teacher- library media specialist collaboration why it matters now

Teacher- Library Media Specialist Collaboration Why it Matters Now 1

Teacher- Library Media Specialist Collaboration

Why it Matters Now

By Adrien Stallings

Georgia Southern University


Introduction: By now we have all heard of 21st Century Skills, and we should know what they are since it is the 21st

century, but who created this list of skills and how can we as educators incorporate these skills into our

classrooms?

In the spring of 2006 four organizations came together to publish a report evaluating the basic and

applied skill level of the nation's high school, technical college, and four year university graduates to

determine if in fact they were really ready to join the workforce. These organizations, The Conference

Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for

Human Resource Management, conducted interviews and an in depth survey of various industries

listing, ranking, and categorizing the skills they felt were the most important for success in today's

workforce. The results of the study published "Are They Really Ready To Work?" and the nation's

"Workforce Readiness Report Card" were created, not to criticize the educational system but rather to

begin a dialog within America about what was necessary to close the gaps in the ever-growing global

marketplace.

The Report Card:

Basic knowledge skills were defined as fundamentals learned in school, while applied skills required new

entrants to the workforce to build on, manipulate, or adapt those basic skills. After identifying and

ranking 21st Century Skills, each of the groups (HS, 2 year, and 4 year college graduates) were then

scored as deficient, adequate, or having achieved excellence in the performance area.

The good: High school graduates received their highest scores or an adequate rating in the skills of

information technology application, diversity, and finally teamwork & collaboration. The bad: They

showed extreme deficits in basic areas such as writing in English, reading comprehension, and

Mathematics. The Ugly: With such poor evaluations in basic knowledge skills the number of deficiencies


in the applied skills were even greater. 44% of respondents rated recent high school graduates as

lacking in ethics/ social responsibility while an astounding 58-81% found them to also be inadequate in

oral & written communication, professionalism/ work ethic, and critical thinking/ problem solving skills.

They have graduated, so why do we care?

Remediation costs money. After all, when 73% of the CEOs surveyed stated that it is

difficult to find qualified workers in the United States, we had better be willing to make

some changes not only to keep jobs in this country, but to compete in the world economy.

With the gradual retirement of the Baby Boom Generation, skilled workers are needed to fill

the vacancies created and with many employers focusing on the bottom line they may

choose to fill those vacancies with skilled, foreign-born workers because the cost of an

employment VISA may be less than the cost of remedial training courses. History taught us

that when large numbers of illiterate and unemployed citizens exist in a society they will

eventually unite to bring about change and that process is often through the form of a

violent upheaval.

Secondly, Darwin's Theory of Evolution (and its various adaptations) serves to show us

only the strong survive. With an estimated 50% of high school classes being online by 2019

(Jones & Green, 2012) educators need to show that we are able to adapt to the changing

times and that we play a vital role in nurturing and modeling behaviors and 21st Century

Skills for students.

Finally, it is how we are all evaluated; businesses, American society, and of course

educators under the new guidelines. The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) used a

measure known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) to evaluate schools and student

performance. In February of 2012, Georgia and nine other states were granted a waiver


exempting them from the use of NCLB and AYP as an evaluation measure and replacing it

with the new College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI). This new measure was

created to evaluate the readiness of high school students to enter the workforce or college

upon graduation and to communicate with educational stakeholders about student

performance in a more comprehensive fashion, evaluating individual schools and districts on

a scale of 0-100. However, CCRPI is a collective form of evaluation for schools and districts,

what about educators as individuals? It is important to understand the new measures

created for evaluating the role of educators in College and Career Readiness. With the

passage of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,

approximately $4 billion was set aside in grant monies challenging states to “Race to the

Top” (RT3) (U.S. Department of Education, 2013). According to the U.S. Department of

Education, there were four components that grant winning states needed to address but of

these, developing standards and assessments for college and career readiness and

developing data systems to measure student growth and improve instruction were

paramount. As a recipient of RT3 funds, Georgia adopted the new Common Core Standards

for Mathematics and English-Language Arts, and while the state has not fully committed to

using the new open-ended Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers

(PARCC Tests) to measure student growth when they roll out for the 2014-2015 school year,

they are using data from the standardized tests already in place to gauge growth. The data

ascertained from student growth is much like the College and Career Readiness Report Card,

it is used to communicate and contend with the strengths and weaknesses of instruction

thereby addressing the final two components of RT3; to recruit, develop, reward, and retain

effective teachers, and to turn around low achieving schools (U.S. Department of Education,

2013).


With all of that said, Georgia developed the Teacher and Leader Keys Evaluation System (TKEYS

and LKEYS). This system was piloted in the Spring of 2012 by few school boards and will be the

measure used by all systems and charter schools in the state beginning in the 2014-2015 school

year. One of the components of Teacher Keys examines Teacher Assessment on Performance

Standards (TAPS) and no matter which element of TAPS you reference using the guide in the

appendix, they all call for teachers to integrate 21st Century Skills in the classroom (Georgia

Department of Education, 2013). Item eight, Academically Challenging Learning Environment,

asks teachers to encourage exploration and creativity amongst students; item six, Assessment

Uses, calls for teachers to gather and use student data to measure progress and address content

delivery methods.

