ALA Lobbying for Certified Media Specialists under NCLB
Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal,01/31/2007
The American Library Association (ALA) is lobbying lawmakers to ensure that the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act includes a provision that all K–12 schools have a state-certified media specialist.
The law, passed in 2002 by President Bush, sets rigorous standards for academic performance and requires that each school define adequate yearly progress. It also mandates "highly qualified" teachers in schools, meaning educators must have a bachelor's degree and state certification—but there is no mention of media specialists. "We think that is a weakness in the law," says Emily Sheketoff, executive director of ALA's Washington office.
"We want school library media specialists to be considered 'highly qualified,'" Sheketoff adds. "We want the language to say that every school should have a state-certified library media specialist."
Sheketoff is confident that ALA's efforts will succeed, especially since there is bipartisan support for the proposal. The only sticking point is that small schools, or those in rural areas with only 50 to 100 students, could have a problem meeting the requirement because they may only have one certified librarian serving up to three schools, Sheketoff adds.
"The goal is to have at least one school library media specialist in every elementary, middle, and high school because we truly believe that it's the key to a good education," Sheketoff says, but ALA is willing to accept some flexibility in the language.
Congress is set to reauthorize NCLB later this year. The House will take up the issue soon and the Senate hopes to begin hearings in the spring.
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| Submitted by: | Sandy Metcalf 2/6/2007 7:10:24 AM PT |
| Location: | Weston High School, Weston, MA |
| Occupation: | Librarian |
Sandy Metcalf
Weston High School
Weston, Massachusetts
I applaud ALA for supporting school librarians as NCLB comes up for renewal. I believe that school librarians must make themselves indispensible in their schools. We have to teach to be considered as valuable as any other teacher in the school. It is not enough that we collaborate. We must begin to teach reference and information searching skills so that every student who leaves your school has the same set of information finding skills. Go to your principal and suggest a course - maybe be part of a group of teachers that teach notetaking, speed reading, outlining, and information searching - combine teaching with a technology teacher and offer a course in research/technology. In other words become necessary in your school.
| Submitted by: | Judi Paradis (judiparadis@rcn.com) 2/4/2007 4:36:38 PM PT |
| Location: | Arlington MA |
| Occupation: | library teacher |
I would love to see ALA push hard for this requirement added to NCLB. It has me crazy that we have standards for every other possible position but our own. In Massachusetts, library teachers have been completely left out of our 15 year old education reform act that rules every aspect of how schools run EXCEPT for the library program. Consequently, library teachers are often the first people eliminated when budget cuts are called for, and in many cases we are left with one library teacher covering every school in a district, or being replaced with aides. If this does get incorporated, I hope there is also some funding mechanism attached. The unfunded mandates from the federal government are really hurting schools in Massachusetts--and this might set us up so that the school nurse or the art teacher needs to go to keep the required library teacher.
Thanks for the initiative,
Judi Paradis
Legislative Co-chair
Massachusetts School Library Association
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