Memorandum

Crawford County Middle
School
Memorandum
To: Mr. Chafin
From: Darby Martin
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Crawford County Middle School’s media specialist, Mrs.
Sessions, on January 28th, 2021. At that time, we evaluated the school’s library media program using the
2016 Judy Serritella Exemplary Library Media Program Self-Evaluation Rubric. After completing the
evaluation, we determined that the library media program was considered basic in 16 areas, proficient in
3 areas, and exemplary in 2 areas. We came to the realization that there are many ways in which the
library media program at Crawford County Middle School can improve. While evaluating the program
with Mrs. Sessions, she expressed her desire to improve teacher collaboration and professional
development with the library media program. We identified these areas as a focus for this school year.
Below is a short summary of the results collected from our evaluation:
Exemplary areas:
 Both print and nonprint resources are available on a LAN throughout the school, and both
students and parents have access to library resources outside of the school.
 The OPAC is available on a LAN throughout the school and all resources are recorded in MARC
format making the weeding of out-of-date materials timely.
 A system media contact person maintains communication among Library Media Specialist in the
district.
Proficient areas:
 The media specialist selects resources and informs the teachers of these resources with
recommendations to support the needs of diverse learners.
 The media center is available with a flexible schedule to students and teachers regardless of
ability or disability.
 Based on the FTE, the library media center exceeds the minimum square footage requirements.
There are areas that can accommodate individual students, small groups, and whole classes.
 The school library media specialist sometimes promotes 24-7 access to electronic resources.
Basic areas:
 Information Literacy Skills curriculum is compromised of basic library media orientation skills
and instruction.
 When initiated by teachers, the Library Media Specialist participates in collaborative planning.
 The Library Media Specialist makes recommendations to students and provides basic orientation
and instruction on information literacy skills.
 Book displays reflect different aspects of the curriculum, holidays, and community interest to
support recreational reading.
 The Library Media Specialist leaves it to the classroom teacher to assess student achievement.
 The library has an inadequate technology infrastructure to support teaching and learning.
 Currently the library does not have a plan for updating or replacing current hardware.
 The library does not have a virtual presence of any kind.
 The Library Media Specialist occasionally attempts to integrate technologies into instruction to
reinforce the skills as set by the AASL Standards for the 21st-century learner.
 Technology tools to enhance instruction are rarely recommended to teachers and students.
 Crawford County Middle School does not meet the FTE requirements for a full-time media
specialist. There is a part-time media specialist present three days a week.
 Students are given access to GALIELO, but there is no promotion on instruction on how to use
the database.
 The School Media Specialist does not feel supported by the school administration and there is no
active committees to support library practices and implementation.
 The library media policy is out-of-date and is not updated regularly.
 The Library Media Specialist does not participate in staff development.
Action Plan for Improvement in Proficient Area
The evaluation indicated that the library media program was proficient in providing resources
and recommendations to support the needs of diverse learners. If teachers provide the school media
specialist with data from student assessments, the media specialist will be able to better support
students’ individual needs. Teachers can identify student weaknesses through the USA Testprep data
collected at the beginning and end of each unit and share these results with the media specialist. This can
provide the media specialist with data that they can use to help provide resources that can help improve
student performance.
Action Plan for Improvement in Basic Areas
Throughout the evaluation process, it was clear that Crawford County Middle School’s library
media program was basic in all areas of teacher, student, and library media specialist collaboration.
2
Communication and relationships need to be established between the school library media specialist,
students, and classroom teachers. A way to improve the collaboration between teachers and the school
media specialist, we need to host more frequent professional development that showcases the many tools
and strategies the school library media specialist can provide. In order to do this, the library media
specialist needs support from the administration to push this collaboration. Dedicated time during
PLC’s, at least once a month, would allow the media specialist to work closely will all content area
teachers to implement library and literacy skills into their classrooms. Teachers need to be aware that the
media specialist is there to assist both students and teachers inside and outside of the classroom. Provide
teachers with the opportunity to schedule lessons in the media center. This will give the media specialist
the ability to build relationships with students and provide them with individualized support and
suggestions. The goal is to build school wide communication and support. The media center should be a
focal point in the success of the students and teachers. By taking these steps, the media center can
become that focal point.

Memorandum

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Memorandum

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Memorandum

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Crawford County Middle

Below is a short summary of the results collected from our evaluation:

Action Plan for Improvement in Proficient Area

Action Plan for Improvement in Basic Areas

You might also like