National Year of Reading demands action on school libraries

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46% of Australian adults have literacy problems and industry, government and advisory bodies say it is holding us back economically.

2011 NAPLAN results have shown a growing gap between the top and bottom students in literacy results. In the most recent PISA survey, Australia was one of only five countries that recorded a drop in reading and maths. (See SMH article 24 Jan. 2012).

Softlink studies have shown for two years in a row the correlation between school library staffing and funding and NAPLAN results.

In this National Year of Reading, what will the state and federal governments do to improve school library staffing and funding and therefore literacy?

Peter Garrett tried to sing us the same old song in his response to the 2011 House Report of the Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians that it isn’t a federal government responsibility.  This is almost laughable if it weren’t so hackneyed and a blatant lie.

Here are just some of the things the federal government can do as it has in the past and is doing now to influence education policy and programs in Australia.

• Ensure the Productivity Commission Schools Workforce survey include collection of much needed data on school library staffing, funding and scheduling.
• Provide scholarships, as it does in other specialist teaching areas, to support increased numbers of graduate teacher librarians to fill the nearly 3000 vacancies, especially in the new BER libraries.
• Support the re-introduction of lost university teacher librarian training programs.
• Implement the Productivity Commission’s recommendation for a clearinghouse for school leaders which will include vital decision-making information on the value of quality school library services in student learning and literacy.
• Establish a national advisory body on school libraries and national guidelines and standards.
• Ensure NPAs for quality teaching do not result in loss of the specialist teachers which support quality teaching.
• Support longitudinal research into the relationship between teacher librarian training and staffing and student literacy and learning outcomes.
• Promote inclusion in pre-service teacher education of a unit of study on collaborative teaching of information literacy and literacy with teacher librarian mentor for improved quality teaching.

The books are burning, Peter Garrett.  Time to sing a new song.

Our response to the government

The government’s response to the Report of the House Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians is disappointing but not unexpected,  continuing to shift responsibility to states, while the states continue to shift to principals. The same old mantra is given of “it is a state and territory responsibility”  while crucial education funding continues to decline.

 

Some half-hearted considerations will be made by the government to the Report recommendations, while no decisive action will be taken to arrest the hemorrhaging of teacher librarians in our government schools.  Lack of state and federal leadership now means that some regional directors and state library services managers fill the gap with ignorant advice to eliminate the expense of school libraries and books altogether.  The laptop panacea must be seen as a godsend.

 

Recommendation 1 on consideration of making much needed online databases affordable to all schools is fine and costs little.

 

Recommendation 2  ignores the role of teacher librarians in teaching the thinking skills of Information Literacy while addressing technology tool use of ICT competence.

 

The hope is that Recommendation 3 for data collection will go beyond principal- and self-identification of TLs in schools to specific criteria identifying qualifications of staff placed in charge in a school library (and not a classroom as occurs too often in Queensland and Tasmania.)

 

Recommendation 4, National Year of Reading, is occurring already, but with no visible connection to the role of teacher librarians and school libraries in literacy development.

 

Commitment to school-library research (Recommendation 5) depends on available funds, hardly a commitment.  Meanwhile, it is left up to TLs to demonstrate effective programs through the Teach Learn Share “evidence”-collection site.

 

Interestingly, recommendations 6 and 11, working with ALIA and ASLA to promote the leadership role of TLs and partnership programs with other libraries, are not supported, so as not to show bias towards any professional association.  In a second breath, however, projects with other associations are described.

 

Recommendation 7. No special role is recognized for TLs with the National Curriculum. The emphasis, instead, appears to be online delivery of student and professional learning.

 

A priority recommendation (8) for the TL profession on workforce data MAY reveal shortfalls and inadequacies (see reservations expressed with Recommendation 3), if criteria are made specific enough, and “if there is additional funding available.”

 

Two other priority recommendations (9 and 10,) to look at TL training needs and enhance state and territory partnered support for school libraries and teacher librarians, is a matter to be raised with MCEECDYA. It is vital that these two issues are raised and given due consideration with solutions implemented.

 

The need for national standards and guidelines are ignored.  The need for scholarships right now to support TL training is not addressed. The research-proven role of qualified teacher librarians in literacy and learning is yet to be acknowledged in any tangible policy or program.

 

We still have a long way to go.

 

 

Government responds to recommendations

The federal government’s response to the recommendations of the Report on the Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians is now available.  Download it here.

