The improvement of a professional group is due, in part, to its ability for introspection and self-evaluation. This is essentially the process of "analyzing" the profession as it currently is practiced, identifying necessary changes and improvements, and "synthesizing" or creating a new image or model of the profession to…

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…

Rhode Island educators believe that implementing a fair, accurate, and meaningful evaluation and support system for support professionals will help improve student outcomes. The primary purpose of the Rhode Island Model Support Professional Evaluation and Support System (Rhode Island Model) is to help all support professionals do their best work…

Students learn best from well-designed instruction. To what extent can a school district design a curriculum that supports inquiry learning? How can a district implement consistent inquiry practices in forty schools? In this article, the author discusses Newport News Public School District's journey to inquiry which began in 2004 with a…

Library media specialists are a literacy model. They hold the world of literacy at their fingertips and in their collections. Everything individuals need to know about literacy can be found in some form in the library domain, either in the stacks or in the professional repertoire that librarians posses. There are plenty of ways that library media…

This paper describes a model for the use of the Web to engage communities in better understanding and appreciation of cultures through partnership among a knowledge organization, K-12 teachers and learners, museums, and regional and virtual communities. Museums and other content providers offer artifacts for object-based learning. Content…

This chapter examines the roles of the instructional developer and the media production specialist in the development of instructional projects in the context of a six step development process. These steps include pre-assessment, establishing goals, identifying and specifying objectives, designing strategies, selecting and/or producing resources,…

Provides an introduction to a series of articles that will review nine information literacy models for library media specialists. Topics will include integrating information literacy into the K-12 curriculum; whether the model has been tested in a controlled research environment and in the actual schools; developmental levels; and advice to media…

Examines the School Instructional Development Model, which focuses on the library media specialist's role in instructional design and curriculum improvement. There are 11 references. (Author/RAA)

Three steps may be taken to minimize the difficulties involved in educational development: 1) a realistic expectation should be projected in regard to the prowess of development; 2) the "state-of-the-art" should receive continuous improvement; and 3) training programs to prepare fully professional developers should be established as rapidly as…

Describes the development of an information-literacy curriculum that incorporates media and technology by media specialists in the Mankato Area Public Schools (Minnesota). Topics include identifying current skills; the Big Six information-processing model; grouping skills within the model; curriculum integration; projects to replace traditional…

Information skills instruction is a fundamental and vital part of K-12 education in the 21st century. "The Handy 5", a proven effective model for planning, teaching, and assessing information skills instruction, was written to help library media specialists and teachers to collaborate more effectively in the teaching of information skills. This…

Discussion of the evolving role of the school library media specialist focuses on a model of the teaching role in the development of a critical thinking curriculum. Topics addressed include literacy redefined; restructuring media programs; collection development and information access; staffing changes; and intervention and evaluation strategies.…

Provides an overview of the school library media specialist's role in working with the gifted student. The media specialist's extended role is also described in terms of the content, process, output, and evaluation sections of Tennant's model; and the knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation categories of Bloom's…