Education Pioneers Annual Report

Education Pioneers: Stephanie Gilbert, Deborah Hyman, and Jessica Roach A1 – 4 Paper

MacArthur High School Library Annual Report

IntroductionThe information contained in this report displays that the staff of MacArthur High School Library has

worked collaboratively with others to enrich student learning. With continued training and support the librarians will help students become successful 21st Century Learners. The library will strive to house a

well maintained collection that will nurture and enhance student achievement.

Rationale: Our report will be presented to our stakeholders in an intuitive format with research and evidence showing student achievement that is linked to our library goals. In order for our stakeholders to review our annual report, we will host a meeting at the library and explain our information. “…we have to

judiciously and carefully shape communication (with stakeholders) to show how it is situated in and responsive to school goals, initiatives, and improvement agendas.” (Todd, p.66, 2007) Our annual report will be printed in a newsletter format for stakeholders, and they will also be able to access a digital format of our annual report online via our school library website. We will carefully link research findings to our goal statements, and we will present evidence of our libraries impact on student successful learning.

Mission StatementMacArthur High School, a culturally rich school, is dedicated to empowering and inspiring students to

strive for success, to set high goals, and to become lifelong learners. We strive to achieve this in a safe; mutually respectful learning community that provides every student with the skills and knowledge

necessary to succeed in today's globally connected and technological world. (Mission Statement, 2011)

Goals and Achievements

Long Term Goal 1: The library will work collaboratively with faculty and staff to meet the informational needs of students for success.

Short Term Goals for Achievement:1. Meet with each department at least once every six weeks to discuss curriculum support to enhance student achievement.2. Develop "Collaborative Collection" at the beginning of each semester, which will allow teachers access to lessons cross-curricula.3. Develop a minimum of 1 collaborative lesson each semester with all departments including fine arts and foreign languages to utilize technology tools.4. Convert College and Career Collection into a "College and Career Station" adding computers and college and testing materials from the counselor. Students will be able to access and research various colleges, careers, and job opportunities to decrease dropout rate and increase college bound students.

Rationale: These goals allow students to gain increased knowledge of TEKS through ongoing instruction in the integration of information technology and information literacy through collaborative lessons. “The school library media program promotes collaboration among members of the learning community and encourages learners to be independent, lifelong users and producers of ideas and information.” – (AASL Empowering Learners p. 20)

Evidence STG 1: The following charts shows the correlation between student success on exams and collaborative 21st Century Skills lessons. Each of the following Freshman Science teachers collaborated 3-5 times and 90% saw an increase in their test scores.


Evidence STG 2 – 3: Through a combined effort a “Collaboration Collection” was created and placed in the library for future use. The following chart displays the number of lessons added to the collection for the 2010 – 2011 school year by subject area.

Evidence STG 4: After creating the “College & Career Station,” the number of students planning to attend college has shown an increase.

College & Career Station Survey Results2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Not planning to complete high school 3% 4% 0%No education or other training planned after high school 4% 4% 1%Job training offered through military service 5% 5% 3%Attend Vocational or technical school 5% 10% 2%2-year community college or junior college 17% 9% 10%4-year college or university 58% 70% 82%Undecided about future educational plans 7% 2% 1%Other 1% 1% 2%

Average Test Scores for Freshman Science

Classes A-J


Long Term Goal 2: The librarians will be active members of the Professional Library Community.

Short Term Goals for Achievement : 1. Attend a minimum of 2 professional training workshops and / or conferences each year and host a minimum of 2 staff development opportunities for teachers on topics learned from attending.2. Participate in local region service center library collaborative meetings when offered to stay current with local trends.

