No Child Left Behind

What is No Child Left Behind?
Why does it matter to libraries?
Current Status
Talking Points
Other Information
Improving Literacy Through School Libraries

Last Updated: February 28, 2008

What is No Child Left Behind?

In 2001, with strong bipartisan support, the nation embarked on an ambitious school reform plan entitled the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (P.L. 107-110). Among other things, NCLB requires states to set high standards for all students and holds schools accountable for the results. Further, it requires that there be a state certified teacher in every classroom.

Why does it matter to libraries?

“I was talking to my college-age children about which teacher had the biggest impact on them. All three agreed that the most beneficial learning took place in the school library. This is where they learned the skills to be successful in college and as life-long learners. They felt that they were more prepared than many of their college classmates when it came to the skills they needed to do research and to write college papers. Their classroom teachers had the opportunity to collaborate with the librarian, devising projects which met the state standards as well as gave them needed skills.Our family motto is, ‘You don’t need to know everything; you just have to know where and how to look for what you need to know.’ With our school librarian’s help, they have those skills.”

-Kim Porter, a mother and kindergarten teacher from Mount Gilead, OH.
Quoted from the Ohio Education Library Media Association's report on school libraries.

ALA applauds the objectives of NCLB, but believes the same standards being applied in our classrooms should be extended to our nation's school libraries - that every school library should be staffed by a state certified school library media specialist.

Section 1119 of NCLB outlines the minimum qualifications needed by teachers and paraprofessionals who work in any facet of classroom instruction. It requires that states develop plans to achieve the goal that all teachers of core academic subjects be state certified by the end of the 2005-2006 school year.

Yet, despite the vital role school libraries play in helping meet those requirements, NCLB is silent when it comes to the qualification of those individuals in charge of our school libraries. School librarians fill multiple roles - teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator - ensuring that students and staff are effective users of information and ideas.

School libraries are critical partners in ensuring that states and school districts alike meet the reading requirements that are part of NCLB as well as Congress' unequivocal commitment to ensuring that every child can read by the end of third grade. Congress recognized the important role school libraries play in increasing literacy and reading skills when they created the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program as part of NCLB (Title I, Part B, Subpart 4, Sec.1251).

Multiple studies have affirmed that there is a clear link between school library media programs that are staffed by an experienced school library media specialist and student academic achievement. In states as dissimilar as Alaska, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, three recent statewide studies show that a strong library media program helps students learn more and score higher on standardized achievement test than their peers in library-impoverished schools.

See Scholastic's School Libraries Work! (2008 Edition) (PDF)

When it comes to our children's education, we must ensure that they receive the best instruction possible from competent, qualified instructors. This is true in the classroom and should be true in our school libraries. Education is not exclusive to the classroom; it extends into school libraries and so should the qualification we demand of our school librarians. To be a critical part of a comprehensive and renewed strategy to ensure that students learn to read (and to read well), every school library should be staffed by a highly qualified, state certified library media specialist and every school should have a school library.

Current Status

The Countdown is On to Save School Libraries

We need your help – ALL LIBRARIANS AND LIBRARY ADVOCATES – to ensure the inclusion of the Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLs) Act in the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

This is the single most important piece of legislation concerning school libraries that will come before Congress this year. Reauthorization of this bill is critical to the future of school libraries.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor will both soon be considering reauthorization of the NCLB. In order for the SKILLs Act to be included in NCLB – that is, to place a state-certified school library media specialist in every school – each member of the House and Senate must co-sponsor the SKILLS Act.

If your Members' names do not appear as co-sponsors, please call their offices immediately and request that they support the SKILLs Act. If your Members' names DO appear on this bill, contact and thank them for the continued support of school libraries and school library media specialists.

Sponsors:

Raul Grijalva (AZ-7)
Vernon Ehlers (MI-3)

Co-Sponsors:

Robert E. Andrews (NJ-1)
John Barrow (GA-12)
Ben Chandler (KY-6)
Steve Cohen (TN-9)
John Conyers (MI-14)
Jerry Costello (IL-12)
Chaka Fattah (PA-2)
Bob Filner (CA-51)
Bart Gordon (TN-6)
Gene Green (TX-29)
Luis V. Gutierrez (IL-4)
Mazie Hirono (HI-2)
Tim Holden (PA-17)
Paul Kanjorski (PA-11)
Patrick Kennedy (RI-1)
Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2)
Dave Loebsack (IA-2)
Zoe Lofgren (CA-16)
James McGovern (MA-3)
Michael Michaud (ME-2)
James Moran (VA-8)
Charles Pickering (MS-3)
Steven Rothman (NJ-9)
Janice Schakowsky (IL-9)

Sponsors:

Jack Reed (RI)

Co-Sponsors:

Thad Cochran (R-MS)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

The bill number in the house is H.R 2864, and in the Senate it's S. 1699.

When contacting your Members prepare yourself to state why this issue is of critical importance:

The SKILLs Act

Requires school districts, to the extent feasible, to ensure that every school within the district employs at least one state-certified school library media specialist in each school library;
Establishes as a state goal that there be at least one state-certified school library media specialist in every public school no later than the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year;
Broadens the focus of training, professional development, and recruitment activities to include school library media specialists;
Ensures that funds will serve elementary, middle, and high school students;
Requires books and materials to be appropriate for and engage the interest of students in all grade levels and students with special learning needs, including English language learner.

Talking Points

Multiple studies have affirmed that there is a clear link between school library media programs that are staffed by a school library media specialist and student academic achievement. Across the United States, research has shown that students in schools with good school libraries learn more, get better grades, and score higher on standardized test scores than their peers in schools without libraries.

Academic Librarians: School libraries are KEY to ensuring college readiness.

Public Librarians: School library media specialists give students the skills they need to utilize your library to its fullest extent.

Long regarded as the cornerstone of the school community, school libraries are no longer just for books. Instead, they have become sophisticated 21st century learning environments offering a full range of print and electronic resources that provide equal learning opportunities to all students, regardless of the socio-economic or education levels of the community – but only when they are staffed by school library media specialists trained to collaborate with teachers and engage students meaningfully with information that matters to them both in the classroom and in the real world.

Only about 60 percent of our school libraries have a full-time, state-certified school library media specialist on staff.

With limited funding and an increased focus on school performance, administrators are trying to stretch dollars and cut funds across various programs to ensure that maximum resources are dedicated to improving student academic achievement.

Because NCLB does not highlight the direct correlation between school library media specialists and increased student academic achievement, library resource budgets are increasingly being used to mitigate the effects of budgetary shortfalls.

Other Information

AASL Report: School Libraries Count! A National Survey of School Library Media Programs 2007
Public law print of PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (PDF)
SKILLs Act (at Library of Congress website)
- H.R. 2864
- S. 1699