Project Achievement

A national initiative to collect and present evidence at the local level that links school library media programs to student achievement, 2003-05

Sponsored by:

David V. Loertscher
http://www.davidvl.org

Any credentialed library media specialist is invited to participate
(sorry, no paraprofessionals or support personnel, please).

To participate, send an email message to: David Loertscher
at davidlmc@qwest.net
(Postal address: 312 South 1000 East, Salt Lake City UT 84102)

There is no charge to participate, but those who do are asked to commit to collect evidence of their program during the current school year and present that evidence to administrators, faculties groups, school boards, and try to get press coverage in the school, district, and community where the library media program is present. In addition, a brief report of your activities to David Loertscher would be appreciated for sharing beyond the local level.

Getting Started

1. Download the handout describing the initiative and providing suggestions on measures to consider. You may use and adapt any measures you wish from this handout and you may reproduce it for school library media specialists anywhere (as long as you don't sell it).
2. Send an email to davidlmc@quest.net announcing your participation.
3. Join the Achieve listserv to share ideas, solve problems, and help others with their projects.
   • To subscribe: Send an e-mail message to the list software, which in San Jose's case is called, listproc. At the To: prompt, type listproc@listproc.sjsu.edu and press [Enter]
     
     In the body, type subscribe achieve Firstname Lastname (where firstname is your first name and lastname is your Lastname.)
     Do not include anything else in the message.
   • To post to the list, simply send an email to: achieve@listproc.sjsu.edu
   • You can get help with the listserve at: http://witloof.sjsu.edu/ecommunication/electroniclists.htm
4. If you wish a much longer explanation of possible measures, you may purchase the book: Evidence-Based Practice for School Library Media Specialists by David V. Loertscher with Ross J. Todd available from http://www.lmcsource.com This book is not necessary to participate but contains longer explanations and a variety of other possible measures.

• What's Next?

• Decide what measures of your effectiveness would be appropriate for your LMC program in four major areas:
  • Reading
  • Collaborative Planning
  • Information Literacy
  • Technology
• Plan measures that you can present to your faculty, administrators, school boards, and parent groups linking your program to achievement.
• Compile the evidence.
• Analyze the evidence for program revision.
• Present the evidence.
• Check the website http://www.davidvl.org for materials on advocacy and for an extensive list of the research lining library media programs with achievement. These sources will help you make your presentation and will help you build an advocacy program to inform all your critical audiences.
• Invite others to join in this effort. The Lance studies may show that we make a difference in many many states, but that evidence may or may not be accepted by your local decision makers.
• Make a short report to David Loertscher describing what you did and the results - several paragraphs or a page would be great. We can post such reports on this website for others to use and emulate. Send the report to davidlmc@qwest.net