The field of school librarianship has long called for stronger evidence related to school libraries and student achievement (Stefl-Mabry and Raddick 2017; Stefl-Mabry et al. 2016; Morris and Cahill 2017). This article outlines a systematic method for school librarians to document student learning and provide tangible confirmation of their…

Rhode Island is committed to ensuring that all educators receive fair, accurate, and meaningful educator evaluations that provide information that can help all support professionals improve and refine their practice. Currently, local education agencies (LEAs) in Rhode Island may submit a district-designed model for approval that complies with the…

Rhode Island is committed to ensuring that all educators receive fair, accurate, and meaningful educator evaluations that provide information that can help all support professionals improve and refine their practice. This document describes the process and basic requirements for the Rhode Island Model Support Professional Evaluation and Support…

Teaching the evaluation of information resources can be daunting for both students and educators. In an information environment in which resource types are ever-changing, how does the school librarian assess the evaluative skills of students? The assessments ought to reflect the malleable nature of online resources. To engage students in a…

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" were released just as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) was refreshing its National Educational Technology Standards for Students in late 2007. These standards outline what students will know and be able to do with educational…

This article reports the findings of an exploratory study to identify professional dispositions of school librarians. The authors employed the Delphi method, a qualitative research method that emphasizes expert knowledge and consensus within a particular field. The Delphi panel consisted of members of the editorial boards of nationally recognized…

The release of AASL's "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" and "Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs" has provided school library media specialists with the opportunity to "develop new visions for learning" (AASL 2009), and to rethink what their roles are, and what skills and characteristics are required of them to…

As America entered the information age, libraries were no longer being pictured as a vital part of family life. Instead, technology became the critical resource for a middle-class family. In addition, state and national accountability and assessment initiatives forced school library media specialists (SLMSs) to demonstrate that the school library…

Portfolios can be used to document the information literacy performance of students. This article discusses the Colorado Information Literacy Rubric which provides a systematic framework for documenting student abilities; describes four levels of student performance: in progress, essential, proficient, and advanced; and illustrates rubric strands…

Students are responsible for their own knowledge construction in student-centered, constructivist-learning environments. To be successful, students need tools, or organizers, to help explore relationships, organize information, and think critically. This article discusses and provides examples of presearch, search, interpretation, communication,…

Summaries of research findings on the following topics are compiled in this document: (1) students in schools with well-equipped resource centers and teacher-librarians perform better on achievement tests; (2) developing student competence in research and study skills is most effective when integrated with classroom instruction through cooperative…