Dear Minister Garrett,

Thank you for the reply through Margaret Banks to our recent correspondence.

However, I am afraid either you or Ms Banks have not kept up with recent initiatives of the federal government in supporting educational change in Australian schools.

How is it possible to repeat the same responsibility-passing nonsense from four years ago that “While the Government plays a leadership role and supports Australian schools, responsibility for the day-to-day management of schools, including allocation of staff such as teacher librarians, rests with state and territory education authorities.”

The Inquiry of 2010 into School Libraries and Teacher LIbrarians, as you must be aware, held 13 hearings, reviewed 387 submissions, and made 11 recommendations for the role the federal government could take in improving the quality of school libraries in Australian schools.  This goes far beyond mere “day-to-day management.”

To address the lack of trained teacher librarians, the federal government can offer scholarships for teacher librarian training.

It can collect workforce data, develop national guidelines,  tie resource funding of new BER libraries to qualified staffing, preserve teacher librarian staffing under National Partnership Agreements and require that literacy programs and other national curricula explicitly recognize the central role school libraries have in student achievement, literacy attainment, and preparation for post-secondary success.

Many of these initiatives are recommended in the Report.  Most were asked for in the original petition from 1600 citizens to then Education Minister, Julia Gillard, in November 2009, a prelude to the Inquiry. Since then, a further 1400 citizens have respectfully signed the petition.

You are asked to view this petition and its signatories at <http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/a-qualified-teacher-librarian-in-every-school.html> Click on signatures and read the views of voters.

As our petition states:

We, the undersigned, call on the federal government to ensure that all Australian primary and secondary students have access to a school library and a qualified teacher librarian.

As it has done in the past, the federal government is in a position to influence state school library funding and staffing. To do this, they can: collect national data on school library staffing, funding, and scheduling; tie funding so that states can and must adequately staff and fund school library programs and services; require that literacy programs and other national curricula should explicitly recognize the central role school libraries have in student achievement, literacy attainment, and preparation for post-secondary success; develop national school library standards; increase teacher librarian training positions in university programs.

All Australian students deserve 21st century schools staffed by 21st century professionally qualified teacher librarians.

We ask for a considered reply this time to our request for the federal government to respond to the Report of the Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians.

Thank you,

Georgia Phillips

for

The Hub: Campaign for Quality School Libraries in Australia

Resending Petition Update Today

Thank you to all who have supported our petition for Quality School Libraries in Australia.  The original was sent two years ago on 16 November 2009 with 1600 signatures.  An update will now be sent to Julia through Peter Garrett, who needs to be informed of the fact that the federal government DOES have a role to play in education nationally (hmm, thought Julia might have shown him a few of the current federal initiatives….and our Inquiry Report.)

So call out all teacher librarian and school library supporters today who have not yet signed to sign our petition now.  But please don’t sign again as I am having to spend the day eliminating all the duplicate signatures name by name.  We need to have a valid petition, even though I know you REALLY care!

There IS a role for the federal government to play in supporting TL training, developing national guidelines, collecting workforce data, tying resource funding, preserving TL staffing under National Partnership Agreements and requiring that literacy programs and other national curricula explicitly recognize the central role school libraries have in student achievement, literacy attainment, and preparation for post-secondary success.

We are frankly appalled that Peter Garrett is giving us the same message which federal parliamentarians fobbed us off with four years ago. Peter Garrett, time to come back from apparently being Lost in Space and Time!

 

It’s Back to the Future with Peter Garrett

Your letters are being answered, but Garrett’s office seems to have gone through some time warp!  Replying to your requests for a government response to the teacher librarian Inquiry Report, our federal education minister Peter Garrett is repeating the cop out from four years ago: “responsibility for the day-to-day management of schools, including allocation of staff such as teacher librarians, rests with state and territory education authorities.” (See full reply here.)

It appears that our minister has not read the Inquiry Report.

It appears that our minister does not know that the federal government is taking a HUGE interest in controlling what happens in our schools.

It appears that our minister does not know that the federal government funds the training of specialist teachers such as pre-school teachers.

It appears that our minister does not know that the federal government directly influences territory schools.  It has demanded, mandated, English-only in schools and tied funds to fulfilment of that requirement in the Northern Territory.

It appears that our minister does not know that the federal government funds universities with teacher and teacher librarian training courses.

It appears that our minister does not know that the federal government can intervene in other state areas of responsibility, such as health care.

