Program Development
and Evaluation Plan
for
Edit 6300, Fall 2005
Lauren Anderson
Diane Brackman
Lisa Stanton
The content and
opinions expressed on this Web page do not necessarily reflect the views of nor
are they endorsed by the
Table of Contents
Long Range and Short Range Objectives
Executive Summary
The mission of the
To accomplish this mission,
the following long-range goals and their corresponding short-range objectives
are delineated.
1. Improve the learning
environment in the media center to encourage more visitation.
- Get recommendations on how to correct acoustics
in the two-story rotunda.
- Install some sound barriers between the computer
area and the tables/lesson area
- Make the MC a more visually and aesthetically
appealing place to visit with interesting posters, plants, and perhaps
some beanbag chairs
- Set up a suggestion box in the media center
- Team up with the
2. Develop the fiction
collection to better reflect the diversity of the student population.
- Purchase more books written by Hispanic authors
- Purchase more books with Hispanic themes or
Hispanic characters
- Purchase materials about Asian Americans
- Purchase books with Asian themes and Asians as
the characters
3. Encourage leisure reading
in all students.
- Author visits
- Create a Book Club – include students and staff
- “Catch a Kid Reading” coupons/rewards to be
given to students by classroom teachers
4. Increase collaboration
with faculty and staff.
- Prepare a PowerPoint presentation to show at
Pre-Planning faculty meeting that delineates the collaboration services
- Purchase professional development
literature/materials for faculty use that will encourage collaboration
between faculty and media specialists
- Prepare a Media Center Newsletter that
advertises fun and interesting happenings occurring in the media center
(have prizes within the newsletter so that faculty will read it)
- Place the existing Pathfinders on the media
center website and make sure all faculty know where it is located
- Come for coffee on Friday mornings
- Offer staff development classes to the faculty
and staff
The NHS media center’s
objectives support the school’s RBES (Results Based Evaluation System) goal
this year, which is to increase the passing rate of target populations which
include Hispanic students. One of the
media center’s goals is for the media center to increase the collection of
books by Hispanic authors and books with Hispanic themes and characters.
The media center budget for
2006-2007 is $30,195 and has been logically apportioned to facilitate our
long-range goals. Thirty-five percent of
our budget has been set aside for development of our collection and correlates
with goals 2 and 4. Thirty percent of
our budget has been set aside for improving the learning environment and
correlates with goal 1. Fifteen percent
of our budget has been set aside for promotion of reading and correlates to
goal 3. Ten percent of our budget has
been set aside for collaboration with teachers and correlates with goal 4 and
finally, the last ten percent of our budget has been set aside for equipment
maintenance and repairs.
To insure that budget
priorities are always in line with the whole learning community’s needs, the
library media specialists will be a part of various committees and meetings
within the school so that the media specialists are kept abreast of the
information and literacy needs of the learning community. With much scrutiny, the acquisitions will be
made to promote and assist our students to meet curricular goals and
objectives.
To evaluate our media
center’s program, the media center committee will meet throughout the year and
input and information will be dispersed through this committee. The media specialists determine the long and
short-term goals for the media center in the spring of the year and ask for
approval and suggestions from the media center committee. The goals are reevaluated in the fall to make
sure the RBES school goal or goals are included in our plan for the year. A timeline for accomplishing the goals is
established by the specialists.
At the end of the year, a
checklist system is used by the media specialists to determine if the short
range goals have been met. Data will be
examined to see if each goal is met.
Discussions will include why a goal was not met and whether it needs to
be continued for the next year. After
the goals have been made for the following year, it will be presented to the
media committee for approval.
School Description
Norcross High School (NHS)
is a large metropolitan school outside of
NHS houses 2745
students. The 2005-2006 diversity is
divided into 33% White; 28% African American; 27% Hispanic, 11% Asian, and 1%
Multi.
Of the 2,745 students
enrolled this school year, there are 10.6% English Speakers of Other Languages
(ESOL). There are 7% of the students in
the special education programs being served through thirteen interrelated
classes, one Emotional Behavior Disorders class, one mild intellectually
disabled and three classes of moderately intellectually disabled. NHS has 24% of its population in the gifted
program. Forty-three percent of the NHS
population receives free or reduced lunch.
The faculty and staff of
Technology:
·
All the
computers in the building were replaced last February (2005) and have Windows
XP and updated software on them.
·
Every teacher
has a laptop computer which they can take home.
·
All teachers are
connected to a Lotus Notes server which has greatly improved communication
within the school.
·
Grades are kept
on an electronic program called IGPro.
·
Attendance is
kept on a program called ClassXP.
·
There are two
inter-related labs for classes to share.
