Dorcas Hand, Co-Chair
Sara Kelly Johns, Co-Chair
Susan Ballard, Co-Chair
Angela Hall
Debra Kachel
Jennifer Jamison
Kathy Hicks Brooks
Kathy Burnette
Kay Wejrowski
Ric Hasenyager
Joyce Valenza
todaroschool@lists.ala.org
Background: Based on the charge given them (see below), the School Library Group for the Julie Todaro’s ALA Presidential Initiative, Libraries Transform: The Expert in the Library, developed tools for use by school librarians to improve their professionalism in practical, philosophical and pedagogical ways. We created this LibGuide to curate websites, articles, videos and infographics that support the value and expertise of the school librarian.
The group also worked collaboratively to develop a continuum of competencies derived from the National Policy Board for Educational Administrators Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL’s). School librarians also need to be effective leaders to ensure student achievement and empower their learning communities.
We then developed a rubric to allow school librarians opportunities to increase their proficiency through personal growth. All users of this work (found under the School Librarian PSEL Competencies – Building Our Expertise tab) can discover how accomplished they are in any one or all 11 competencies--and then find resources to advance personal learning along the continuum from Ineffective to Highly Effective. There is no scoring system or survey; users simply read the rubric and decide what works best individually. Users may learn they are only Emerging for some skills but Highly Effective in others.
We are all seeking to be better at what we do and that we each do some things better than others. Effective practitioners are lifelong learners who are always striving to improve their school library practice.
Charge: The school library team will focus on building the capacity, knowledge, skills and expertise of school library personnel to transform teaching and learning. Elements of our work will include: