District Leaders & the Broader Community [7:20]

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About

Find reasons to be in touch with district leadership, directly or indirectly, with data and anecdotes that illustrate your role in students' success.

Transcript

Now, we need to talk about district leadership. That's the third layer on our pyramid. Many people think this is the most difficult. We're getting farther away from home, so to speak, to the people who appear to have real power. That seems scary. But really, those people are interested in students' success just as much as we are, and we can help them provide the right tools.

Ideally, the district office is listening to the parents, teachers and campus leaders about what best supports student achievement on their campuses. Ideally, the campus community and leadership are speaking in behalf of libraries as a part of normal communication. But ideals are approached only when librarians communicate well and often with stakeholders and allies to be sure they understand and are inspired to speak.

Point C is what we've been talking about for the last few lessons. Now, we have to put them really in practice.

We also want to pay some attention to the policy makers and think tanks that are out there. There are reports, for example, the Alliance for Education has issued one. ALA offers that kind of information frequently. It's totally worthwhile for you to skim through some of those and pull out quotes judiciously that you can share occasionally with your leadership and move on to the district.

Find reasons to be in touch with district leadership, directly or indirectly, with data and anecdotes that illustrate your role in students' success. Reflect the campus leadership in a positive light so they look good as well. It's kind of like dancing. There's that old maxim that guys make the women look beautiful, but when she does, it makes the guy look like a great dancer. We're in a dance with all levels of leadership.

In Houston, we've started, a few of us attending the school board meetings and we generally don't speak. We just show up and we wear a t-shirt that says "Librarian" and we pay attention. That has several strong effects. One is they know we're paying attention. Another is when we send them an email with the information in it, they actually read it because they saw us there and they're starting to ask us a few questions.

Before we started to do this, the word "library" was almost never mentioned, and I know that because my colleague was watching the videos of the meetings. But now, we know the word "library" is, and there are a couple of school board members who actually are really getting on the bus and pushing pretty hard so it's a very exciting change that was worth every minute that we spend sitting at those meetings.

If there's a campus or district policy that limits your ability to communicate with district leadership, as there is here in Houston, then get busy with other methods. Be sure your library is in the public eye: special event photos in the newspaper, on the school Facebook page, Twitter. Be sure district leaders see the positive image you are presenting.

Enlist your parent supporters. They are voters for school board representatives and for school bond issues. If you live in district, you are a voter too so don't ever forget that. Enlist retired librarians and other knowledgeable community members. That's how The Students Need Libraries and HISD got started.

I don't work in the district, I work in a private school so I can say what I like. That's useful. My colleague, Debbie Hall, is a retired Houston librarian so she knows the ins and outs of the district, but she also can speak freely and we really have made a powerful team. On the Students Need Libraries website, you'll see a tab for HISD and that shows some data that we pulled together.

Two years ago, we pulled some together at the time of the school board elections and we're about to do that again to push candidates to recognize the importance of libraries in which schools in their little representative area might not be well-staffed or stocked with libraries. We've done some different things over time as well. Get active in the elections. Remember that you're a voter. Demonstrate that you vote. Attend the meetings.

There's a wonderful speech by Catherine Hartesti speaking to her school board where she talks about librarians as chief information officers. Even if you don't stand up to speak at the meetings, just being there is worthwhile, but sharing this speech, or the Stephen Krashen video when he spoke to the Los Angeles United School District school board meeting, they're powerful in the way that they represent libraries and librarians to people who haven't really paid enough attention to us.

There's also an article, a blog post from Diane Ravitch, about the crime it is how libraries are going away in LA. These are all tools that we can use to our own advantage. ASL advocacy committee posted an article about friends' groups and how to help them be more effective in their advocacy. Of course, throughout this, we've talked about data and the term I haven't used is "evidence-based practice." I think Susan Ballard's piece talks a lot about that. But certainly, data supporting your stories and pushing that information to all the people in power is so important. It's the only way it's all going to work in our advantage.

Join some other K-12 education related community groups. In Houston, we have community voices for public education, which was started actually by a school board candidate who was not successful in her election. She went out and started this group instead and is still working hard.

There's a couple of articles about "Why fund libraries?" and the real cost of cutting school libraries. This is all information that you can use to good advantage in your quest to get the right information to your district leadership. Write letters to the editor. Visit neighborhood associations. Educate the community of the impact of school libraries.

Again, look at those green arrows on the right of the graphic that represent the listening ears and conversations from above with all the lower layers. This is a goal and it's not an easy one. But if you don't open the conversation, there isn't a conversation. You can open it, you can keep it going. It is not mission impossible. It's slow, but it's doable. You are working to turn a battleship. Be persistent. Be incremental. Every small nudge counts, like getting the word "library" mentioned at the school board meeting.

The enemy is policy that ignores students in favor of test scores. You are working to win the war of student achievement by trying to reach the armies of possible "civilian" otherwise known as "student casualties." As captain of your ship, you lead your crew of advocates to speak up often.

Activities

Get Ready to Dance

Context:

The further you get from "home," that is, from your school library space and school, the more challenging it may be to feel as though you can make a meaningful impression about the library program. Find reasons to be in touch with district-level leadership, and participate in what Hand describes as "the dance" that makes your building-level administrators and colleagues look good. Enlist the support of your base—teachers and parents in particular—but know that their comments and feedback about the library depend on your maintaining clear and purposeful communication about the library's mission and program with them.

Instructions:

View the video, "Dr. Stephen Krashen defends libraries at LAUSD Board Meeting," found in the Resources below. Hand explains that in this video, "[Krashen is] powerful in the way that [he] represent[s] libraries and librarians to people who haven't really paid enough attention to us." What are examples of how libraries and librarians are represented? Was it indeed, powerful, in your professional opinion? Can you think of similar examples pertaining to your school setting? How might you document and communicate these examples to your school leadership?

Resources:

Krashen, Stephen D. "Dr. Stephen Krashen Defends Libraries at LAUSD Board Meeting". YouTube, February 16, 2014. Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAui0OGfHQY

Entry ID: 2128161

Additional Resources

Works Cited and Additional Resources.

About the Author

Dorcas Hand, MLS, is Director of Libraries at the Annunciation Orthodox School in Houston, TX. She earned her master's in library science from SUNY Albany. She is editor and co-conspirator of the www.studentsneedlibrariesinHISD.org website, an advocacy site in support of Houston ISD librarians. Hand is also editor of Independent School Libraries: Perspectives in Excellence. Her work is available on www.strongschoollibraries.com.

Select Citation Style:

MLA Citation

Hand, Dorcas. "Tell Your Story Every Day. District Leaders & the Broader Community [7:20]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, November 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1987178?learningModuleId=1987183&topicCenterId=2247903.

Chicago Citation

Hand, Dorcas. "Tell Your Story Every Day. District Leaders & the Broader Community [7:20]." School Library Connection video. November 2015. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1987178?learningModuleId=1987183&topicCenterId=2247903.

APA Citation

Hand, D. (2015, November). Tell your story every day. District leaders & the broader community [7:20] [Video]. School Library Connection. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1987178?learningModuleId=1987183&topicCenterId=2247903

https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1987178?learningModuleId=1987183&topicCenterId=2247903

Entry ID: 1987178