NOTE: This was written to be posted in September, but somehow didn't get published. How appropriate to have it now in January as a reminder that personal professional growth is a good thing in winter as a way to finish the school year strong. I hope the PSEL rubric is helpful to you - now read on to see what it is!
Texan Julie Todaro ended her term as President of the American Library Association in June 2017. With that job came the opportunity to lead an initiative that would have broad impact on ALA members and other library professionals. Julie chose to build on Libraries Transform, an ALA public awareness campaign. Those "Because" statements come from Libraries Transform.
Julie chose the theme Libraries Transform: The Expert in the Library.
To build her broad initiative, she selected a steering committee of strong librarians from all kinds of libraries. The school subgroup was co-chaired by me, Sara Kelly Johns and Susan Ballard – a Texan and 2 past Presidents of AASL. We in turn selected a committee that included strong practitioners from across the country to begin the work of locating resources that would support school librarians across the US, AASL members or not, to develop stronger expertise in all aspects of school libraries.
Initially, we gathered resources that generally discussed competencies, dispositions, value and measurables, leadership and collaboration, and advocacy resources. We build a LibGuide which is now open to all: Todaro/ALA Initiative School Libraries Workspace "Libraries Transform: The Expert in the School Library. But then Julie challenged us to develop a rubric with supporting resources that would push librarians in to improve their practice. Susan Ballard’s work in New Hampshire introduced her to, and she showed us, the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSELs), a list of competencies for building and district level school administrators – like principals. They had 10 competencies, but none specified Literacy which we felt core to school librarianship - so we added #11.
We determined to adapt the PSELs for school librarians, keeping the administrative vocabulary but imposing library functions. So, then we had 11 competencies – just the beginning. Then our committee went to work building a rubric and locating useful resources to support any librarian deciding personally where to focus improvement, and then be able to read already curated articles to do just that.
1. Mission, Vision and Core Values - Effective School Library leaders develop, advocate, and enact a shared mission, vision, and core values of high-quality education and academic and/or professional success and well-being of each learner.
2. Ethical Principles and Professional Norms – Effective School Library leaders act ethically and according to professional norms to promote each learner’s academic success and well-being and/or practitioners’ professional success.
3. Equity and Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness - Effective School Library leaders strive for equity and inclusivity of educational opportunity, and culturally and linguistically responsive practices to promote each learner’s academic and/or professional success and well-being.
4. Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment - Effective School Library leaders design, deliver and support intellectually rigorous and coherent systems of curriculum, instruction and assessment to promote each learner’s academic and/or professional success and well-being.
5. Community of Care and Support for Students - Effective School Library Leaders cultivate an inclusive caring and supportive school community that promotes each learner’s academic and/or professional success, personal interests and well-being.
6. Professional Capacity of School Personnel - Effective School Library leaders develop their personal professional capacity and practice to best support other school personnel in order to promote each learner’s academic and/or professional success and well-being.
7. Professional Community for Teachers and Staff - Effective School Library leaders foster development of a professional community of teachers and other professional staff to promote each learner’s academic and/or professional success and well-being.
8. Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community - Effective School Library leaders engage families and the community in meaningful, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial ways to promote each learner’s academic and/or professional success and well-being.
9. Operations and Management - Effective School Library leaders manage resources and operations to promote each learner’s academic and/or professional success and well-being by creating an inviting environment, providing a flexible program, developing the collection, curating and organizing the resources, integrating digital and technology access, managing appropriate funding and encouraging critical thinking to create a community of lifelong learners.
10. School Improvement - Effective School Library leaders act as agents of continuous improvement to promote each learner’s academic and/or professional success and well-being.
11. Literacy and Reading – Effective School Library leaders promote reading for learning, personal growth, and enjoyment (and) are aware of major trends in children's and young adult literature. They select reading materials in multiple formats to support reading for information, pleasure, and lifelong learning. They use a variety of strategies to reinforce classroom reading instruction to address the diverse needs and interests of all readers. Literacy takes many forms (EX: digital, information, cultural, etc.) that all rely on the foundational literacy of reading.The short title is the School Librarian-PSELs, but the real title that tells you what we offer is the School Librarian PSEL Personal Professional Growth Tool for Self-Assessment Using School Librarian-PSELCompetencies 1-11. The full document is cross referenced, rubric to resources and resources back to rubric. There is no scoring, or any intent that an administrator use it for evaluation. It is just for YOU to become better at what you already do pretty well. You might view yourself as Ineffective on one competency, Highly effective on some others, and in between (Emerging or Effective) on the rest. That’s pretty normal – take this opportunity to get better at anything that is your goal for this semester or year. And then set another goal.
We hope that school librarians in Texas will take full advantage of this tool. How will you complete the Expert badge now. I’m an Expert in ____________________. Go ahead – make a plan! Your students will appreciate even better service in their favorite school library.
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