Rationale: These goals will assist librarians with investigation, initiation, and implementation of positive change that will effectively prepare students for life. “…professional development… must be times to learn from others who can dispense the knowledge, success stories, or demonstrations of new methods of operation… Participation is a necessity.” (Woolls and Loertscher p. 339) “By becoming involved in staff development we increase our opportunities to shape the curriculum and be viewed as instructional leaders.” (Woolls and Loertscher p. 340)

Evidence STG 1: The library and staff attended the following training workshops and provided staff development for teachers in the 2010-2011 year to increase inquiry-based learning and student achievement.

Workshops

(2010-2011)

Ideas

(Main Topics of Workshop)

Developments

(How info was put to use.)

Research Lab Database basics and utilization, evaluation of credible resources online, viable web resources

Teachers give students inquiry based lessons which use researching skills to solve curriculum based problems.

Web 2.0

For Beginners

RSS Feeds, blogs, wikis, messaging Teachers learn to utilize resources on the web to increase student involvement.

Web 2.0

The Next Generation

RSS Feeds, blogs, wikis, messaging, forums, tagging, tag clouds, basic html, interactive calendars

Teachers learn to create a website for each of their courses including interactive features.

Evidence STG 2: The librarian was able to attend the following collaborative meetings at the region service center to enhance the service of the library:

Long Term Goal 3: The library will provide access to resources and materials for curriculum needs and for pleasure.

Short Term Goals for Achievement:1. Implement "Working for Success" which will allow students to work in the library for extended hours before and / or after school four days per school week.

Copyright for Educators in the 21st Century Presenter: Gretchen McCordExploring the State-Funded K-12 Databases (K-12)Collaboration Elaboration: Strategies for Working with TeachersLibrary Services Cooperative Professional Learning Community [PLC] (Available year-round ONLINE)


2. Implement "Lunch and Literature" 2 times each month which will give students opportunities to eat in the library and host book discussions.3. Update the library's website to provide resource tools and databases for students to have 24/7 access.

Rationale: These goals will increase access during and beyond the instructional day to support student expectations of TEKS in all subject areas. “Students without computer and Internet access in the home have fewer chances to gain the digital literacy needed to function in our current world.” (Franklin & Stephens, 2009) “Learning is enhanced by opportunities to share and learn with others.” (AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action)

Evidence STG 1: The following chart lists students’ usage of the library before/after school usage program, “Working for Success.” Providing this valuable time can help students who do not have access at home to be successful. Our extended hours accommodated an average of over 45 students per day!

“Working for Success”

Daily average of students who utilized library extended hours.

AM PM

September 2010 17 22

October 2010 23 20

November 2010 14 28

December 2010 24 36

January 2011 20 22

February 2011 18 19

March 2011 19 28

April 2011 22 31

May 2011 27 34

Evidence STG 2: Over 110 students participated in “Lunch and Literature” during the 2010-2011 year. Various students met the first and third Monday of each month to hold valuable discussions and analyze book topics. Created a enjoying atmosphere to learn about and discuss books.

“Lunch and Literature” Monthly Average Attendance

August: 20 September: 21 October: 26 November: 32 December: 27

January: 27 February: 35 March: 25 April: 22 May: 21


Evidence STG 3: Website updates!

NEW! Interactive blog with updates about events and achievement!

Lesson plan central station! Links with tons of curriculum adaptable inquiry-based lesson plans are now available online!

Updated library calendar including usage spreadsheet.

Q&A forum for students and teachers.

Long Term Goal 4: The library staff will support a rigorous curriculum through collection development, which includes selection and purchasing of new items and deselection of dated materials. (Library Goals, 2011)

Short Term Goals for Achievement:1. Bring the Lit/SS section up to the Recognized Level with an average of 11 years (Texas Standards for School Libraries, 2005)2. Select and purchase appropriate easy books and update and replace the AV collection with new selections. (Library Goals, 2011)3. Increase online references and resource materials by 10%.

