Learning cannot occur without professional staff

The new Springfield High School is beautiful and an example of how local communities and school boards create the type of facilities and opportunities in which students can grow and learn. But learning does not occur without trained, professional staff. Sadly, there are and have been no certified school librarians working in any of the Springfield School District’s school libraries in over five years.

So, what’s not happening without librarians? 43 student curriculum standards that the Pennsylvania Department of Education has endorsed are not being mastered without school librarians teaching them. These are not just research skills, but essential information life skills like recognizing the difference between dubious and trustworthy websites, interpreting bias and propaganda, and staying safe on the Internet. When in the workforce, the information students select online will determine choices they make throughout their lives, including making good financial, social, medical, and career choices.

Students do not instinctively know how to navigate and interpret what they find on the Internet today. According to a Scholastic report, “75% have no idea how to locate articles and resources they need for their research. 60% don’t verify the accuracy or reliability of the information they find. 44% do not know how to integrate knowledge from different sources.” Students entering universities will be at a distinct disadvantage from those who have practiced these skills in their high school library programs. A 2019 Stanford University study found that two-thirds of students couldn’t tell the difference between an advertisement and a news story on the Internet.

Research further suggests that higher graduation rates are found in schools staffed with certified school librarians than in schools without librarians. According to a 2012 Pennsylvania study, standardized test scores in both reading and writing were consistently higher in schools with librarians versus those without. That study also verified that the most vulnerable learners – those who are economically disadvantaged, Hispanic, Black, and those with disabilities— benefit proportionally more than all students combined in schools with school librarians. In fact, where school librarians were eliminated, tests scores declined.

Beautiful schools do not learners make! When district leaders choose to eliminate school librarian positions, they deprive students of opportunities to learn, threaten academic and reading achievement, and perpetuate educational inequities. It’s time for the Springfield School District to reevaluate their position on employing certified school librarians in their school libraries.

Students do not instinctively know how to navigate and interpret what they find on the Internet today. According to a Scholastic report, “75% have no idea how to locate articles and resources they need for their research. 60% don’t verify the accuracy or reliability of the information they find. 44% do not know how to integrate knowledge from different sources.”