Thank you, Sharon. I think you have beautifully articulated concerns with
the new AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. I find myself not
wanting to share the these new standards with administrators and teachers
because they do not compellingly and clearly support the role of the library
media specialist as it has evolved in my district. I didn't really know why
I was uncomfortable, since I do hold dear the principled but vague picture
of idealized learning described and illustrated in the new report. Now I
realize that there is a disturbing disconnect between the role I have in my
building to support student achievement, which is valued, and the role
described in the report, which is both more and less than what I am now
doing. This thoughtful analysis is providing me with a lot of good food for
thought....
Susan Polos
LMS
Mt. Kisco Elementary School
47 W. Hyatt Avenue
Mt. Kisco, NY 10549
spolos@optonline.net
spolos0882@bcsdny.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Grimes, Sharon L." <sgrimes@BCPS.ORG>
To: <LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 3:00 PM
Subject: Reflection on AASL's new standards
It's been a little over two months since I returned from Reno and the
unveiling of AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. In that time
I've mulled over the implications of the new standards; compared them to the
mandates of NCLB; tried to align them with NETS-S and the national
curriculum standards for science, reading, math and social studies; and
struggled to translate them into the behavioral objectives required by our
school system...but still I do not feel that sense of empowerment and
excitement I felt when I first read Information Power: Building Partnerships
for Learning. Instead, I have come to wonder: "Are the new standards a step
forward to a more holistic and comprehensive view of learners, or a misstep
that will serve to marginalize our profession?"
I did not begin with these misgivings; instead, I initially felt the faint
stirrings of excitement when I first read the "Common Beliefs." For me,
the nine belief statements that preface the standards encapsulate the ideals
that both guide and inspire our profession: reading is a window to the
world; inquiry does provide a framework for learning; and school libraries
are essential to the development of learning skills. But doubt crept in
when I noticed what is missing from the belief statements and what is not
translated into action in the standards. My misgivings solidified as I
considered how to teach the skills, dispositions, responsibilities and
self-assessment strategies. And I was moved to write, when I realized the
implications not only for teaching, learning and collaboration, but also for
how school libraries and by extension school librarians will be perceived.
As AASL President Sara Kelly Johns notes in another context, "In a time of
budget cuts and confusion about the role of library media specialists," now
is most emphatically not the time to fail to embed in national standards for
students' learning the critical importance of equitable access and school
libraries; nor is it the time to fail to reaffirm the vital role of library
media specialists. Unfortunately, only the belief statements state the
critical role of school libraries and library media specialists to student
achievement and belief statements are not standards. Standards drive
instruction and assessment, not belief statements.
Another problem is that not all of the belief statements have been
translated into teachable and assessable standards and indicators. Common
Belief # 2 states: "Inquiry provides a framework for learning. To become
independent learners, students must gain not only the skills but also the
disposition to use those skills, along with an understanding of their own
responsibilities and self-assessment strategies." "The disposition to use
those skills" is difficult and I would argue in some cases impossible to
either teach or assess. For example, Standard 1.2.6 states, "Display
emotional resilience by persisting in information searching despite
challenges." How do you teach/assess emotional resilience, especially at
the middle and high school levels when library media specialists see
students sporadically and to complete a specific task?
Unfortunately, the problems with the Dispositions in Action do not end with
the twinned problems of assess-ability and teach-ability. Other problems
with Dispositions in Action include that it:
· Prescribes the teaching of character traits
· Usurps the role of parents
· Not only usurps the role of parents, but also may directly
contradict the cultural values and mores of many of our minority students;
for example, Indicator 1.2.4 states, "Maintain a critical stance by
questioning the validity and accuracy of all information," which is most
distinctly a white American value
· Can not easily or effectively be taught, measured and assessed
although certainly any teacher worth his/her salt already discusses and
illustrates the value of persistence, curiosity and teamwork to name but a
few of the dispositions; the difference is that the second occurs naturally,
in situ
· Teaches dispositions that are not specific to success in
information literacy
While possession of the dispositions is certainly desirable, our role is not
to mold character, but rather to educate minds to employ the higher-order
critical and creative thinking skills that are not only critical to our
students' successes, but also to maintaining the stability of our democratic
society.
In addition to teaching students how to use higher-order critical and
creative thinking skills, we must also prepare our students to use the
information literacy skills that are so critical to their success in the
21st-Century; to do that we need a clear definition that provides guidelines
for instruction. Instead, Common Belief #6 states: "The definition of
information literacy has become more complex as resources and technologies
have changed." Neither the belief statement nor the standards answer the
question, "What is the more complex definition?" Based on the promise
implicit in the title, Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, I expected a
definition that encompassed the 21st-Century Literacies most would agree are
"crucial skills for this century," but found that the only literacies
mentioned are visual, textual, digital, and technological - all of which are
of course essential - but so too are mathematical, scientific, cultural, and
economic literacies (to include but a few of the critical knowledge bases
our students will need to succeed).
Even if you argued - and I of course would not - that mathematical,
scientific, cultural and economic literacies are not the domain of the
library media specialist, where is media literacy, not only an area
traditionally taught by library media specialists, but an ever more
increasingly important medium for delivering information? Or is media
literacy subsumed into digital literacy? If that is the case, then, we have
several problems. The most widely cited definition of digital literacy is
that provided by Microsoft, yet their definition encompasses only
entry-level technology skills. I assume we mean much more than the ability
to use word processing software. Should we then create a glossary that
defines what librarians mean by digital literacy, or should we seek to use a
common vocabulary with our colleagues in other disciplines?