Rationale: These goals will support TEKS by the purchase of resources to support the curriculum. “Fine-tuning the collection is a vital and ongoing part of every library media center program… we should look at our collection and evaluate if it is meeting the needs of our students and faculty. (Woolls and Loertscher p. 70)

Evidence STG 1 - 3: Changes made to the collection:

August 2010 AGE June 2011 AGE GainsLiterature 14 11 3

Social Studies 12 9 3

Purchased650 print books

16 DVDs3 Nikon Coolpix digital cameras

2 Panasonic mini video cameras and tripods2 Ultra Flip Video Cameras

Weeded a total of 565 items(including outdated or worn out books, VHS tapes, and old equipment)

*The library created a wiki for the purpose of teachers making online contributions to provide pathfinders for the students to search while in the library or at home. *The library created a blog to discuss titles, activities, and interesting books.


*The library has implemented an online catalog via the library’s website.

Total online resources added 3 for an increase of 11%.

Highlights!Collaboration using 21st Century Skills

Rationale: Our program responds to the needs of our campus by incorporating a 21st-century learning environment “where everyone is a teacher, learner, producer, and contributor.” (AASL, p.10, 2009) Our

focus is to collaborate with teachers and combine core subjects with “21st-century interdisciplinary themes; learning and innovation skills; life and career skills; and information, media, and technology

skills.” The following student projects demonstrate a sample of these skills at work.

Web 2.0 Workshop

Advanced Fashion Design students created an interactive webpage with forums and blogs. Students researched and discussed the curriculum while gaining insight from other classmates!

Visit the following URL to check out designs and follow the blog!www.sugarfashionz.webs.com

Skill 4: “Pursue personal and aesthetic growth by seeking diverse opinions and points of view while critically investigating a topic of personal interest.” (AASL, 2009)

Multimedia Collaboration Workshop

Nutrition students created videos using skills they learned from the library multimedia workshop! Here is an example of the skills in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DokNIn31ks0&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL


http://www.sugarfashionz.webs.com/


Budget & Collection DevelopmentSummarization of collection needs assessment, curriculum alignment and budgeting.

Rationale: Develop a budget to support progress toward "Exemplary Rating" according to §III-1A in Texas School Library Programs: Standards and Guidelines for Texas (2005) Our school mission emphasizes the importance of empowering and inspiring our students, and our collection reflects this concept with rich assortment of curriculum based texts, databases and popular young adult reading in a variety of formats. The Standards and Guidelines list “Benefits for Students” including, “a variety of print and electronic resource materials to gather information for research topics (e.g., books, magazines, newspapers, dictionaries, schedules, journals, phone directories, globes, atlases, almanacs).” (2005) Our school’s mission encourages students to become lifelong learners, and nurturing this development with the exploratory media and researching material listed above is one of our library’s main goals.

> Order CTE software programs to create a collection of at least 12,000 books, audiovisual software, and multi-media. (Standard III; Principle 1.)

*Benefit to students: Demonstrate connections between classroom learning, information skills, and real-life situations.

> Install an additional 8 student computer stations to accommodate growing class sizes and facilitate the full integration of technology, including multimedia and the Web, into the curriculum and instruction. (Standard III; Principle 3.)

*Benefit to students: Utilize resources provided through local, statewide, and national technology initiatives in the library, throughout the school, and remotely to fulfill and meet assignments and personal interest needs

SOURCES

American Association of School Librarians. (2009). Empowering learners: Guidelines for school library media programs. Chicago: American Library Association.

American Association of School Librarians. (2009). Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action. Chicago, IL: American Association of School Librarians.

Franklin, P., & Stephens, C. (2009). Equitable Access, the Digital Divide, and the Participation Gap!. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 25(5), 43-44. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.



