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I received this Thursday night at home. I figured everyone did, butwhen I was speaking to our local organization president she said shehad not received it...so I'm forwarding it to everyone. This is veryimportant. Take a few minutes today to, as Jim Carey writes, DO IT!(yes, I do have Jim Carey's permission to forward this) Mary Ann ShafferLibrary Media SpecialistIvey Lane Elementary School --------------------------------------------------------------------------------From: Mary Ann Shaffer [mailto:shaffermas@earthlink.net]Sent: Sat 7/9/2005 11:07 AMTo: Shaffer, Mary AnnSubject: FW: CRITICAL--FAME ACTION REQUIRED NOW! ----- Original Message ----- From: Carey, James To: shaffermas@earthlink.netSent: 7/7/2005 1:30:49 PM Subject: CRITICAL--FAME ACTION REQUIRED NOW! I asked Bob Cerra, our FAME Lobbyist, to work up some resources andtalking points regarding the hearing in Tallahassee next Tuesday on aDepartment of Education rules change that would eliminatecertification by examination as an avenue into the media center. Please take a look at what he has provided below, and add your ownperspectives as school library media specialists. This is ouropportunity—our best chance since the "certification by examination"law went into effect in July 2001—to mandate preparation ofPROFESSIONALS for the critical responsibilities in school libraries. If you recall, the old requirement for certification was a master'sdegree OR 30 semester hours of credit that included a set ofprescribed courses that prepared media specialists for theirresponsibilities in a school library. In addition to the master'sdegree or 30 semester hours, the FTCE subject area exam was alsorequired. What this proposed DOE rule change would do is take us back prettyclose to the old requirement. The difference is that the 30 semesterhour option would be gone. A master's degree would be required. Thiswould not have much effect on candidates for certification, since mostlibrary science/educational media master's degrees offered in Floridaare either at or a few courses above the old 30 hour option. Thereason for requiring the master's degree is that by statute,certification that requires the master's degree can not be obtainedjust by taking an examination. Please know that the rule change requiring a master's degree forcertification WILL NOT kick anyone out of their job in a media center,nor will it require them to go back to school and get a master'sdegree. All persons currently certified by whatever means will remaincertified. The new rule would apply only to new candidates forcertification once the rule is accepted. Please take a moment to write a letter supporting the DOE rule changerequiring a master's degree for school library media certification andmail it ASAP to Pamela Stewart (DOE, address below), and also FAX acopy of your letter to Nancy Teger and Bob Cerra (FAX numbers below)so that they have a folder of the support letters that have gone toDOE. If your principal or assistant principal is a strong advocatefor professional preparation of media specialists, you might want tocall in a favor (or promise a favor) and request that he or she alsowrite a letter supporting the rule change. If you know a school boardmember or a higher-level administrator who would support the rulechange, a letter from them would also be most helpful. Please ! alsoencourage other media specialists whom you could contact this summerto write a letter supporting the rule change. The letter that you write need not be long—just a careful, thoughtfulparagraph or two expressing your support for the rule change andworking in a reason for support from the resources below and/orrelaying a personal experience regarding problems with placing newmedia specialists who are certified by exam but not qualified bytraining or experience. The hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday in Tallahassee and if youare able to attend and speak to the rule change your presence would bewelcomed. Here are the details: DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION State Board of Education RULE TITLE: RULE NO.: Specialization Requirements for Certification in Educational Media Specialist (Grades PK-12) – Specialty Class 6A-4.0251 PURPOSE AND EFFECT: The purpose of the rule development workshops isto receive information from interested and affected parties relatingto proposed changes in the certification requirements for educationalmedia specialists. The effect will be a rule that incorporates the positions andviewpoints of various constituent groups. SUBJECT AREA TO BE ADDRESSED: Certification requirements foreducational media specialists. SPECIFIC AUTHORITY: 1001.02, 1012.55, 1012.56 FS. LAW IMPLEMENTED: 1001.02, 1012.54, 1012.55, 1012.56 FS. IF REQUESTED IN WRITING AND NOT DEEMED UNNECESSARY BY THE AGENCY HEAD,RULE DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP WILL BE HELD AT THE TIMES, DATES AND PLACESSHOWN BELOW: TIME AND DATE: 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., July 12, 2005 PLACE: Florida Department of Education, 325 West Gaines Street, Room 503, Tallahassee, Florida 32333 If you are just getting back from vacation and reading this e-mail onor after July 12, you are not too late to send a letter. Publiccomment on the proposed rule change will be accepted after the July 12hearing and will become part of the record. You know how you always hear stories in the news about the "Doctors'Lobby" or the "Trial Lawyers' Lobby" working to affect governmentalpolicy? Well, that is what professional associations do. Step up! Be an advocate! Be a proud professional! This issue has been in our legislative platform for the past threeyears and the time is NOW! Let's work together, FAME Members, toensure that we keep the "PRO" in our profession! Do it. Thanks, everyone. Jim Carey President -----Original Message-----From: bobcerra@comcast.net [mailto:bobcerra@comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 12:03 AMTo: Carey, JamesCc: freemanl@mail.hartsfield.leon.k12.fl.usSubject: Ideas for Support Letters - Library Media Subject