Let us - just for the sake of argument - dismiss the concerns raised in the
previous paragraphs as questions related to minor differences in semantics.
Let us further assume then that the belief statement does include the full
range of literacies our students will need to succeed. Even if we make
these two leaps of faith, we are still left with the same inconvertible
truths: standards, not belief statements, drive instruction and,
unfortunately, not all of the belief statements have been converted into
standards. Two of the most important - at least to ensure the future of
school libraries - do not appear at all: "Equitable access is a key
component for education" and "School libraries are essential to the
development of learning skills" which is more than unfortunate because as
Christopher Harris notes in School Library Journal, "School libraries are
becoming marginalized by state and federal regulations. The No Child Left
Behind Act, for example, does not recognize librarians as teachers.
Moreover, the '65 percent solution,' an education budget formula being
enacted by many states, also jeopardizes library funding. Add to this the
'Google effect,' which has schools questioning the relevancy of libraries in
an online world, and we are in real trouble" (June 2006).
Another factor that might serve to marginalize the importance of
our profession in the eyes of others is the move, clearly evident in
Standards 1 and 2, from problem-based to inquiry-based learning. The
implications and potential outcomes of this shift are many and varied:
* One important distinction between problem-based and inquiry-based learning
is that inquiry-based learning explores questions in much more depth for a
greater period of time, possibly an entire semester. Given the time
constraints imposed by the test-driven environment created by NCLB, are we
ignoring reality?
* Inquiry-based learning may or may not result in a product that can be
evaluated which has clear implications for assessment. In an era of
data-driven decision-making, the lack of clearly quantifiable data
marginalizes what we do in the eyes of administrators and other decision
makers.
* Many of the information seeking process models in wide-spread use, like
Big6, are problem, not inquiry-based. As a result, new models will need to
be created and/or existing models modified to include inquiry-based
learning. The question then is who will do this and when will the model(s)
be available?
* The distinction between inquiry and problem-based learning is not
clarified in the standards, nor is the level of inquiry-based learning
(clarification/verification; structured inquiry; guided inquiry; or open
inquiry) the standards hope to inspire.
* NETS -S is clearly problem-based so the alignment that existed with ISTE's
standards is now tenuous at best. NETS-S is also clearly aligned with the
requirements of NCLB and national curriculum standards. The alignment
between AASL's new standards and NCLB, national curriculum standards, and
NETS-S is only evident at the skill indicator level, not at the standard
level.
Why not a more realistic statement that it is not an either/or; both
inquiry-based and problem-based can form the basis of valid
information-seeking process models?
Another area of concern is that some of the Responsibilities like 2.3.1,
"Connect understanding to the real world," are skills that need to be
taught. The ability to transfer knowledge is not only a higher-level skill,
but also one that must be carefully considered and incorporated into the
design of the lesson(s). The same can be said of many of the
Self-assessment Strategies, like "Interpret new information based on
cultural and social context." (4.4.4) Perhaps, how and when students will
be taught the prerequisite skills prior to their assumption of these
Responsibilities and Self-assessment Strategies will be made clear in the
Scope and Sequence.
Finally, it wasn't until I read the indicators for Standard 4, "Pursue
personal and aesthetic growth," that I realized that concealed within this
standard were some of the skills necessary to the development of reading
comprehension and fluency. Like Standards 1 & 2 which could have been used
to build partnerships with technology and content area teachers, this
standard could have been used to build collaboration with reading teachers
and specialists. As I have argued in Reading Is Our Business (2006), for
too long library media specialists have abdicated our rightful position as
critical partners in the development of reading comprehension. As a result,
funds are being diverted from school libraries to purchase classroom
libraries, library media specialists are being replaced by instructional
assistants and when certified librarians are employed, they are not viewed
as instructional leaders or as full partners in the learning process.
While the consequences for our profession are dire, the repercussions for
our students are even grimmer. The correlation between poverty and low
reading achievement is well documented. Of people with the lowest literacy
skills, 43% live in poverty, and 70% of prison inmates read at the lowest
proficiency levels (U.S. Department of Education 2000). Equally well
researched is the link between passive readers and poor comprehension
skills. Passive readers are not engaged in meaningful ways with the text.
Disengaged readers will never choose to "Pursue personal and aesthetic
growth." Nor will they ever discover that "Reading is a window to the world"
because these less-than-engaged readers do not know how to utilize
comprehension strategies to increase either understanding or engagement.
Collaborative partnerships must be forged with reading teachers and
specialists if we hope to transform passive readers into actively engaged
members of a community of strategic readers and thinkers, yet only two
indicators, 4.1.1 and 4.1.2, allude to reading.
In conclusion, much must be done before the promise from the AASL website,
"'Standards for the 21st-Century Learner' offer vision for teaching and
learning to both guide and beckon our profession as education leaders. They
will both shape the library program and serve as a tool for library media
specialists to use to shape the learning of students in the school," is
fulfilled.
Sharon Grimes
Supervisor
Library Information Services
9611 Pulaski Pk. Dr., Suite 305
Baltimore, MD 21220
sgrimes@bcps.org
410-887-4035
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