How do we get students to be College and Career Ready?

While all of these new assessment and evaluation measures can be daunting an important ally for all

stakeholders can be found in your school Library Media Specialist (LMS). According to Menefee “the

school library media center has one purpose: to support the curriculum of the school.” Through

increased collaboration between LMS and teachers, new technology integration, inquiry based learning,

and data analysis come together to increase student achievement and improve instruction thus

addressing Common Core State Standards and CCRI (Moreillon, 2013).

Collaboration Defined: In short, collaboration is about working with others; ironically

enough the 21st Century Skill of Teamwork. Montiel-Overall and Hernandez in their 2012

study identified four types or levels of collaboration between the teacher and LMS:

coordination (scheduling), cooperation (providing assistance when asked), integrated

instruction (jointly planned and implemented instruction), and integrated curriculum

(curriculum planning and assessment of students) with the latter two being the highest


levels of collaboration. When true collaboration occurs everyone benefits; teachers gain a

partner to address student deficits, the LMS has an opportunity to practice instructional

design and lighten the teacher's load, administration sees the media center resources being

used to address student needs and improve measurable skills, and students improve their

skills and test scores through resource based projects and embedded multiple literacy skills

(Buzzero, 2008). The American Association of School Librarians published Empowering

Learners, Guidelines for School Library Media Programs and Standards for the 21st Century

Learner in Action in 2009 defining several roles for the LMS. These professional guidebooks

encourage the LMS to serve as a leader in the school community, an instructional partner,

information specialist, teacher, and program administrator in building 21st Century Skills.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Collaboration: Any time individuals are asked to work

together on something time and attitudes tend to be major obstacles for them to overcome,

planning when and where to meet, coordinating resources, etc. In a 2010 case study,

Bhargava noted that teachers were initially unhappy about what they perceived to be extra

work created through scheduled collaborative planning with the LMS. With a growing

emphasis placed on high stakes test scores many teachers feel as if they do not have the

time to collaborate and integrate projects into the curriculum because they are focused on

covering their content (Toor & Weisburg, 2007). With experience however, the teachers in

Bhargava’s study reported collaborative strengths to include optimum use of library staff

and resources, incorporation of information literacy skills, and building both team and

leadership qualities among participants. During interviews conducted of 3rd grade teachers

as part of a larger ethnography in 2010 Kimmel found that teachers valued the LMS more

after they spent a year in collaboration together.


Creating Collaboration

Start Small: A library that is well stocked with a certified LMS has been shown to result in

improvement on student achievement but hanging this statement on a poster in the

workroom is not going to be enough to create or even increase collaboration at your school

(Meneff, 2009). The first step is to start small. From the perspective of the LMS, first

identify a small group of teachers willing to work with you (Cooper & Bray, 2011; Toor &

Weisburg, 2007). Plan and implement lesson plans within this small group and then share

those experiences in department, grade-level, or leadership meetings to encourage others

to join in the collaboration. With the incorporation of new media and technology into

schools, the LMS has to learn how to use these tools and help teachers use them effectively

in the classroom. To do this, the LMS needs to be aware of the needs of the faculty,

standards, and willing to teach new literacy (digital, technological, etc.) skills in problem

solving (Cooper & Bray, 2011; Scholastic, 2008).

Professional Development: Because we all come from different experiences, it is important

for all members of the group to attend upwards of 15 hours of professional development

training in collaboration in order to increase student achievement (Yoon et al., 2007). In

examining over 1,300 studies there was no correlation as to the frequency and duration of

professional development in improving student achievement, only that any amount of time

over 14 hours showed significant improvement and that 49 hours of professional

development brought a 21% improvement rate of student achievement (Yoon et al., 2007).

Data Driven Collaboration: In order to address the gaps in student achievement identified

through the CCRPI we have to analyze the data to target strengths and weaknesses. Morin

(2008) offers several suggestions to LMS intended to increase their perceived value when it


comes to planning and collaboration. First, examine the curriculum and its elements, and

then align the media center collection with the curriculum. Follett, a textbook and media

collection provider, has software available to analyze the existing media center collection

and suggests books based on gaps in collection and curriculum alignment. Additional

opportunities to collaborate will come by attending grade level or vertical planning meetings

and offering in-service training. By working with classroom teachers, the LMS can infuse

content instruction with information literacy skills; thereby empowering students with

valuable 21st Century Skills.

For the Future

Librarians and teachers must collaborate to help students move from a basic level of information

retrieving to deeper levels of understanding and knowledge based outcomes. In order for the nation’s

economy to grow and continue to compete in the global marketplace educators must incorporate 21st

Century Skills into their classrooms. District wide collaboration can help create consistent library and

instructional goals (Scott & Plouride, 2007). Moreover, collaboration must be taught through extensive

professional development if new measures of teacher effectiveness are to be used. Communication and

building relationships with the business world will allow educators to create realistic projects developing

student skills and all stakeholders to play an active role in transforming our educational system.

