Feature

School Library Monthly/Volume XXVII, Number 1/September-October 2010

The End of an Era…Falling Off a Cliff

by Allison Zmuda

We are at "the end of an era." It is as if we are falling off a cliff, wondering if the parachute will open. Budget times are tight, school library programs are "on the chopping block," school librarians are nervous for their future. It is a beautiful thing. Fantastic, even—because there is no choice for school librarians but to adapt to the challenge. This is not a technical problem. It is not possible to dig deep into memory banks and retrieve an answer. This is an adaptive problem—one that requires true innovation.

The need to stop traditional practice has never been more vital. School librarians have hit "free fall" before the general teaching staff has—and that is a powerful advantage. School librarians know students are being underprepared to do high-level cognitive skills. It is known that employers are dubious about whether students are equipped with the "basics." School librarians are on the cutting edge.

Classroom teachers, on the other hand, are buffered from scrutiny about whether they are "getting it done" and how to improve their collective practice. Students are bored by the tedious nature of rote memorization and test prep. There is a new set of skills that has emerged as the "new basics."

What Is the Purpose of a School Library?

The purpose of the school library is to cause student learning. Exactly what kind of student learning are school librarians in business to cause? School librarians have the competitive advantage over colleagues that are saddled with discrete litanies of content knowledge and instructional objectives. School librarians can be instrumental in the kind of "new learning" that is championed by organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, Conference Board, Corporate for Working Families, and the Society of Human Resource Management:

• Critical thinking/Problem solving
• Information Technology Application
• Teamwork/Collaboration
• Creativity/Innovation
• Diversity

The American Association of School Librarians published its own standards in 2007 mirroring such skills and capacities:

• Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge.
• Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.
• Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society.
• Pursue personal and aesthetic growth (AASL 2007).

School librarians must capitalize on clarity in student learning by continuing to ask themselves, "Where does my authority come from?" They must internalize that "True authority does not come from the superintendent, principal, or even the teachers worked with every day; it comes from a very large achievement gap… The chasm between the academic expectations for learners and the current achievement levels of students within the schools" (Zmuda 2006, 19).

So what do the 21st-century skills actually mean? This is not just another layer on top of what we are already doing. It is fundamentally different from what we are doing. The key is to create viable definitions of what is being looked for and then design the tasks that would measure that as it relates to the eleven 21st-century skills (see Figure 1).

In the fall of 2009, I met with leaders in Virginia Beach Public Schools who were determined to describe the continuum from "NOVICE" through "ADVANCED" for these skills. Virginia Beach serves 68,000 students, so this was a massive undertaking in both strategic planning and curricular implications. If we intended to "measure what matters," we had to give staff a clear picture on how the learning becomes increasingly sophisticated over time. First, we defined each of the eleven 21st-century skills. For example, skill number four in the list, Information Literacy, is defined as "use digital technology (networks, databases, and print materials) in an ethical manner to identify relevant sources, evaluate validity, synthesize, analyze, and interpret information." Then we developed a range of score points from Novice to Advanced for this skill:

• Novice
  Explore simple questions through the completion of a given procedure that requires location and collection of information by navigation of digital sources and/or text features in order to share information with others.
• Emerging
  Generate questions, locate and evaluate digital and other sources that provide needed information, analyze information to verify accuracy and relevance, categorize information using a given organizational structure, and report findings.
• Proficient
  Use an inquiry-based process that requires the development of questions, identification and evaluation of a range of digital and other sources, analysis of information and point of view, identification of significant information and any conflicting evidence, categorization of relevant information using a self-selected organizational structure, and production and presentation of a verifiable synthesis of research findings that lays the groundwork for conclusion(s) drawn.
• Advanced
  Use an inquiry-based process that requires the generation and refinement of specific questions to focus the purpose of the research, evaluation of digital and other sources from a variety of social or cultural contexts based on accuracy, authority, and point of view; resolution of conflicting evidence or clarification of reasons for differing interpretations of information and ideas; organization of information based on the relationships among ideas and general patterns discovered; and combination of information and inferences to draw conclusions and create meaning for a given audience, purpose, and task.

IF we can define the words and IF we can create the continuum, THEN collective assessment and instructional practice will improve. This is the missing link of improvement plans and professional learning communities. In good conscience, we cannot be angry when teachers don't understand what we are aiming for; they are working at the best of their ability. We must explicitly define what student success is and how we will know that students get there.