·
The
·
The
·
Every classroom
has a television with remote, a VCR with remote, AverKey (unless they have a
LCD projector), and an overhead projector.
Opportunities:
·
International
Baccalaureate Program, which is an advanced study program that allows
successful students to receive college credit and almost guarantees acceptance
to upper-level colleges. NHS is the only
high school in
·
Seventeen
Advanced Placement classes are offered.
Programs:
·
After school
assistance program is offered through a Century 21 grant.
·
Seventh period
classes are offered so that students can “catch up” during the school year
instead of having to wait for summer school.
These classes are ideal for students who need additional time and
opportunity to learn in smaller group settings.
·
AVID program is
available for freshman students. This
program targets the student who is capable of college prep work but lacks the
support from home that pushes a student toward attending college. They are given assistance in study skills,
organizational skills and note-taking strategies. They take field trips to local college and
technical schools.
Philosophy
We believe a school library
media program should encourage an inquisitive mind, foster critical thinking
and creativity, assist members of the learning community in becoming effective
users of information and stimulate a life-long love of reading. It should be supportive of both federal and
state-mandated curriculum and the educators and students actively involved in
meeting such mandated curriculum requirements.
It should celebrate the community from which it originates and encourage
full participation of that community in all of its endeavors. Our program provides a variety of information
resources and technologies to satisfy the educational needs and interests of
our entire school community. Maintaining
a flexible schedule and being available to students and staff continuously
during school hours is an absolute. Our
school library media center is a place where a love of reading and all of the
benefits of such a love is emphasized and demonstrated daily. Effort is put forth to increase library
visitation and utilization on a daily basis.
At
Mission
Statement
The mission of the school
library media center is to encourage academic excellence by supporting the
school’s curriculum, assisting members of the learning community to become
effective users of information, and improving the learning environment of the
media center so that it will encourage frequent visitation that will stimulate
a life-long love of reading.
Long Range
and Short Range
|
|
|
Rationale |
Evaluation |
Comments |
|
Improve the learning
environment in the |
1) Get recommendations on how to correct acoustics in
the two-story rotunda. 2) Install some sound barriers between the computer
area and the tables/lesson area of the MC. 3) Make the MC more visually and aesthetically
appealing place to visit with interesting posters, plants, and perhaps some
beanbag chairs. 4) Set up a suggestion box in the media center. 5) Team up with the |
Learning and Teaching Information and Access
Delivery Principle 3: The library media program provides a climate that is
conducive to learning (IP p. 83). |
Checklist |
Making the media center’s
acoustics better supports the media center’s mission of assisting members of
the learning community to become effective users of information. By improving the
acoustics, teachers and students will be more comfortable in the MC and
frequent the MC more often. The posters, plants, or
bean bags will make the media center seem cozier. |
|
Develop the fiction
collection to better reflect the diversity of the student population. |
1) Purchase more books written by Hispanic authors. 2) Purchase more books with Hispanic themes or
Hispanic characters. 3) Purchase materials about Asian Americans. 4) Purchase books with Asian themes and Asians as the
characters. |
Learning and Teaching
Principle 7: Maintain a collection that is diverse in format and content to
support the learning needs of students and other members of the learning
community with a wide spectrum of abilities, backgrounds, needs, and learning
styles. (IP p. 68) |
Checklist |
Developing the collection
to better reflect the diversity of the student population supports the school’s
learning goal of increasing the passing rate of the target population which
is Hispanic, Black, and students on free or reduced lunch programs. With such a high Hispanic
population, we need more books that will target this group so they can enjoy
and discover a love for reading. Also need to enrich our
Asian collection. |
|
Encourage leisure reading
in all students. |
1) Author visits. 2) Create a Book Club – include students and staff. 3) “Catch a Kid Reading” coupons/rewards to be given
to students by classroom teachers. |
Learning and Teaching
Principle 6: The library media program
encourages and engages student in reading, viewing, and listening for
understanding and enjoyment. (IP p. 58). |
Checklist |
Inviting guests supports
the media center’s mission of promoting life-long reading by keeping students
up-to-date on the latest information and by connecting them to community
members who promote the benefits of information literacy. Creating a Book Club will
also support the media center’s mission of promoting lifelong reading. |
|
Increase collaboration
with faculty and staff. |
1) Prepare PowerPoint presentation to show at
Pre-planning faculty meeting that delineates our collaboration services. 2) Purchase professional development
literature/materials for faculty use that will encourage collaboration between
faculty and media specialists. 3) Prepare a Media Center Newsletter (have prizes
within it so they will read it). 4) Place the existing Pathfinders on the MC website
and make sure all teachers know where it is located. 5) Come for coffee on Friday mornings. 6) Offer staff development classes to the faculty and
staff. |
Learning and Teaching
Principle 3: The library media program models and promotes collaborative
planning and curriculum development. (IP p. 58). Learning and Teaching Principle
4: The library media program models
and promotes creative, effective, and collaborative teaching. (IP p. 58) |
Checklist |
This goal supports the
media center’s mission of assisting members of the learning community to
become effective users of information. The presentation will let
the staff know what we have to offer. The Pathfinders available
for their use will let them know we can do this for them in any subject. Having coffee in the MC
will attract people who will share and talk and a good MS will be able to
make suggestions on how they can help. |
Facilities
The
The checkout desk is near
the entrance/exit and across from that is an office where the LSTC’s work. There are two additional offices, a room with
computers set up for teacher use and the area where laminating is performed. There is a separate room for the video
collection. There are two storage rooms
for equipment.