More scholarly, data-driven research is needed to explore the relationship between LMS-Teacher

collaboration and student achievement. Additionally in reviewing the literature that has been published

thus far it is extremely biased towards elementary level teachers. Elementary and middle school

teachers are often already working in collaborative teams to teach a group of students and those teams

often have planning together. Secondary teachers are often inherently alone in planning because of

scheduling. Secondary teachers also lack opportunities to collaborate due to the large number of


teachers in a subject or content area, non-sequential course structure, and the various rigor levels of

each subject.


References

American Association of School Librarians. (2009). Empowering learners, guidelines for school library

media programs. Chicago:

American Library Association. (2009). Standards for the 21st-century learner in action. Chicago

Bhargava, M., International Association of School Librarianship, (., & School Library Association of

Queensland Inc., (. (2010). Teachers-Librarian Collaboration in Building the Curriculum for an IB

World School: A Case Study. International Association Of School Librarianship,

Buzzeo, T. (2008). Make the Move from Collaboration to Data-Driven Collaboration. Library Media

Connection, 27(3), 28-31.

Casner-Lotto, J., Barrington, L., & Partnership for 21st Century, S. (2006). Are They Really Ready to

Work? Employers' Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to

the 21st Century U.S. Workforce. Partnership For 21St Century Skills,

Cooper, O. P., & Bray, M. (2011). School Library Media Specialist-Teacher Collaboration: Characteristics,

Challenges, Opportunities. Techtrends: Linking Research And Practice To Improve Learning,

55(4), 48-55.

Eisenberg, M. (Performer) (2010, September 01). What is information literacy?. ABC-CLIOLive: Mike

Eisenberg Information Literacy Series. [Video podcast]. Retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9UXEDNP1lc


Georgia Department of Education, Office of Curriculum Instruction and Assessment (2013, January).

College and Career Readiness Performance Indicators. Retrieved from

http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/Curriculum-Instruction-and-

Assessment/Accountability/Documents/CCRPI%20Indicators%20-%20FINAL%2001.31.13.pdf

Georgia Department of Education, Office of Curriculum Instruction and Assessment (2013, May). College

and Career Readiness Performance Indicators Overview. Retrieved from

http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/Curriculum-Instruction-and-

Assessment/Accountability/Documents/CCRPI_onepager_Overview.pdf

Georgia Department of Education, Office of School Improvement (2013, January & May). Teacher and

Leader Effectiveness. Retrieved from http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/School-

Improvement/Teacher-and-Leader-Effectiveness/Pages/default.aspx and

http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/School-Improvement/Teacher-and-Leader-

Effectiveness/Pages/Teach er-Keys-Effectiveness-System.aspx

Jones, S. A., & Green, L. (2012). Transforming Collaboration. Teacher Librarian, 40(2), 26-31.

Kimmel, S. (2012). Seeing the Clouds: Teacher Librarian as Broker in Collaborative Planning with

Teachers. School Libraries Worldwide, 18(1), 87-96.

Menefee, M. (2009). The Changing Library. American School Board Journal, 196(8), 32-35.

http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Accountability/Documents/CCRPI%20Indicators%20-%20FINAL%2001.31.13.pdf




http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Accountability/Documents/CCRPI_onepager_Overview.pdf





Montiel-Overall, P., & Hernandez, A. R. (2012). The Effect of Professional Development on Teacher and

Librarian Collaboration: Preliminary Findings Using a Revised Instrument, TLC-III. School Library

Research, 15

Moolenaar, N. M. (2012). A Social Network Perspective on Teacher Collaboration in Schools: Theory,

Methodology, and Applications. American Journal Of Education, 119(1), 7-39.

Moreillon, J. (2013). A Matrix for School Librarians: Aligning Standards, Inquiry, Reading, and Instruction.

School Library Monthly, 29(4), 29-32.

Morin, M. J. (2008, April). Moving towards Collaboration--One Step at a Time. School Library Media

Activities Monthly. pp. 18-19.

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. Retrieved from

http://www.parcconline.org/

Scholastic, School Libraries Work. 3rd ed, New York: Scholastic Library Publishing, 2008. Retrieved from

http://www.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/s/slw3_2008.pdf

Scott, K. J., & Plourde, L. A. (2007). SCHOOL LIBRARIES AND INCREASED STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT:

WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?.Education, 127(3), 419-429.

Todd, R. (2008). Collaboration: From Myth to Reality: Let's Get Down to Business. Just Do It!. School

Library Media Activities Monthly, 24(7), 54-58.






Toor, R., & Weisburg, H. K. (2007). New on the job: A school library media specialist's guide to success.

Chicago: American Library Association.

U.S. Department of Education, Race to the Top Fund. (2013, June). Retrieved from

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html

Yoon, K., Duncan, T., Lee, S., Scarloss, B., & Shapley, K. L. (2007). Reviewing the Evidence on How

Teacher Professional Development Affects Student Achievement. Issues & Answers. REL 2007-

No. 033.Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest.




Appendix


Source: Casner-Lotto, J., Barrington, L., & Partnership for 21st Century, S. (2006). Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers' Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce. Partnership For 21St Century Skills,