Maybe he needs to be told. Has he looked at the recommendations? They certainly don’t recommend telling the states how to staff their schools.  Instead they ask for the workforce data to be collected, for a national digital and information policy to be developed, for funding for a core set of online databases, for additional MySchool library data provision, for longitudinal studies, for ideas to enhance partnerships and the establishment of a national dialogue on training needs.

Where does it say that the federal government will direct states and territories in their staffing?!!

Of course, the Inquiry recommendations should have also included a national policy on school library services, including staffing recommendations, and the immediate need for funding of tertiary training places.

Even then, we know the federal government doesn’t want to tell the states what to do.  Ha!  That’s not what the National Curriculum and AITSL and NPAs and MySchool and NAPLAN are all about, or is it?

I think Peter Garrett needs to be told, don’t you?

Email Peter.Garrett.MP@aph.gov.au  or use his feedback form.

Campaign Update

On 13 October the Hub did a mass mailout to all 3000+ signers of our petition A Qualified Teacher Librarian in Every School. Thanks to all of you parents and authors and TLs and teachers who have contacted local federal MPs to urge a government response to the Report into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians in 21st Century Australia.  And thank you, especially, to those who are keeping us notified of your progress through hellohub@gmail.com.  We particularly hope to hear back from the TLs in the electorates of Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor!  And to those who have MPs who are still spouting the old cliche that this is a state issue, tell them to get with the fact there was a FEDERAL inquiry, a FEDERAL response with 11 recommendations for the FEDERAL government to act upon!!  Or it’s time their ignorance was rewarded by being turned out of office!

If you haven’t contacted your local federal MP yet, please do so asap.  Use or adapt the sample letter given or better yet, talk to them on the phone, like one ACT TL whose local member was astounded and wanted more facts on staffing of school libraries in the ACT!

Secondly, the Hub intends to resend our petition to Julia Gillard.  The original was sent two years ago on 16 November with 1600 signatures.  It would be great to have twice that to send by 1st November.  The final House sitting is 24 November, so call out all teacher librarian and school library supporters who have not yet signed to sign our petition now.

We don’t stop until there is the action our students need for improved literacy and learning!

Teacher Librarians Ramp Up Campaign

See the latest Education Review and ring or email your federal MP today.

ACT NOW for Inquiry Report Response.

A teacher in WA has written to Perth members Stephen Smith and Julie Bishop:

To the Honourable Stephen Smith and Honourable Julie Bishop,

I am writing to you to encourage you to consider taking to cabinet the issue of Teacher Librarians in Australian Schools.  I was involved in writing a P&C submission to the House Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians in 2010 which was included in the final report to Parliament (Giralang Primary School, ACT).  I have worked as a teacher-librarian for 2.5 of my 7 years of teaching in primary schools, here in WA and previously in the ACT.  I wish to encourage you to follow up on this issue as I, and many other educators, parents and advocates of schools, are disappointed at the lack of commitment to school libraries by individual schools, state Department of Education’s and the Federal Government, both currently and previously.

I call on the federal government to ensure that all Australian primary and secondary students have access to a school library and a qualified teacher librarian.

As it has done in the past, the federal government is in a position to influence state school library funding and staffing. To do this, it can:

• collect national data on school library staffing, funding, and scheduling;
• tie funding so that states can and must adequately staff and fund school library programs and services;
• require that literacy programs and other national curricula should explicitly recognize the central role school libraries have in student achievement, literacy attainment, and preparation for post-secondary success;
• develop national school library standards;
• increase teacher librarian training positions in university programs.

The eleven report recommendations are not costly nor difficult and aim to advance student literacy and learning through the collection of data including a workforce gap analysis, extending programs for the training of teacher librarians, supporting Australian research similar to that overseas which has demonstrated the link between school library staffing, funding and scheduling with student achievement and literacy, lowering the cost of online databases for schools, and development of a national policy on information and digital literacy.

I would also like a body be set up to formulate up-to-date guidelines for school library staffing and funding as asked for in many of the 387 submissions. The government should also fund the placement of teachers in teacher librarian programs to meet the severe decline in numbers in most of our states and territories.

Lastly I ask you to show your commitment by signing the School Library Service Declaration at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/school-library-service-declaration.html

It is the responsibility of federal and state and territory governments to maximise educational outcomes for all Australian students through quality school library services with qualified staff.