Area Certification As you know, the Department of Education is proceeding with a ruledevelopment hearing next Tuesday to consider a proposal to change thelibrary media subject area certification to a Master's Level degree. This would have the desired impact of eliminating the "add-on"certification by exam only as has been a top priority of FAME's forthe past three years. Also included in the rule change is a proposalto add two reading courses within the 30 required hours in theprogram. While the second change was not sought by FAME, it wouldseem to have several advantages to the profession and was requested bythe Just Read, Florida Office. We believe that this rule change will be non-controversial, however,we need to show our support immediately. Our leadership andmembership should send letters to: Pamela Stewart Deputy Chancellor K-12 Educator Quality 325 West Gaines Street, Room 514 Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400 Please also fax a copy of these to: Dr. Nancy Teger at (850) 245-0875 and Bob Cerra at (850) 222-4380. I would hope that our members would be able to justify the importanceof their training and the value of the service that they provide ontheir own with individual letters. I am providing some points thatcan be used for support, but I want the letters submitted to bedifferent from each other. So please do not use each point or copyany of the suggestions verbatim. I have also included some shortcutsto some of the research papers on the subject. Making the Grade Executive Summary http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/makingthegrade/summary.pdf Making the Grade Press Release http://www.mackin.com/NewsItems/040220.html Library Research Service (Colorodo) http://www.lrs.org/impact.asp FAME Platform 2005 http://www.sbac.edu/~media/FAMELegBrochureREV.pdf CRBSRS (New York) http://www.crbsls.org/slsa/student-achievement.html The following points only relate to the "Master's Level" requirementand do not relate to the reading course requirements. 1) The Florida Study on School Libraries (Baumbach, 2003) proves thatcollege-trained school library media specialists are a component ofsuccessful school library programs and that they contribute toimproved FCAT reading scores. 2) Over 90% of school library media specialists believe that theirprogram is important to their schools' overall reading program. Ofthe 10% that do not, eighty percent of these were not trained aslibrary media specialists. How can a school library programcontribute to overall student improvement if the staff of the programdoesn't even realize that the library program should be integratedinto the reading program. 3) If Florida is only going to follow "research based methods" forimproving reading scores, the overwhelming research from Florida and14 other state studies prove that strong school library programscontribute to dramatically improved student reading performance. 4) The school library media specialist subject area is not and hasnever been on the critical teacher shortage list. Some experts withinthe Department are concerned that this change might create shortagesfor library media specialists; however, taking a highly qualifiedteacher out of the classroom without providing adequate training as alibrary media specialists just reduces quality both in the classroomand the school library media center. 5) This change would not adversely impact those who have beencertified by exam only in the past few years. They would not have toobtain a Master's Degree or quit working as library media specialists. This is only about applying the research proving that the training isvital to successful programs from this point forward. 6) The training and skills required to be a library media specialistare above and beyond those required to be a classroom teacher. Mediaspecialists are teachers, but they are also reading promoters,information specialists, and program administrators. Preparation forschool media specialists in many of our University training programsis separate from colleges of education. 7) Pass rates on the subject area exam suggest that the exam is doingan extremely poor job of measuring true professional competence. After certification by examination was enacted, the number ofcandidates taking the exam increased by 107%, from an average of 178per year in 1998-2001 to an average of 369 per year in 2001-2004. Asthe number of test takers more than doubled, the pass rate went upfrom a typical average of around 70% passing to an average from2001-2004 of 82% passing. In effect, the test is "out." An extensivepractice test is available in a commercial test prep study guide, andthe test item pool is not large and diverse enough to support freshtesting events for the current number of test takers. Test takers aresimply "prepping" on the right answers without having mastered theconceptual knowledge base required to be an effective mediaspecialist. The validity of the test must be questioned when cur!rent unprepared test takers pass at a rate higher than did previoustest takers who were prepared. If a principal is unable to find a trained person to serve as thelibrary media specialist, the process that would be followed to "fill"the open position would be to put an out-of-field teacher in theposition. This "out-of-field" teacher would need to get training andpass the exam in order to eventually be "in field." This is muchbetter than just having untrained persons to fill the positionsbecause they will eventually be trained. Professionally, this is abetter process because the DOE is not calling untrained library mediaspecialists to be fully qualified for the positions. There was not astatewide shortage of library media specialists prior to 2001 (whenthe exam only option became available) so there is no reason tobelieve that a return to the process that trained our professionals inthe past would somehow create shortages in the future. Bob Cerra (850) 212-6233 bobcerra@comcast.net (note my new email address) -- Mary Ann ShafferMedia SpecialistIvey Lane Elementary School209 N. Silverton St.Orlando, FL 32811407-296-6420 ext 2227MaryAnnS@gmail.com