Leveraging School Libraries to Support Student Learning: What Principals Need to Know

I have facilitated a school library awareness program for principals and other school administrators for the past seven years. As a result, I have finally come to believe that school administrators do need some background knowledge about the role of the school library in student learning and this knowledge doesn't happen by osmosis. I am not trying to diminish the idea that school librarians need to educate and work with school administrators to advocate and build support for the school library program. What I am suggesting is that a building principal is similar to a CEO. If the CEO does not understand what a division of his or her corporation does, why it exists, or how it contributes to the products or the bottom line of the corporation, that division will soon cease to exist, especially during times of financial stress.

We know from the research that the source of most school administrators' knowledge about school libraries comes from personal experience with librarians and the school libraries they used perhaps as a student or teacher (Church 2006, Hartzell 2002). Studies have also documented the lack of information school administrators receive during coursework to become principals or superintendents (Wilson and Lyders 2001). If these administrators, however, have some background knowledge and understanding of the role of the school library and librarian in student learning, would this make a difference to the library program?

Online Awareness Program

Since 2003, funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian grant program, has provided Mansfield University with a unique opportunity to offer an online training component for principals plus scholarships for library students. Scholarship candidates were ranked on several criteria including their ability to recruit a principal or school administrator to engage in a short, online school library awareness course. The Mansfield grant writing team decided that in addition to having a certified school librarian, the next most critical factor in determining the success of a school library program is a knowledgeable and committed principal. As Hartzell states, "The principal is an absolutely essential element in maximizing the return on library investment" (Hartzell 2002, 33).

Originally titled "Partners for Success: School Library Advocacy for Administrators," the course was renamed "Leveraging School Libraries to Improve Student Learning" in 2008. This title change was based on feedback from administrators who thought that this title more clearly defined the contents. The course consisted of four weekly modules with a final week to complete a school library assessment and action plan. The modules provided background information, readings, and an opportunity for online peer discussions on the following topics:

• The School Library and Academic Achievement (research, roles, mission)
• Information Literacy and Academic Standards
• The Library Collection and Flexible Access
• Revitalization and Evaluation of the Library Program

The culminating project required participants to assess their school library programs and develop action plans to improve their school libraries through professional development. Those participants who completed the course were awarded $500 to begin to implement their plan. Although the teacher or librarian who recruited the administrator did not take the course along with the administrator, some assisted with the action plan.

From 2003 to 2009, eight online classes were taught with eighty-two of the enrolled 150 school administrators (55%) completing the program. Participants represented many different types of schools: parochial, private, public, international, and charter—and all levels, kindergarten through grade twelve. Diversity in school communities was also varied from large impoverished inner cities to wealthy suburban and small, rural schools. Participants represented eighteen different states and three foreign countries. Although the primary participant was a principal or assistant principal, superintendents, curriculum directors, coordinators of technology, reading, and special education, and a few principal candidates enrolled in the program.

Kent School District Class

Mansfield University partnered with Antioch University Seattle (AUS) in an IMLS grant to develop a blended program of face-to-face classes and online courses to create a school library Certification program. Trough that collaboration, Greg Whiteman, Technology Integration Director, Kent School District (KSD), who also supervised the librarians, became involved and saw an opportunity for his principals to increase their knowledge on quality school library programs.

Trough Whiteman's visionary leadership, the KSD has achieved phenomenal success in the integration of technology including the implementation of the one-to-one laptop initiative and "The Future Is Now" Technology Expo, an annual expo of student technology-based projects ( http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/ksd/it/tech-4kent/site/tech_expo/tech_expo.html ). Bringing this same passion and vision to school libraries, Whiteman and I revised the course in the following ways:

• The modules were scheduled over the 2008-09 school year to work around the busiest times in an administrator's schedule.
• The content was updated to reflect updated AASL and Washington state standards and a new KSD teacher-librarian evaluation tool.
• A district initiative, Multi-Tiered Intervention (MTI), based on the "response to intervention" model for instruction, was added to discuss the role of the teacher-librarian.
• A face-to-face kick-of session in which I met with the participating principals and shared an overview of the program was designed to motivate and answer principals' questions.

The Results

Eighteen principals and assistant principals enrolled in the KSD "Leveraging" class with 67%, or twelve out of eighteen, completing the program. Administrators were asked to evaluate the module objectives based on whether they were cognizant of the objective prior to the class or not and also to rank their level of understanding of each After the module. Responses revealed that administrators were most familiar with traditional aspects of a school library program—the role of reading and libraries, the purpose of the library collection, and Staffing levels. Since the KSD had just developed an evaluation protocol aligned to the school librarian's job, principals understood the differing responsibilities of the school librarian, which was unique to this class.

