[LM_NET] TARGET: New York City educational reforms and school libraries

[Barbara Braxton <barbara.288@BIGPOND.COM>]

Here in Australia, we have been hearing and reading about the education reforms in 
NYC, which began
to be implemented in 2002. On Wednesday night on national television, an interview 
was conducted
with Joel Klein and he spoke of the changes that have been implemented re 
assessment, teacher
recruitment etc. Our national Minister for Education, Julia Gillard has spoken to 
Mr Klein and is
VERY interested in the education reforms in NYC.

A colleague wrote to Barbara Stripling, Director of Library Services, New York City 
Department of
Education and got a very informative reply, but as we battle for the future of the 
teacher librarian
here, we are wondering what has been the impact of these reforms on school 
libraries at ground
level?  

Ms Stripling indicates that as "most of the decision-making authority has been 
relegated to the
school principal, principals who understand the impact of a good school library 
have been very
supportive; others have not. "  That, to me, sounds like nothing has changed and it 
is the same
situation everywhere.

She also says that "that almost all of the personnel assigned to our elementary 
libraries are not
certified or trained librarians.  They are teachers who have been assigned to the 
library to provide
coverages for classroom teachers" .  There is a 330-page handbook to help but 
perhaps the
Pennsylvania situation of "a certified teacher can take the Library Praxis and 
become a Certified
School Librarian in a morning" is not unique. (We are battling to have our school 
libraries staffed
by a fully qualified teacher librarian, but the trend is to put an administrative 
person in charge.)

So if you are a NYC teacher librarian (either elementary, middle or high) we would 
love to hear from
you about what the reforms have meant for you (positive and negative) so we can 
inform our
Australian colleagues and make decisions about how to lobby our Education Minister. 
 

In a nutshell, my question is "What can Australian teacher librarians learn from 
the experiences of
NYC teacher librarians?"

You can learn more about our advocacy efforts by visiting The Hub @ 
http://hubinfo.wordpress.com 

Thank you
Barbara 
Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
COOMA NSW 2630
AUSTRALIA

E. barbara.288@bigpond.com
Together we learn from each other 

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