survey based recommendations

Survey-Based

Recommendations For Hillcrest School Media Center

Taghreed Alhaddab - Spring 2012 - EDST6308 Organizing and Administering School Library Media and Technology Programs Survey-Based Recommendations

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About Hillcrest School Hillcrest School, is a public elementary school located in Somerset, New Jersey, and serves grades PK-4 in the Franklin Township School District. The school has more than 500 students and only one media center.

Survey Background: Before writing the survey questions, I had few thoughts and ideas about what an ideal school media center should look like. Based on my ideas, I articulated a vision, and then constructed survey questions based on my vision. I actually created two different surveys, one for teachers and one for the media specialist. While creating my survey, I also created a consent letter that allows me to officially start this survey. The consent letter was approved and signed by the district superintendent based on the school principal request. After that, the survey questions were distributed to teachers in different grade-levels, and different survey questions were given to the media specialist. The reason why I gave two different surveys, is because I wanted to see different prospectives from both teachers and the media specialist. This will give me the chance to make fair and accurate recommendations.

Survey-Based Recommendations

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Survey Participants:

The main focus of this survey is to see if

Eight teachers from different grade-levels (K-4) participated in the first survey by giving their opinions about the media center and the media specialist work.

teachers receive full cooperation from the media specialist and if they have any opinion in

The second survey participant was the media specialist. The media specialist is the core and the major factor of any successful media center, and all the questions in this second survey were formed

selecting materials that meet their curriculum needs.

based on this fact.

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Survey Questions

 For Teachers -Has the media-specialist been helpful when you asked for assistance?

-Do you collaborate together?

The Media-Specialist: - Demonstrates interest and enthusiasm for the requests of students and teachers?

- Informs staff members of new acquisitions?

-Assists teachers in selecting the appropriate media for units of study?

-Involves faculty in the selection of media and equipment to meet the curriculum needs?

- Ensures that students are instructed in library skills?

- Cooperates by giving and accepting new ideas?

- Implements procedures for the organization of media and equipment?

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 For the Media-Specialist -Can the library accommodate a full class of students at one time?

If NO, Why? - Do you attend and participate in library media conferences and workshops offered through professional organizations? If yes, identify.

- Do you prepare and submit an annual school library budget request to your school administration?

-Is there a regular communication between your library and the local public library? If NO, why Not? -Is there a regular communication between your library and other school libraries in the district? If NO, why not?

- Do you have a library advisory committee that includes teachers, parents, administrators and/or community members? If NO, why not?

- Do you provide regular communication about your library media programs and services to teachers, administrators, parents? How? - Do you participate in curriculum development team? If NO, why not?

- Does the principal demonstrate support for the library media programs? How?

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Survey Results Teachers' survey results 100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% 1st Question

2nd Question

3rd Question

4th Question yes

5th Question no

6th Question

7th Question

8th Question

9th Question

I do not know

Important Findings: 57% of teachers said, there is no collaboration between them and the media specialist.

100% of teachers said, the media specialist does not inform them about new acquisitions.

71% of teachers said, the media specialist does not involve them in the selection of media and equipment.

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In the Media Specialist Survey...

B

ased on the media specialist's answers, several things were revealed. The media specialist has a fixed schedule and teaches several classes a day. She used to attend library media conferences (NJASL), but she is not attending this conference anymore due to budget issues.

Even though the media specialist prepares an annual budget for the library acquisitions, she never included a request for financial support for such workshops and conferences.

Important Results

Furthermore, the media specialist, based on her answers, does not communicate with the local public library because she does not see a benefit of such communication, but on the other hand, there is regular communication between her and other media specialists in the district.

Surprisingly, the media specialist in Hillcrest school does not have such an advisory committee and thinks it is actually not necessary to have an advisory committee on the elementary school level.

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Recommendations For the Media-Specialist

Collaboration and Communication with teachers - Conduct a Survey at least once a year.

- Have a regular communication with teachers.

- Create a semi-annual brochure that mentions in details new acquisitions to the media center.

Involve teachers in the selection of materials Teachers must have an opinion when it comes to selecting material that meet their curriculum needs. The media specialist is really encouraged to have regular meetings with teachers to see what kind of acquisitions are needed to fulfill curriculum needs.

Plan an annual Budget - An annual budget that is based on solid findings (surveys) is essential for any media specialist.

- Include a request for financial support to attend library conferences.

- Starts a researcher committee to research for grants and funds for the media center.

- Conduct fundraising events.

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Start an Advisory Committee - Be politically savvy and involves others in decision making.

- Advisory Committee composed of an active teachers, administrators, parents, technology or curriculum coordinators, and even students.

- Benefits of the Advisory Committee.

Communicate with the local Public Library - It is very important to have a cooperation between school media centers and public libraries in categories such as: networks and resource sharing, building collections, information services and instruction, and reading and literacy.

- Promote public library programs.

- Enrich students' knowledge about the local public library by encouraging participating in summer reading programs offered in the local public library, or simply by providing information on how to obtain a public library card.

Create a Website - Updated weekly, clear, easy to navigate, organized, contain the media center policies, events, and announcements.

- Promote the media center, its programs, and provide information and instructions in general.

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A last recommendation...

Fixed Schedule - Since the media specialist has a fixed schedule, it is recommended to create a year-long curriculum. The curriculum is to train students and add more difficult concepts overtime.

- It is also recommended that teachers accompany their classes to reinforce the important points in the lesson with students later on, and to prevent discipline problems from arising.

- It is strongly recommended to change from fixed schedule to flexible

schedule.

Flexible Schedule - Is in the same track with educational best practices since flexible scheduling allows: - resource-based learning and encourages critical thinking.

- It also allows teachers to bring their classes to the media center at any time during the school day specially if they need to come for instructional purposes.

- It also allows students to visit the media center when they need which will create a habit of coming to the media center as soon as they need new materials.

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For a successful school media center, follow the 4P's of Marketing.

please click here

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