2008 FAME Legislative Platform
Download a complete, full color 2008 FAME Legislative Platform [.pdf, 4 pages, 600K]
Student Achievement Begins in the School Library Media Center
"Increases to school library media centers positively influence test scores, while overall school expenditures do not." —Dr. Donna Baumbach, Making the Grade: The Status of School Library Media Centers in the Sunshine State and How They Contribute to Student Achievement
School Library Media Materials
WE KNOW:
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State funding for school library media materials has remained constant at $15 million since 2000-2001.
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While per student funding for materials has decreased by 12.8% in the period 2000-2001 to 2007-08, the average price of a book for school libraries during the same time period has increased by over 25%. This combination of decreased funding per student and increased cost per book continues to erode the quantity, currency, and interest value of books that are available to Florida's students.
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Florida schools lag far behind the national average in number of books available per student in the school library media center and in spending per student for library books. Florida schools provide one-half the number of books per student compared to the national average in elementary and middle schools and one-fifth of the number of books compared to the national average in high schools.
WE NEED:
“These links between high-quality school library programs and academic achievement cannot be explained away as mere artifacts of community socioeconomic factors or key school conditions, such as per pupil spending and teacher-pupil ratio. Indeed, sometimes, taking these variables into account reveals a greater impact by school libraries than was previously masked by those other variables.” —Curry, Rodney and Hamilton-Pennell. Powerful Libraries make Powerful Learners: the Illinois Study.
2005.
“More interlibrary loans is a correlate of student success in Florida high schools. Students in the top third of FCAT scores had a library where 66% more interlibrary loans took place.” —School Library Systems Advocacy Toolkit
SUNLINK–The Florida K-12 Library Union Database
WE KNOW:
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Facilitating interlibrary loans produces a value of more than two to one for every dollar currently spent by the Legislature on the program, and this is just a small part of what SUNLINK provides to students, parents, teach
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The project assists students and pa from all public school districts in Flo y holdings, 2 million titles, over 28,000 reviewed web sites, and 2,000 streaming videos.
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Current professional services available to library media specialists, teachers and administrators to review and compare their school’s holdings with other schools or districts force accountability and improvement and facilitate this improvement through professional communities.
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In June 2007, SUNLINK was one of only six library projects, including the Smithsonian Institute, to receive a prestigious, national award for “Building Better Communities” sponsored by SirsiDynix at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. Selected by an international panel of independent library leaders, the award recognizes libraries for “creative and enterprising uses of technology to improve their user communities.”
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The next level of accountability data is now ready to be collected and reported in real time allowing parents, teachers, library media specialists and administrators to improve their school library media centers in areas that correlate to improved student performance. While this system will exponentially increase the value of this renowned project, it requires additional investment by the State.
Visit SUNLINK at http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu
WE NEED:
Special Teacher Benefit Programs
FAME believes that all programs designed to recruit, retain or reward high performing teachers should include library media specialists.
School Libraries Don’t Matter Without Highly Qualified Library Media Specialists
Research has shown that school libraries staffed by qualified library media specialists are needed to have a positive impact on student academic achievement. —“Why Care About School Libraries.” U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, March 2005.
Instructional Technology
FAME believes that teaching 21st Century Skills requires all of the current educational technology tools to be available for students and teachers. A significant investment by the Legislature in hardware, software and training for students and teachers would improve educational opportunities.
“The massive shift from paper as the dominant media to digital content will continue. So will the move toward online learning, student collaboration on a local and global scale, and self-produced content, all of which demand reconfiguration of the learning landscape. Challenges, yes, but ones that also present unique opportunity for media specialists, who are positioned to lead the way in transforming their schools." Space, the Final Frontier: Media Centers for the 21st Century —Alan November, School Library Journal, 5/1/2007
Intellectual Freedom
FAME supports the right of students and teachers to access information on a wide variety of subjects with different points of view.
K-12 Online Resources
FAME supports the continuation and expansion of the Florida Electronic Library as a key tool for school students and every Florida citizen in accessing a wealth of useful information.
Certification of Library Media Specialists
WE KNOW:
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Teachers who have been licensed as library media specialists by merely passing an exam without any training do not meet the minimum needs of students for learning, reading, and research skills.
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There is NOT a statewide shortage of library media specialists as evidenced by a DOE survey that showed that there are over 115% of the needed instructional personnel with the library media specialist subject area certification currently employed by Florida school districts compared to the number of library media specialist positions.
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Taking a fully trained classroom teacher out of a classroom and placing them in the school library without training doubly reduces the effectiveness of our needed workforce.
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Multiple statewide studies of school libraries, including a Florida specific study, demonstrate the value of university trained library media specialists on improved student reading test scores as compare to untrained personnel.
WE NEED:
Florida Library Association (FLA) Legislative Platform
FAME acknowledges the irreplaceable role that all types of libraries play in the intellectual, cultural, social, and recreational lives of Florida's citizens, and endorses FLA's 2007-2008 legislative platform positions.
http://www.flalib.org/advocacy.html
About the Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME)
FAME is a statewide organization composed of library media specialists and other information professionals who take proactive leadership roles in raising student achievement throughout Florida. The Association recognizes the indispensable contributions of school library media programs run by qualified school library media specialists and advocates for best practices in school librarianship. FAME upholds the core values and ethics of the library profession. The Association plays an essential role in professional development by anticipating change, addressing issues, and promoting literacy.
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