The time is NOW

In Federal Way Public School libraries, qualified teacher-librarians and staff, in collaboration with the school community, will be the heart of teaching and learning. Libraries will provide access to quality collections and technologies, encourage joy in learning and extend curated services to all learners in a global society.

Reading Advocay

• Inspire a lifelong love of reading

Information Technology

• Teach essential research and 21st century technology skills
• Explicitly teach evaluation and analysis skills assessed on Smarter Balanced
• Use technology to teach students to communicate, collaborate and create.

Resource Management

• Provide equitable access to information for all staff and students
• Manage district assets in textbook and library collections
• Develop appealing, timely and relevant library collections

Our fourth grade reading scores are 20 points below where they were when we had full-time Teacher Librarians

National Research
Washington
Colorado
Illinois
Pennsylvania

Washington

• Students attending schools with certified teacher-librarians on staff perform better on standardized tests, and are more likely to graduate from high school than are students attending schools without certified teacher-librarians.

Washington

• Among schools who have a library facility, 66.4% employed a certified teacher-librarian; 48.4% full-time and 18% part-time.

Colorado

• Higher library staffing levels are linked to higher reading performance for elementary, middle, and high schools

Illinois

• Research consistently demonstrated that students score an average of 10-20% higher on reading achievement tests when their school has a strong library media program.

Pennsylvania

• For several student groups that tend to experience achievement gaps—economically disadvantaged, Hispanic, Black, and those with IEPS— Reading and Writing results are markedly better when those students attend a school with a librarian and library support staff, they benefit more proportionally than the general student population.

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Pennsylvania

• Students who have access to a full-time, certified librarian scored higher on the PSSA Reading Test than those students who do not have such access. This finding is true for all students, regardless of their socio‐economic, racial/ethnic, and/or disability status.

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New educational demands since 2006

• CCSS- emphasis on higher level and non-fiction reading
• SBAC- emphasis on reading and data evaluation and analysis
• 21st Century Technology Skills- for learning, creating, communicating and collaborating

Sources

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