However, all principals indicated that prior to the program they were not clear about:

• The roles of the school librarian according to national standards,
• What information literacy was or how it connected to classroom curriculum, and
• The research base about school libraries and academic achievement.

Based on pre- and post-rankings, Table 1 lists the objectives that showed the most strength in terms of content learned After the online program.

Although principals were evenly split on knowing "factors necessary to facilitate collaborative planning among teachers and librarians" prior to the program, the evaluation results suggest that they have difculty in making collaboration happen. In response to the question "If you could only accomplish one thing this coming school year to improve your school library, what would it be?" nine out of twelve completers from Kent responded that they wanted to improve collaboration. However, as one principal stated, "I'm stuck with how to convince my staff to let go of their predictable half hour a week to move to a flexible schedule." Another stated, "I now see the lack of vision/purpose of our current library. I see the need to intentionally schedule for collaboration."

All twelve principals rated the content of the "Leveraging" program either "extremely important" or "important." often they remarked that they intended to use the information, readings, and research presented in the program to persuade teachers to utilize the library more Effectively or to justify budgets and Staffing. A comment echoed by many was, "We need to help the classroom teaching staff change their philosophy of what the school librarian can be in our building. I would like to see a shift toward collaboration and toward a new thinking about the librarian's role as a teaching partner."

Module 1, which presents the research on school libraries and student achievement, along with explanations of the roles of the school librarian, was the highest rated module. One principal was able to stave of library Staffing and budget cuts a year later by utilizing what he had learned in the "Leveraging" class.

Changed Perceptions, Improved Communications, and Increased Awareness

For her doctoral dissertation, Deborah Levitov interviewed nine principals who had completed the "School Library Advocacy for Administrators" classes in the summer 2005 or fall 2006. She determined the following three central themes that were similar to those found with the Kent principals:

• Changed perceptions for the school librarian and the library program,
• Improved ability to communicate with the librarian and others about the library program, and
• Increased awareness of what the principal could do to support the library program (Levitov 2009, 119)

Ninety-two percent of all participating administrators, and 100% of the Kent administrators, agreed that they did not have a clear understanding of the roles of a school librarian. After the program many administrators remarked that they could communicate better with the librarians since they now could "speak the same language" and had a more complete understanding of the librarian's role. Concerning heightened expectations, one stated, "It doesn't change my expectations for her, they are still high; it just paints a clearer picture of what she can and should be doing to impact academic achievement even more." An obvious conclusion is that research about school libraries and the roles of the librarian in helping students to achieve academically have not yet penetrated the literature or professional world of the school administrator.

Principals seemed to embrace a shift in thinking about the library's purpose in the school from a narrow, traditional view of the school library as a peripheral support service to a broader, more integral, essential component of student learning and teacher instruction. As one administrator suggested in Levitov's study, "The library media center should be a place where teachers go first instead of last" (Levitov 2009, 123). Some had simply not realized that they were treating both the program and the librarian with "benign neglect" by not asking the librarian to serve on key leadership committees or tapping the librarian's research and technology expertise in professional development activities or providing adequate incentives for collaboration.

Principals, like every CEO and the divisions of their corporations, need to know enough about the library to know the role it plays in student achievement, the expectations for the librarian, and ways in which they can "grow" the library program. A short, online program like the "Leveraging School Libraries to Improve Student Learning" course can be a delivery model to provide school administrators with the knowledge and tools they need to recognize and support an existing asset to get a return on their investment— improved student learning.

References:

Church, Audrey P. "The Instructional Role of the Library Media Specialist as Perceived by Elementary School Principals." School Library Media Research 11 (2008).

Hartzell, Gary. "What's It Take?" [Informing principals about the value of school libraries]. Knowledge Quest 31, no. 1 (September/ October 2002 supp.): 27-43.

Levitov, Deborah Detenbeck. Perspectives of School Administrators Related to School Library Media Programs After Participating in an Online Course, "School Library Advocacy for Administrators." Ph.D. diss., University of Missouri-Columbia, 2009.

Wilson, Patricia Potter, and Josette Anne Lyders. Leadership for Today's School Library: A Handbook for the Library Media Specialist and the School Principal. Greenwood, 2001.