Walkways are clear of
obstacles and traffic flows nicely.
Students with physical disabilities can and do circulate around the
library media center with little or no difficulties.
Recommended Changes:
·
The media
specialists need to be housed in the office across from the Help Desk which is
also near the entrance so they will have a better view of the media center. (There are large windows on this office that
face the media center.)
·
Make the space
less sterile by adding more posters and some plants. Perhaps some beanbag chairs would make the
area more enticing for leisure reading.
·
Check with the
·
The rotunda area
has a disturbing echo. This makes the
entire area less enticing for classes and/or students to use the area. Bring in the experts to see how this can be
corrected.
Barriers:
·
The largest
barrier to students being able to have access to the media center lies with the
new schedule this year whereby there is no “study hall” time during the day for
the students to come visit.
o The schedule is being analyzed and reviewed and
hopefully the schedule will change next year; the media center doesn’t have
control over the schedule but a media specialist will be on the committee that
is creating changes.
o All students need equitable and pervasive access to information,
resources and services so this is of utmost importance.
o To combat this problem, the media center is open
before and after school for student access.
·
The media center
needs to increase the inventory of books and periodicals that reflect the needs
of our diverse population. We have a 27
percent Hispanic population and this figure promises to grow to 50 percent in
the near future so we need to have books written by Hispanic authors and books
with Hispanic themes so that we attract and serve the entire student body. And since Asians comprise 11% of our
population, there is a need to increase this inventory as well.
·
There is a need
to ensure all students know how to access information successfully; this will
require more information literacy lessons taught by the library media
specialist and more collaboration with teachers. Another way to access a great deal of
students is to work with the Business Department to co-teach a lesson on
successful searches.
·
From the current
office location, the media specialist and parapro are unable to see when
students need assistance at the Help Desk.
They need to move to the office right across from the Help Desk.
Budgeting Plan
The purpose of the budget is
to meet the information and instructional needs of the learning community and
distribute funds in such a way that the goals of the media center are met. The media center budget will be administered
by using sound accounting procedures.
Part of preparing the budget will include maintaining current
information on the costs of resources, other expenses, and sources of funding
beyond the local budget. The media
committee will advise the media specialist on budgeting issues and purchases.
Budget Allowance per
Student: $11.00
Number of students: 2,745
Total Budget: $30,195
Rationale for Budget
A large portion of the
budget this year will go to improving the learning environment in the media
center. Some changes, such as noise
reduction through the use of sound barriers will be a big purchase, but will
probably be a one-time expense with very little upkeep. Also, in order to make the media center a
more visually appealing place, money will be needed for the purchase of
posters, plants, and furniture.
A significant portion of the
budget will also go to developing the collection. In order to develop the collection, new books
need to be purchased. Many of the books
that are purchased will be books that will be more appealing to the Hispanic
population in the school. However, in
order to keep the overall collection up to date, money will also be spent to
purchase new books for other various purposes.
In order to increase
collaboration between teachers and the media specialist, money will be spent on
things that will encourage teachers to visit the media center more often. Money will also be set aside for equipment
maintenance and repairs. Working
equipment is essential to increasing visitation and use of the media
center. Money will also be used to
promote reading. Tools and promotional
items that are used to encourage reading among all students will be purchased.
Media Committee
The media center will have a
media committee that will serve primarily as an advisory body to the media
specialists. A media specialist will be
the chairperson of the committee. Media
committee members may volunteer or be asked to serve on the committee. Each member of the committee is expected to
serve for at least one year. The media
committee will meet every second Thursday of each month in the media center immediately
after school. Minutes of each meeting
will be kept for future reference in a media center notebook.
The media committee will
consist of:
·
All paid media
center personnel (media specialists, parapros, etc.)
