by Steven Tetreault, November 2020

COVID's Impact on Personnel and Programs

We are living in a time of unprecedented educational and economic upheaval. There is little doubt that schools are going to be heavily impacted by budget cuts during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools will seek out quick cuts to save bucks.

School library programs' personnel and resources are a prime target for these cuts. This is simply a continuation and acceleration of an ongoing trend. And, that's down to one main root cause: stakeholders don't realize that school librarians are one of, if not the, single best return on investment they can make for a school.

Planting the Seed

Not only is that not enough, it's also not necessarily the best path to widespread understanding of the importance of school librarians within schools. It's nearly impossible these days for a school administrator or a supervisor to attain such a position without earning a master's degree in educational administration and supervision. And often, those administrators and supervisors have a strong say, if not the final word, in decisions about school library programs. That's why those degree programs should be the main focus of school library advocacy efforts.

School library associations, both local and national, should be pushing educational administration programs to incorporate into their curricula ongoing discussions of the benefits of certified school librarians.

Even more effective would be for all school librarian preparation programs to take proactive steps. Any program that isn't actively and heavily leaning on its college's or university's educator preparation programs—especially the administrative ones—is doing a major disservice to the students in both programs.

The Elevator Pitch

The pitches to educational administration prep programs write themselves:

"Would your graduates be interested in:

• Better reading comprehension and higher reading scores for the entire school? (Library Research Service 2020)

• Getting the most out of your budget for materials for students and staff? (Lance and Kachel 2018)

• A greater quantity and higher degree of student engagement? ("New Jersey Study" 2012)

• Students in this digital age receiving a strong grounding in information literacy instruction and digital citizenship? ("Creating 21^st-Century Learners"2013)

• Increased inquiry learning across the school, with the knowledge that it improves student engagement and retention of information? (Lance and Maniotes 2020)

• Increased support for teachers and students with educational technology? (Johnson 2019)

Then help them see the value of a certified school librarian."

Before I attained my master's of information degree and my school library media specialist certification, I earned both a master's and a doctorate in educational administration and supervision. Throughout two dozen administration classes, there was no discussion of the role of school libraries or librarians. In fact, other than walking through a library during a physical facilities class, I don't think school libraries were ever brought up.

And yet, when I look back at a list of those classes, ten of the twelve courses I completed for my master's in educational administration and supervision have very specific and practical connections to school library programs and personnel. Here are a few:

• Educational law—Teachers and students are not generally well versed in copyright law and fair use; and there's been an increase in the lawsuits against schools and districts who violate it. But, school librarians bring knowledge that can help prevent such issues.
• Supervision of instruction—When you are observing teachers, how frequently and effectively are teachers utilizing library resources? School librarians can provide assistance in utilizing available resources, and can find, collect, and curate useful, engaging, and necessary materials that will improve classroom instruction.
• Public school finance—Administrators and supervisors need to keep an eye on the bottom line. Librarians can help by making school resources more widely available. Administrators and supervisors should regularly and carefully consider how the library program impacts budgets and resources and what the return on investment is for those services and materials.
• Facilities—It's important for those running a building or a program to know what a "good" library looks like and how it can improve student outcomes.
• Personnel—When assessing the impact of personnel, it's difficult to overstate the importance of the school librarian and their aides and how they impact the other jobs and students within the school.
• Leadership and communication—Communication is key for good leadership; this course should emphasize how to utilize the resources of the library and librarian to move the school forward and meet the needs of students and teachers.

Certified school librarians are the best resource administrators and supervisors have, period. They offer the best return on investment that can be made in a school in terms of the quantity of students and staff supported and the number of avenues of those supports (Library Research Service 2020). It's because the library is so central to a well-functioning school that discussion of it fits so well into so many administration preparation classes.

What THEY Don't Know Might Hurt YOU

Ideally, every subject area supervisor would stand up for how the school librarian supports their curriculum and their students. But, that depends on those supervisors knowing how much the library can do for their teachers and students.

Efforts to raise administrators' awareness during administration conferences have generally not been well-received. For example, despite repeated efforts to get time to speak at any one of New Jersey school administrators conferences, school librarians from the New Jersey Association of School Librarians have been repeatedly turned down for either a workshop or a few minutes of time during a general assembly of the members. And even when one did manage to "tag along" with her superintendent, she found the administrators more interested in focusing on other topics than school libraries.

Making the value of the school librarian clear while administrators are learning how to be administrators is much more likely to stick. It also could have the added benefit of setting administrators up to go straight to the school librarian as their primary resource in a new school.

Admittedly, I have experience with one university's administration program. That's not a great sample size! But, none of the dozens of administrators and supervisors I've worked with over two decades seem familiar with the data on how school libraries improve student outcomes.

A New Status Quo

If these administrator preparation programs are supposed to be turning out the most effective administrators possible, then they are not fulfilling their duties if they are not pointing out the many and varied impacts school librarians have on schools.

School librarian preparation programs could completely change the advocacy game. They could pair their professors and students with those in educational administration and teacher preparation programs to create lasting associations in the minds of future educators.

School librarians, their organizations, their training programs, and "true believer" administrators and supervisors need to hit up the professors and deans of education schools and point out that they are missing out on a HUGE element of what makes a successful school if they're not discussing school librarians in most of their classes.

Works Cited and Additional Resources

"Creating 21st-Century Learners: A Report on Pennsylvania's School Libraries" PA School Library Project, June 2013. https://paschoollibraryproject.org/home/briefings.

Johnson, Doug. "The School Librarian: Your Ultimate Digital Resource." Educational Leadership 76, no. 5 (February 2019). http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb19/vol76/num05/The-School-Librarian@-Your-Ultimate-Digital-Resource.aspx

Lance, Keith Curry, and Debra E. Kachel. "Why School Librarians Matter: What Years of Research Tell Us." Phi Delta Kappan (March 26, 2018). http://kappanonline.org/lance-kachel-school-librarians-matter-years-research/.

Lance, Keith Curry, and Leslie K. Maniotes. "Linking Librarians, Inquiry Learning, and Information Literacy." Phi Delta Kappan (March 26, 2020). http://kappanonline.org/linking-librarians-inquiry-learning-information-literacy-lance-maniotes/.

New Jersey Education Association and New Jersey Association of School Librarians. "NJEA PRIDE Librarians." YouTube (November 8, 2019). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lepb_YfbIm0&feature=youtu.be.

New Jersey Education Association and New Jersey Association of School Librarians. "NJEA PRIDE Librarians: Dee Venuto, Connection" New Jersey Association of School Librarians (February 2020). https://njasl.org/resources/Documents/NJEA%20Commercials/M12126x75H-19_Dee_Venuto_30_CAPTIONED--FINAL.mp4.

"The New Jersey Study of School Libraries: One Common Goal -Student Learning." New Jersey Association of School Librarians, 2011. https://www.njasl.org/NJ_Study.

School Librarians of Rhode Island. "Overdue: The Value of School Librarians." School Librarians of Rhode Island, August 2020. https://www.rilibraries.org/Overdue.

School Libraries Impact Studies. Library Research Service. https://www.lrs.org/data-tools/school-libraries/impact-studies/. Accessed August 29, 2020.