Beat it to fit, paint it to match
Jan 4th, 2010 by Cathy Jo Nelson
Okay tonight on our SCASL list the query came through about how to give numerical grades to kids that visit the library once a week for a school population the equivalent of around 275 students.
WHAT?
Sounds like classic data analysis gone to the head of an administrator; data driven decisions and now a librarian asked to justify presence with accountability and grades. The LMS had already been assigning S, N, and U (satisfactory, needs improvement, and unsatisfactory) for quarterly report cards using an elaborate system of having students keep notebooks on mini research quests done in weekly class visits.
This begs questions that I dont have any answers too, like:
- What grade level is this school? If it’s elementary, how are k5 and 1st grade assessed using the notebook method?
- If students are taking notes and researching in their visit, when is there time to do read alouds, booktalks, teach how to find a book, or other typical reading advocacy and information literacy activities?
- Do the kids get to actually check out books?
- Is this LMS assessed using our state school librarian assessment tool, or a classroom teacher assessment tool? Sounds like the latter.
- When does the LMS spend time managing the program, i.e.weeding and building the collection, collaborating with teachers, being an effective technology leader in the building?
- What library program facets have been let go in order to serve (or should I say dis-serve) the school population with numerical grading?
So how would you respond to this request? I would just have to refuse. Besides carrying in Information Power and other sources to show (dare I say) best practice for school librarians, what other argument could this person present in defense of no grades for the library program?
It’s a sad state of school librarianship when the school librarian must assess students. Classic “beat it to fit; paint it to match” syndrome going on here. Yet another example of a school administrator who doesn’t seem to understand the purpose of this program in school, not to mention that potential of the staff member if utilized effectively.
Here was my response shared with our listserv:
I’m sorry, but this is ridiculous. How can you teach literacy,
build a love for reading, and maintain an effective library program if you are also having to worry about grades? It also sounds like a fixed schedule (re–>1X a week.)I applaud your efforts to go along with the program, and it sounds as if you have adapted well. But please, how on earth can you apply numerical grades to this? Does the PE teacher have to also assign numerical grades? What is graded in PE? the number of laps run or jumps on the jump rope?
Sounds like admin is trying to “beat it to fit, paint it to match.” This just does not work well for your “classes”, much less a true library program. I’m fearful for you. Shocked and dismayed too. Please keep us informed on how you deal with this.
Please offer suggestions for this librarian.
‘Aceitunas Balaguer’ by Jorge Franganillo (via Flickr). CC BY licence.
‘Writing!’ by Markus Rödder (via Flickr). CC BY-ND licence.
Well, I’d do one of two things depending on how well my meds were working that particular day. If the happy pills were doing their jobs, I’d just blow the whole thing off and give everyone an A and make up grades. I’ve always hated grades in every subject I’ve ever taught. A grade is about as useless as a milk bucket under a bull in trying to gauge what a student can or cannot do.
However, if it was late in the day and the meds were running out, I’d probably tell the administrator that he or she has lost his or her mind and that he or she really needed to go piss up a rope. I mean, really? How many teachers have graded responsibility for 275 students? That’s nuts to say the least.
Teachers, Librarians, and everyone else who isn’t in administration in education need to wake up and smell the RisoGraph ink. If we sit by and put up with banalities like this grading idiocy, where’s it all going to stop? That “other duties as assigned clause” in our contracts isn’t a certificate of selling our souls.
Watch “Network” then follow the man’s advice and go open that window!
You need to keep this story quiet. It’s the kind of thing my administrators would think sounds good. After all, how can they hold me accountable if they don’t JAM ME IN THE BOX MARKED TEACHER!! For if I am not like all the other teachers, then they will have to recognize that they don’t know how to do my job, so they have to listen to me when I say “nope, I find that professionally unethical, pedagogically unsound, and possibly criminally insane.”
You want to know when this LMS manages the library? S/he does it when all the teachers at my school do their professional work – on his/her own time. Because if you aren’t directly interacting with students, grading them, or minding them, you’re not working! Never mind teacher collaboration, or promotion of reading and technology, or maintenance of a collection and library space, or outreach to the community, or research done for school personnel or professional development. Only warm-body-in-front-of-kids time ought to be paid time. And surely, with all that extra time in your schedule what with reductions in classrooms and new technologies you should be able to grade all the kids!
This is a disease of the schools, I think. Too many educators only respect others who do the exact same job that they do – so making the librarian grade is, to them, raising him/her to the right level, treating him/her just like all the other teachers. Too many librarians are uninterested in using library tools to enhance the ability of students and staff to read and research, so they go along with this sort of thing because it’s what they’re used to, and adding subject headings, using selection tools or taking part in library system activities are too hard to fit into their schedule.
I’m sorry to rant. Give ‘em all the same grade, after having each class take quizzes about the DDC or all the books you read to them, using your school clicker system so that you are integrating technology AND assessment into your lessons. Move “Find New Job” to the top of your to do list.
Ah, and just to beleaguer the point: when I took my current elementary school librarian job, I was told that I was NEVER to just have students come in and select books and read, as that was “a waste of classroom time.” I was to teach a lesson Every Time The Students Were There. I defy anyone to teach a solid, memorable lesson when seeing 30 kids once a week for 30 minutes who also need help learning library behavior, choosing books, using the catalog, and checking out (since the library paraprofessional has been reassigned). I eventually realized that the person who told me that was never going to see if I did it or not, and I relaxed my crazy constant lesson-making in favor of more traditional library skills and activities. Gosh, this post really got me!
Learning this is additional to my knowledge. Great idea for sharing it with us. Thanks!