·
At least one teacher
from each department in the school
·
At least one
school technology specialist
·
At least one
administrator
·
At least one
parent
·
At least one
student
Responsibilities of the
·
To help align
the media center resources, services, and information literacy standards with
school goals and objectives.
·
To assist the
media specialist in creating objectives based on instructional goals.
·
To evaluate and
suggest revisions of media policies when needed.
·
To help the
media specialist create policies for use of instructional media and technology.
·
To make
recommendations that provides better accessibility to media services for staff,
students, and parents.
·
To assist the
media specialist in determining ways to support the curriculum.
·
To advise the
media specialist concerning budgeting and purchasing of materials.
·
To read
challenged materials and determine what action should be taken regarding those
items.
·
To advise the
media specialist as to how best educate patrons about copyright.
·
Develop a wish
list from each department of holdings that their department could use.
·
To discuss
ethical issues regarding media materials (like video usage) in the classroom
and give them clear-cut instructions on how the classroom teacher is
accountable. They are instructed to take
this information back to department meetings to share with their department.
Personnel
To be effective, a school
library media center program must be directed and maintained by at least one
certified media specialist and one media clerk.
Our media center program is staffed by two media specialists and one
media clerk. We also have student aides
and parent volunteers. The media
specialists will partner with the administration, educators, parents, and the
community to create a program that is accessible and useful to all
members. Each member of the media staff
has certain roles and responsibilities.
Media Specialist
The school library media
specialist is responsible for the overall administration of the school library
media program. In the act of administering this program, many
roles and responsibilities are necessary and become vital to the learning
community as a whole. According to Information Power: Building Partnerships for
Learning, these roles and responsibilities fall into four main categories:
teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program
administrator and are delineated as follows:
As a teacher:
- Collaborate with all members of the learning
community to analyze learning and information needs.
- Locate and use resources that will meet learning
and information needs.
- Understand, communicate, and teach resource
information.
- Stay current about research on teaching and
learning and be skilled in applying the research to a particular
curriculum need. In order to
accomplish this, the media specialists are members of several
organizations and attend several conferences per year that keep their
skills up-to-date and revitalized.
- Constantly update personal skills and knowledge
in order to work effectively with teachers, administrators, and other
staff.
- Provide teachers, administrators, and other
staff with specific opportunities to develop a high level of usable skills
in information literacy and information technology through staff
development opportunities.
As an instructional partner:
- Be a leader in developing policies, practices,
and curriculum that guide students to develop the full range of
information and communication abilities.
- Work closely with individual teachers in
designing authentic learning tasks and assessments for integrating
information and communication abilities required to meet subject matter
standards.
- Encourage teachers and students to identify
links across student information needs, curricular content, and a wide
variety of print, nonprint, and electronic information resources.
As an information specialist:
- Provide leadership and expertise in acquiring
and evaluating information resources in all formats.
- Bring an awareness of information issues into
collaborative relationships with teachers, administrators, students, and
others.
- Model for students and others strategies for
locating, accessing, and evaluating information within and beyond the
library media center.
- Be a master of sophisticated electronic
resources.
- Model for the entire learning community the
proper and ethical use of information available both in these
sophisticated electronic resources and other more traditional tools.
As a program administrator:
- Work collaboratively with members of the
learning community to define the policies of the library media program and
to guide and direct all activities related to it through the creation and
utilization of a media committee.
- Be an educated, knowledgeable, and proactive
advocate for the library media program.
- Provide the knowledge, vision, and leadership to
steer the program creatively and energetically into the twenty-first
century.
- Proficiently manage staff, budgets, equipment,
and facilities.
- Plan, execute, and evaluate the library media
program annually to ensure its quality and usefulness to the entire
learning community.
Media Clerk
Just as a media specialist
has certain roles and responsibilities, so does a media clerk. However, a media clerk’s responsibilities are
set by the media specialists and usually include day-to-day routine activities
that will insure the smooth running of the school library media center. In this way, the media specialists are free
to concentrate on collaboration with teachers, administrators, and other staff for
maximum utilization and integration of program resources and technologies.
Responsibilities will
include but are not limited to the following:
- Operate and maintain media-related equipment.
- Complete any and all typing of forms, reports,
correspondence, etc.
- Data entry and other tasks associated with media
center automation.
- Assist in training student aides and volunteers.
- Assist students and staff in utilizing and
operating equipment.
- Supervise small groups of students.
- Process materials according to established
routines.
- Assist in inventorying materials and equipment.
- Reshelf and maintain correct order of returned
materials.
- Schedule the use of equipment and materials.
- Fill teacher requests for materials.
- Prepare displays, informational posters, and
flyers.
