media center—into our nation's graduate schools of education, particularly those represented by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.
Most importantly, we must make sure that librarians have a seat at the table when the Department of Education, the Partnership for 21st Century Learning, and ETS discuss the literacy skills that are critical to student learning. Toward that end, School Library Journal has decided to take the initiative by launching its first invitation-only Leadership Summit, to be held in New York City, March 18–19.
The goal of the summit is to challenge 200 of the nation's most innovative thinkers to come up with a dynamic action plan that addresses three core areas—literacy, student achievement, and 21st-century learning skills. The summit is about creating an opportunity for engagement among a diverse core of educators—librarians, administrators, teachers, reading specialists, and curriculum and technology coordinators—to spark the type of dialogue that has been absent until now, especially for librarians.
Evan St. Lifer
Editor
estlifer@reedbusiness.com
