Louisiana State School Board
Asked to Mandate Librarians
School media specialists appeared before the Louisiana state school board December 4 to urge them to require every elementary and middle school in the state to have a librarian.
Jill Fatzer, professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of New Orleans College of Education, cited studies of student achievement in other states showing that students at schools with librarians and well-equipped libraries score higher on reading and other standardized tests. “While children learn the basics of reading in the classroom, they gain their levels of reading proficiency and acquire expanded vocabulary only when they practice reading extensively on their own,” she told the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Currently BESE requires librarians only in high schools, although 75% of the state’s school districts also mandate librarians for elementary and middle schools, according to the state Department of Education. However, librarians feel the state requirement is necessary to prevent districts from cutting the positions when money is tight, as Jefferson Parish attempted earlier this year.
Although most members supported the idea of requiring librarians at all levels, they put off a decision until they could hear from superintendents, the Associated Press reported December 5.
Posted December 10, 2001.
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