- Help to maintain orderly, neat, and attractive
atmosphere in media center.
Student Aides
Student aides must complete
an application/interview process. Once
accepted as an aide, these students will be carefully trained to fulfill many
of the duties of a media clerk. They
will be supervised at all times and will be expected to abide by all legal and
ethical media center guidelines given to them on their first day in the media
center. Student aides will be assessed
regularly and will be changed with each new semester.
Volunteers
Volunteers from the
community are utilized in our library media program. They are a valuable asset as they provide a
direct connection to the community at large.
Volunteers are required to complete an application/interview process as
well. Clear-cut responsibilities are
assigned based on that volunteer’s particular area of strengths. Volunteers help with special needs or events
and assist where needed in the media center.
Planning and Evaluation
The purpose of the
evaluation plan is to:
·
Make sure that
all aspects of the media center stay current and student-centered
·
Determine how
well the program encourages students to become active members of the learning
community
·
Help the media
specialists focus on achieving long-range goals
·
Determine how
well the media center meets the information needs of the community
At the beginning of the
school year, the media committee will be formed and meetings will be scheduled
for the remainder of the year. The
responsibilities of the committee are discussed and suggestions are open for
discussion. See the Media Committee
section for complete details.
Throughout the school year, the
media specialists will work toward meeting long term goals by accomplishing the
short term goals. A timeline will be
followed as to how and when these goals will be attained. A “checklist” will utilized for marking them
as completed. The short term goals are
such that they were either accomplished or they were not. This “checklist” will be included in a media
committee notebook. The notebook will
have minutes of each media committee meeting, as well as notes regarding casual
discussions the media specialists have had during the year.
During the year, the media
specialists will collect data that confirms the short-term objectives were met. This information will be included in the
media center notebook. The data
collected will include:
- Pictures and purchase orders of any acoustic
improvements
- Pictures of any plants, posters or beanbag
chairs
- Picture of the suggestion box
- Picture of art students’ work displayed in the
media center
- Copies of purchase orders for Hispanic and Asian
related materials
- Pictures of any authors visiting our media
center
- Picture of the Book Club meeting in progress
- Copies of the coupons for “Catch a Kid Reading”
campaign
- Copy of the PowerPoint presentation given at a
faculty meeting; perhaps a picture of it being given to the faculty, too
- Copies of purchase orders where we’ve ordered
professional development materials for faculty use
- Copies of newsletters published throughout the
year
- Copies of pathfinders created during the year
while collaborating with teachers
- Copy of staff development offerings
- Picture of staff enjoying coffee
At the end of the school
year, the media specialists will discuss and analyze the goals for the year and
decide which goals were met and why some goals were NOT met. We will discuss whether to keep the goal for
the next year. The long term and short
term goals for the next year will be determined. These goals will be reevaluated in the fall
according to the local school goals (RBES) for the year. The specialists will determine a timeline for
the short term goals for the year.
Included in the media center
committee discussion at the end of the year will be whether we continue to follow
our philosophy and mission for the media center. Discussion will be focused on whether we are
supporting the curriculum of the school and whether the media center is
conducive to learning. We will be
looking for suggestions on how to improve the media center and its
effectiveness.
At the end of each school
year, the media center program will be evaluated by the media specialist and
the media committee. The evaluation will
primarily be used as a tool to determine what changes need to be made in the
media center program. The achievement of
short-range objectives and long-range goals will also be of particular
interest.
Questions that should be
addressed during the evaluation:
q What long-term goals were met?
q Do new long-term goals need to be established?
q What short-term objectives were met? Why or why not?
q What media policies need to be changed?
q What media services need to be added?
q What media services need to be changed?
q What changes need to be made in the budget?
q How well did the media center meet the needs of the
learning community?
q Do the goals of the media center align with the goals
of the school?
q How well do the practices of the media center align
with those in Information Power?
(For each of the previous
questions, supporting evidence should be given.)
After the media program has
been evaluated, the media committee will create an action plan to help the
media specialist implement any changes needed in the media center.
References
Ahlrich, D., BroeMackenzie,
C., Lines, A., & Payne, J. (2004). Program
Development and Evaluation Plan for
American Association of
School Librarians, & Association for Educational
Communications and Technology. (1998). Information power: building
partnerships for learning.
Evaluation
Plan. EDIT 6300.
Clayton County Public
Schools. (2000). You are the key: a
handbook for
library
media specialists. Retrieved
clayton.k12.ga.us/edusvc/instruct/media/Yoy%20Are%20the%20Key/index.htm
Wasman, A. M. (1998). New steps to service: common-sense advice
for the
school
library media specialist.