NJ Districts Keep Librarians
DOE reverses decision to remove librarians in poor areas
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 11/1/2005
All schools in New Jersey's poorest urban districts will now have certified media specialists, even though the state doesn't mandate librarians in any K–12 schools.
The recent decision by the state Department of Education (DOE) was a huge victory for the New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL), which recently went head-to-head with the board when it learned about plans to reverse a requirement for certified librarians in K–3 “Abbott district” schools.
New Jersey's 31 Abbott districts, which get their name from the decades-old State Supreme Court case, Abbott v. Burke, enjoy many benefits—including certified librarians in all K–12 schools—in an effort to rectify what the court called “educational inequities” between wealthy suburban districts and poorer urban districts, says Judy Savage, NJASL's government relations consultant. The aim of the class action suit Abbott v. Burke, which pitted student Raymond Abbott and others against then-Commissioner of Education Fred Burke, was to ensure that all New Jersey students get a proper education.
That's why NJASL members launched a lobbying campaign when they learned about changes to a draft version of the district's 2005–2006 Abbott regulations, which would only require media specialists in grades 4–12. “We were concerned that the regulations no longer required a librarian at the K–3 level, where early literacy is a critical focus,” Savage says.
In a letter to the DOE dated July 21, NJASL said “research shows a direct correlation between high quality school library media programs and student achievement.” It then went on to argue that access to a fully equipped and staffed media center is essential, especially to those in “urban districts who may have limited access to books, technology, and other information resources outside the school environment.” Their efforts paid off, and in late September, the DOE reinstated certified librarians in all Abbott schools.
Angela Crockett, media specialist and chair of NJASL's Urban Libraries Committee, is particularly thrilled by the decision because it means her students at Public School 24 in Paterson, NJ, will continue getting library skills that “transfer into academic subject areas and the world of test taking.” Many of her students don't have computers at home and need the school library as an “extra positive place to learn.” Crockett's media center—once a closet with no books—has turned into such a haven that students now spend their lunch hour there. “It's not something that I make them do, it's something that they want to do,” she says.
