Thursday, June 8, 2000

tech.life@school | Joyce Kasman Valenza

School libraries can give students a vital lift, but many are shortchanged

Better libraries result in better reading scores, a new study shows. However, in Pa. and elsewhere, neglect has taken a toll.

I believe that strong school-library programs make a difference in student achievement. I believe that student research is an important training ground for adult life. I believe that a critical component of our students' experience, their information literacy, is being ignored or delivered inequitably.

I am not alone in these beliefs. And there is empirical evidence for them. A new study by researchers Keith Curry Lance and Marcia J. Rodney revealed that Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) reading scores rise "with increases in the following characteristics of school library programs: staffing, information technology, and integration of information literacy into the curriculum."

The study found that PSSA scores tended to run 10 to 15 points higher when those conditions were met. Lance and Rodney found that those relationships were not explained away by "other school and community conditions."

The study confirmed findings of previous research on the impact of school libraries on student achievement in Alaska and Colorado.

So what does all this have to do with the subject of this column, technology?

Libraries are where the rubber meets the road, where all the technology skills learned in computer labs are applied in research and communication efforts.

And in a wired school, the librarians are the information specialists: Web site developers, database experts, technology leaders, trainers and integrators.

The Internet cannot replace libraries. Those boxes and wires we put in our classrooms and labs will have little meaning unless information professionals select quality resources for them. The technology has little value unless we teach students how to effectively and ethically locate, analyze, evaluate, synthesize and communicate information.

Among the factors the Pennsylvania study isolated as important were not simply the number of computers in a school, but the number that allowed teachers and students to use the ACCESS Pennsylvania database, licensed or subscription databases, as well as the free Internet. What the study labeled as its "keystone" finding was the importance of an integrated approach to information literacy.

"The typical higher-achieving elementary school has 40 to 50 computers either in or networked to the school library, while lower-achieving schools average only 6 to 10. At the high school level, higher-achieving schools average 75 to 100 computers compared with 20 to 25 for lower-achieving schools," the study said.

"As schools network classrooms, many discover the central importance of a strong library, a dynamic librarian and a robust information skills program," Jamie McKenzie wrote in the January issue of his respected educational journal From Now On. "The school media center, its staff and the library program all adapt dramatically to meet the challenges, the threats and the opportunities of the new information landscape."

So what's the problem? Aren't we all for motherhood, apple pie and school libraries? Apparently not.

In Pennsylvania, the state's School Code does not require school districts to maintain libraries, even though new state academic standards insist on the delivery of information skills and access to rich information resources.

And so, at a time when school libraries are poised to make the most essential contribution to student learning, administrators in our own state are allowed to eviscerate library programs.

The problem is particularly critical in poorer, urban areas. I cringed when I attended a workshop in May of urban librarians who shared serious issues. An overwhelming number were working out of hallways and closets, and working with obsolete collections, nonexistent budgets, without a single networked computer. They were working without the aides who might free them from overwhelming clerical duties, and allow them to work, on a professional level, with students and teachers.

A majority of these librarians were functioning merely as providers of "prep" periods for teachers. They were keeping students occupied during a teacher's regulated planning time. Their work, however well-meaning, was not seen as a part of their teacher's plan, and thereby diminished in importance.

Many attributed their budget problems to site-based management, which allows principals and small committees to determine annual budget priorities. Those priorities may or may not include libraries.

Does this librarian protest too much? I have not protested enough.

It has to do with student achievement, it has to do with technology, and it has to do with equity.

And the abandonment of school libraries is a national problem.

"Nearly 30 years ago, as student populations in the New York City public schools began to turn from ethnic white to black and brown, the city started to dismantle its school libraries," Jonathan Kozol wrote in an article in the May issue of School Library Journal adapted from his new book Ordinary Resurrection. Kozol described the library divide, decrying the embarrassing inequities as a "form of theft that is too often irreversible." He contended: "It is a conscious act of social demarcation: a shameful way of building barriers around a child's mind, of starving intellect, of amputating dreams."

Even our more affluent districts are ignoring the evidence. Upper Dublin School District, in Montgomery County, plans to open a new elementary school without a librarian. Next school year, one of the district librarians will be responsible for delivering a library program to three schools.

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D., R.I.) has introduced a bill to provide $275 million in first aid to school libraries. "At the local level, administrators are dealing with the daily demand of fixing roofs," Reed said. "It's easy to say: 'Next year, we'll buy books.' But next year never comes." The bill would provide the $275 million to update collections, increase technology, provide professional development, and foster increased collaboration among school librarians and teachers. "We did this back in 1965 with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act," Reed said. "In 1981, this program was thrown into a big block grant, and support to school libraries evaporated." After decades of such neglect, collections are critically out of date. Reed also said: "If you check many of the shelves in Philadelphia school libraries, you'll see that many still have those ESEA stickers." To make his point, he is collecting examples from school libraries all over the country of such books: books with "history that is wrong, books with negative stereotypes, and science that is passe." With expansion of technology, Reed noted that funding for libraries is even more important. The Internet is not enough. "There has to be someone to show children how to navigate, how to find the truly meaningful material that is out there," the senator said.

I urge parents and administrators to read the Lance report focusing on Pennsylvania, and consider their school's commitment to strong library programs. I urge schools to consider libraries as more than an opportunity to schedule teachers' prep; to allow librarians to function as professionals by providing support staff; and to schedule classes around students' needs rather than teacher planning time. I urge my colleagues to use the evidence in the Pennsylvania study to assume their roles as information professionals. All children deserve strong school libraries.

On School Libraries' Importance:

"Measuring Up to Standards: The Impact of School Library Programs & Information Literacy in Pennsylvania Schools" http://www.lrs.org/

"Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning" http://www.ala.org/aasl/ip_toc.html

"An Unequal Education," Jonathan Kozol SLJ, May 2000 "Dick and Jane Go to the Head of the Class," Christine Hamilton-Pennell, Keith Curry Lance, Marcia J. Rodney, and Eugene Hainer SLJ April 1, 2000 http://www.slj.com/articles/articles/20000401_7475.asp

"A Brave New World of Padlocked Libraries http://fno.org/feb99/padlocked.html

"New Library in the Wired School" http://fno.org/jan2000/newlibrary.html

"Study Shows Rise in Test Scores Linked to School Library Resources" http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=28libe.h19&keywords=school%20libraries

Era of Neglect in Evidence at Libraries" http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=14libe.h19

"Schools Cut Student Use of Libraries" http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4780927/11296383.html

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