Irving ISD. 2011. MacArthur High School Mission Statement. [Data File]. Retrieved from http://www.irvingisd.net/maclibrary/pages/Mac%20Mission.pdf

Irving ISD. 2011. MacArthur High School Library Goals 2010-2011. [Data File]. Retrieved from http://www.irvingisd.net/maclibrary/pages/Mac%20Lib%20%20Goals%202010-11.pdf

Texas School Libraries: Texas State Library and Archives Commission. 2005. School Library Programs: Standards and Guidelines for Texas. [Data File]. Retrieved from http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/schoollibs/slsAdopted2005.pdf

Todd, R. (2007). Chapter "Evidence Based Practice and School Libraries: From Advocacy to Action" in Harada, V. & Hughes, S. (eds.). Principles & Practice Volume 3 "School Reform and the School Library Media Specialist", Libraries Unlimited.

Woolls, B. & Loertscher, D.V. (2005). The whole school library handbook. Chicago: American Library Association.

20 points 15 points 10 points 5 points 0 points

Form

at o

f rep

ort a

nd

leng

th

The report was created in a format well-suited for the intended audience and is of appropriate length. Goal is 3-4 pages or equivalent.

The report was created in a format that works for the intended audience, but another format would be more appropriate OR the length of the report is inappropriate.

The report was created in a format that works for the intended audience, but another format would be more appropriate AND the length of the report is inappropriate.

Evi

denc

e-ba

se

The report cited research supporting the contribution of the school librarian and school library programs and collections.

The report did not adequately cite the research supporting the contribution of the school librarian and school library programs and collections.

The report failed to cite the research supporting the contribution of the school librarian and school library programs and collections.

Mis

sion

of

the

libra

ry

The report made clear the mission of the school library program.

The report failed to make clear the mission of the school library program.

http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/schoollibs/slsAdopted2005.pdf

http://www.irvingisd.net/maclibrary/pages/Mac%20Lib%20%20Goals%202010-11.pdf

http://www.irvingisd.net/maclibrary/pages/Mac%20Mission.pdf


Pro

gram

s,The report detailed four or more programs and their connections to student learning and/or school goals with local data.

The report detailed four or more programs but did not adequately connect one of them to student learning and/or school goals with local data.

Report detailed two or more programs but did not adequately connect more than one of them to student learning and/or school goals with local data.

The report detailed two or more programs but did not adequately connect any of them to student learning and/or school goals with local data.

The report did not detail at least four programs.

Sch

ool/D

istri

ct G

oals

an

d/or

Mis

sion

The report provides compelling evidence that the school library program contributes to the goals and/or mission of the school/district.

Report provides adequate evidence that the school library program contributes to the goals and/or mission of the school/district.

The report fails to provide adequate evidence that the school library program contributes to the goals and/or mission of the school/district.

Col

lect

ion

Report detailed how the collection (both print and electronic) supports the curriculum and/or student learning.

Report provided information about the collection (both print and electronic) but did not adequately connect it to student learning and/or the curriculum.

The report did not provide information about both the print and electronic collections.

Writ

ten

ratio

nale

Written rationale explained the presentation of the report to the intended audience, identified school/district mission and/or goals, and provided rationale for all components of the report with citation of the professional literature for all components.

A written rationale accompanied the report; however, it was deficient in one aspect.

A written rationale accompanied the report; however, it was deficient in two aspects.

A written rationale accompanied the report; however, it was deficient in more than two aspects.

The written rationale did not accompany the report.


Par

tner

ship

refle

ctio

nReport detailed how 21st Century skills (as covered in the two AASL texts) support the goals, curriculum, student learning, and student success.

Report provided information about how 21st Century skills (as covered in the two AASL texts) but did not adequately connect it to student learning, district/campus goals, curriculum, and student success..

The report did not provide information about both the print and electronic collections.

Pro

fess

iona

lism

The report reflects professionalism on the part of the developers. Information is logically organized with attention to proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word choice. Sources of information are properly cited.

The report does not fully reflect professionalism on the part of the developers.

The report does not reflect professionalism on the part of the developers.

Sel

f as

sess

men

t

Before submitting this project, you self-assessed using this rubric and included the rubric with self assessments highlighted.

A self-assessment did not accompany the report

Documents

Education Pioneers Annual Report