No School Left Behind

 

A Campaign to Save Arizona's School Libraries

Committee Members:
Adela A. Allen, Ph.D., Anne Lee, Teri Moschetti, Judi Moreillon, Ph.D.,
Sheila Pattison, Barbara Peterson, Ph.D., Joan Reichel, and Diane Skorupski



The Campaign to Save Arizona's School Libraries Committee and the Teacher-Librarian Division of the Arizona Library Association offered an advocacy event to meet the goals and objectives listed below. The Virtual Tour was held on:

Tuesday, 9 March 2004
from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.
(continous showings)
in the State Library's Conference Room (#200)

on the Second Floor of the Old Capitol Building
1700 West Washington,
Phoenix

The tour spotlighted the exciting collaborations between students, classroom teachers, and teacher-librarians, which are occurring in today's professionally-staffed Arizona school libraries. Using Tucson-area and Douglas, Arizona school libraries as examples, the tour also showed the vast inequities in facilities, funding, and professional staffing in libraries.

Professional teacher-librarians, who answered decision-makers' questions and spoke from personal experience about their work with students, teachers, and school communities, guided the Virtual Tour. Other concerned educators and a school board member were also on hand to share their concerns for students' access to literacy resources and library programs. Student-work displays showing standards-based classroom-library collaborations were featured.

The Children's Caucus, a bi-partisan group of Arizona legislators,
invited the Committee to share this information at their meeting on:
Tuesday, 13 April 2004
at 4:00
p.m.
2nd Floor Conference Room - Capitol Tower
1700 West Washington,
Phoenix

For more information, email Judi Moreillon at: storypower@theriver.com

Judi Moreillon, Ph.D.
Chair, Campaign to Save Arizona's School Libraries Committee


The No School Left Behind @your library® Virtual Tour spotlights the unconscionable inequities in students' and teachers' access to literature and information both in the Tucson area, as an example of the urban situation, and in Douglas, as an example of the rural situation. Our goal is to educate decision-makers and encourage them to begin to address these inequities. In 2002 and 2003, the Teacher-Librarian Division of the Arizona Library Association supported House bills to require full time professional teacher-librarians in every K-12 school in Arizona. We are putting our efforts toward educating decision-makers in '04 and hope to return with a bill in the '05 legislative session.

There are many reasons why students, teachers, and families need the support of school libraries. Many children, parents, and caregivers do not utilize the resources of the public library for many different reasons. School libraries are more convenient for many working families and less intimidating for some.

There are sound instructional reasons for supporting fully-staffed, fully-funded school libraries. Research shows that in schools where teacher-librarians collaborate with classroom teachers to integrate literature and information literacy into the curriculum, students' test scores improve, particularly in reading (lrs.org).

Research and test scores aside, it simply makes good sense. The more children read, the better they read. The more children enjoy reading, the more they enjoy learning. Every child deserves to have access to books that can invite him or her into the literacy club. Every classroom teacher deserves to have support for teaching. Every parent deserves access to books to support family literacy.

For these reasons and more, school libraries are critical to education.


Goals:
To consider the contributions school libraries and librarians make to student achievement and how library programs can help raise Arizona’s K-12 educational achievement to move our state out of the bottom third in the nation

To understand the importance of addressing equity for all of Arizona’s students in order to raise the student success rate on the AIMS test

To compare and contrast library resources – human and material – in urban and rural schools/districts

To prepare for the '04 and '05 legislative sessions - bills affecting school libraries: full time teacher-librarians in every K-12 public school in Arizona, teacher-librarians counted by the Auditor General's office as "instructional" rather than "instructional support" or "administrative," full funding for education, including library materials budgets

Objectives:
The decision-makers who participate in this learning event will understand the role of teacher-librarians in student achievement and in the professional development of classroom teachers.
The decision-makers will have access to first-hand information and reports from actual stakeholders in the proposed legislation and will have the opportunity to ask questions.
The decision-makers will view media and research reports that reinforce the importance to school libraries as basic infrastructure necessities for student achievement.
The decision-makers will support the above bills through various means including but not limited to media reports, testimonies at legislative committees and other hearings, memoranda to the Governor and other elected officials and colleagues.

Virutal Itinerary:
1. Photo highlights of collaborations occurring in today's professionally staffed, fully-funded school libraries

2. Facilities and staffing comparisons at Ventana Vista Elementary (Catalina Foothills School District), Sabino High School/Collier Elementary/Kellond Elementary (Tucson Unified School District), Mequite Elementary (Vail School District), and Faras, Joe Carlson, and Stevenson Elementary Schools (Douglas Unified School District), Wakefield Middle School (TUSD), Huber and Borane Middle Schools, and Douglas High School (Douglas Unified)

3. Summary of the research on the role of school library programs in student achievement, particularly in reading

4. Testimonials, questions, and answers

5. Refreshments


Resources:
1. Brochure for Legislators (pdf file)
2. ALA Resolution for School Libraries and Librarians
3. Keith Curry Lance (Library Research Services) research on full time professional teacher-librarians who collaborate and student achievement
4. Excerpts from the New Mexico Study on School Libraries
5. Stephen Krashen - research on reading achievement
6. White House Conference on School Libraries - Proceedings - June '02
7. Displays, photo albums, and technology-rich examples of library-classroom collaborative learning experiences
8. Statistics on average age of 600s (Science Collection) in Arizona public schools statewide
9. Statistics on per student expenditure on school library materials by district statewide


Advocacy and Recruitment for Our Profession
Advocacy and Recruitment Support
for Teacher-Librarians

Page Updated: 15 August 2007
Contact Judi Moreillon: storypower@theriver.com