Get Inspired

So, now get inspired. What are the tasks that experts within and across the disciplines do? What are the tasks that might measure and motivate performance? One example from a school library is that when children return a book, they are asked to do a "kid-review" via podcast or flip camera. Another example from a school library is the librarian trains students in primary grades how to build a book collection, and then in 3rd and 4th grade it is their turn: they own the shelf space above the books. Fifth graders have the opportunity to vote on "the best collection of the month." Another interesting example for middle and high school students is to develop a repository of annotated bibliographies—Web-based, multi-media, and print—on whatever students find fascinating.

To change this reality, school librarians have to work in the center of their locus of control. To do so, it is important to internalize these questions and the answers:
Question: What is the purpose of school library?
Answer: To cause student learning.
Question: What student learning are we in business to cause?
Answer: Learning built around 21st-century skills.
Question: How do we know if we are successful?
Answer: Define the continuum.

What Do We Do If We Aren’t Successful?

This is where the real work begins—because when we are clear on what we want, we have to do better. IF we define the words and IF we can create the continuum, THEN collective assessment and instructional practice will improve. It won’t be easy.

Ultimately it is about providing students with the opportunity to explore their curiosities, develop their ideas, and communicate with one another. "A learning environment has to be engineered to involve students more actively in the tasks" (Black et al. 1998). Yet, school limits student potential, their possibilities. Students in increasingly lower grades and educators at increasingly earlier points in their careers lose their joy for their work. They become jaded by the limitations on their imaginations, frustrated by the questions they are not allowed to pursue, and depressed by the more experienced peers around them who seem uninterested in their ideas. Somewhere along the way, we—educators, parents, and students alike—decided that schooling was supposed to feel this way, that the drudgery of school was necessary in order for learning to happen. We are all culpable for perpetuating this reality.

Statistics from 81,000 students "self reporting" in regards to boredom in high school in 2007 and 2008 show that 67% are bored at least every day in class, while only 2% report never being bored. (Yazzie-Mintz 2009). It is no wonder that they are estranged from their natural capacity to learn. Students soon become more comfortable responding to questions with straightforward answers, solving problems that require a predictable solution path, producing writing according to a given template, and conducting research by collecting facts on teacher-determined topics. Intrinsic motivation, joy, and purpose are replaced by apathy, fixation on grades, and commitment to "do what it takes" to make teachers and parents happy. Students become compliant, dutiful learners. Many students come to believe that school is a tedious enterprise to be endured, and they live for those moments when the parameters are removed and they are once again their own masters.

We must face the "brutal facts" of our current reality. We must depersonalize the work to see the extent to which we are in our own way. We must keep in mind the goals for student learning we have in the library. Is there another way through it? Around it? Over it? The job of the school librarian is always to close the gap between vision and reality. What if we actually had learners in our physical and virtual classrooms? Given our standards and our mission, what would we have them do?

Believe and Make History

Given enough evidence, students can adopt a more optimistic, empowered, dynamic view of learning. If students believe that they will figure it out, they persevere. If students believe that they are getting stronger, they find even more strength to keep going. If students believe that an idea is worth pursuing, they persevere, regardless of what others say. If students believe that they have a powerful story to tell, they craft it and share it with whoever will listen. If they believe failure is an opportunity, they look at it unflinchingly so that they can learn from it. If students believe that they can solve problems that have stymied the generations before them, they study the past but aren't beholden to it. In a 21st-century learning organization, we trust our students as partners in learning, because the quality of their thinking determines the quality of their education.

It is time for us to go make history. We must be visionary, create a plan, and take no prisoners. The kids are counting on us.

References:

American Association of School Librarians. Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. American Library Association, 2007. http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/standards (accessed July 29, 2010).

Black, Paul, and Dylan William. Inside the Black Box. Granda Learning,1998.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). "Framework for 21st Century Learning." http://www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=120 (accessed July 2, 2010).

Yazzie-Mintz, E. "Engaging the Voices of Students: A Report on the 2007 & 2008 High School Survey of Student Engagement." National Association for College Admission Counseling, 2009. http://ceep.indiana.edu/hssse/pdf/HSSSE_2009_Report.pdf (accessed July 6, 2010).

Zmuda, Allison. "Where Does Your Authority Come From? Empowering the Library Media Specialist as a True Partner in Student Achievement." School Library Media Activities Monthly 23, no. 1 (September 2006): 19-22.

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