Thank you for your consideration and support,

Dorothy Hepburn

(Primary School Teacher – Teacher Librarian)

NORTH PERTH, WA

______________________________________________________________________________ Another teacher librarian wrote in SA to his local MP (who was on the original House Inquiry committee). He will now try to follow up with a phone call.                                          

Dear Mr Zappia,

I call on the federal government to ensure that all Australian primary and secondary students have access to a school library and a qualified teacher librarian. It is important that the government acts now to respond to the Inquiry into school libraries and teacher librarians in Australian schools before the end of the year.

Personally, I am a qualified teacher librarian (M.Ed Teacher Librarianship) which means that not only can I teach comfortably within a classroom but as a Teacher Librarian I am able to work to ensure the valuable resources provided by state and Federal government funds are properly used within schools to achieve effective educational outcomes for students.

I live in Golden Grove and currently work at Paralowie School R-12 but have worked in many schools as a teacher and teacher librarian,  including Valley View Secondary School in the Makin electorate. Paralowie is a very large Reception to Year 12 school, and through the support of our principal we are lucky to have three qualified teacher libarians (two secondary, including myself, and one primary). The engagement of information, reading, literature and education within our school library (which we call a Resource Centre) that occurs across all year levels through the employment of qualified teacher librarians could not be replicated by a non-qualifed School Service Officer.

Unfortunately, our example at Paralowie is not the trend across Australia. Recently, I have heard that the teacher librarian at X will be retiring and at this stage will not be replaced next year. This is a very sad state of affairs, as the X Library was once one of the most well resourced and suitably staffed school libraries in South Australia. Similar misinformed actions have been occuring in the schools across Australia, where due to the lack of funds and support for school libraries, schools are ignorantly believing that Google will teach our students the information skills that they require in the 21st Century.

This is not about simply protecting our jobs as teacher librarians. Like many teacher librarians, I am more than qualified to teach in a classroom and have done so for over ten years. I have taught a wide range of students, subject areas and many diffferent and difficult schools across Adelaide and South Australia. My role of teacher librarian gives me the opportunity to connect valuable information and educational resources to students. As teacher librarian, I provide teachers with the best and most up-to-date resources and help teach valuable 21st Century research skills to students. Most recently this has occured with my support of the new SACE subject called Research Project. This is something that someone without the dual qualifications of teacher and librarian would not be able to do.

The eleven report recommendations are not costly nor difficult and aim to advance student literacy and learning through the collection of data including a workforce gap analysis, extending programs for the training of teacher librarians, supporting Australian research similar to that overseas which has demonstrated the link between school library staffing, funding and scheduling with student achievement and literacy, lowering the cost of online databases for schools, and development of a national policy on information and digital literacy.

I would also like a body be set up to formulate up-to-date guidelines for school library staffing and funding as asked for in many of the 387 submissions. The government should also fund the placement of teachers in teacher librarian programs to meet the severe decline in numbers in most of our states and territories. 

Lastly I ask you to show your commitment by signing the School Library Service Declaration at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/school-library-service-declaration.html

It is the responsibility of federal and state and territory governments to maximise educational outcomes for all Australian students through quality school library services with qualified staff.

Thank you for your consideration and support,

Adam Fitzgerald MEd. (Teacher Libarianship), Grad. Dip. Ed. BA.

SA

Bookmarks for Garrett

Calling all Australian supporters of school libraries.  Minister for Education, Peter Garrett, needs a reminder bookmark before Monday 10th October to remind him to respond to the school library inquiry report.   Let’s inundate his office with reminder bookmarks.  There are three to a page and are best printed on A4 borderless.  Include your name and address for best effect.  Fold each one and fix the two sides together. Get friends and colleagues to do the same and mail to

The Minister for Education, Early Childhood and Youth

PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

22 September: Breaking News in

Education Review by Natasha Egan “Teacher Librarians Step Up Campaign“

Peter Garrett, your time is up NOW

It has now been over three months since the report on the federal Inquiry into school libraries and teacher librarians has been tabled in parliament. (Listen to MP Karen Andrews from the education committee speak to the report on YouTube.) It is time to urge the government to respond.

Use, or adapt, this letter to call on your local federal member to let federal Education Minister, Peter Garrett, know it’s time.

Then use this second letter to call on your local state/territory member to declare their support for school libraries.

Both letters ask for them to sign up to a School Library Service Declaration.  Please return any signed declarations to hellohub@gmail.com  for posting.

It’s time for the federal and state governments to commit to quality school library services.