Post-COVID action for public education report

The International Commission on Education Futures developed nine ideas for public action, knowing that the pandemic will forever transform education. These ideas for action are the commission’s attempt to actively shape the future of education and help strengthen and enhance its power for all students, including those in developing nations.

• Commit to strengthen education as a common good.
• Value the teaching profession and teacher collaboration. 
• Promote youth participation and rights.
• Address the importance of connectivity and access to knowledge and information.
• Make free and open-source technologies available to teachers and students. 
• Ensure scientific literacy within the curriculum.
• Protect domestic and international financing of public education.
• Advance global solidarity to end current levels of inequality.
• Protect school's social spaces.

Education in a post-COVID world. (2021). UNESCO. 

https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/unescos-nine-ideas-for-education/

Student device quality research

   Broadband access and speed aren’t the only technological concerns for students engaged in remote and hybrid learning. The quality of the student device itself also plays a key role, according to a new study, specifically,the age of the device and device specifications. Researchers looked at data from students using the same internet service provider and noted that throughput was actually lower in the case of students who had inferior devices even though they were on the same network.

   According to the report: “… [U]pload and download speeds during online classes/meetings can vary significantly by the age, type, and quality of device used. Students that were provided with older and less powerful equipment had an inferior experience than students with newer devices. Students that received newer devices with limited specifications (e.g., memory and processor) also had more challenges than students that were provided with devices with better specifications.”

   Some of the factors that impact the quality of the learning experience include, according to the report (all bullets quoted verbatim from the report):

• Type and speed of processor
• Amount of memory
• Central Processing Unit (CPU) utilization
• Number of applications running at one time
• Quality of WiFi antenna and signal strength received
• WiFi standard used and access frequency

   Beyond replacing devices or purchasing upgrades, there are steps IT departments can take to improve device performance, such as whitelisting the sites and services that deliver students’ at-home learning materials and online class sessions so that performance isn’t hindered by a network filtering product. The report also noted that data analytics are critical for assessing student device performance. 

Digital equity initiative. (2021) Student home internet connectivity study. CoSN. https://www.cosn.org/digitalequity

AASL studies

 AASL’s final snapshot survey results found changes have occurred over the past year that will impact school librarian practice for years to come. Respondents noted that their role in their school district or building increased during the current school year. When asked how their practices have changed, technology troubleshooting, e-book promotion, virtual professional development, and step-by-step instructional material for use of online tools and databases received the most “doing more” responses.

AASL. (2021). Final school library snapshot survey results. Knowledge Quest. https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/final-school-library-snapshot-survey-results/

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New research published in AASL’s peer-reviewed online journal, School Library Research (SLR), explores three topics. SLR articles can be accessed for free at www.ala.org/aasl/slr.

1) Kammer et al. examined successfully completed collaborative projects at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Each project used integrated instruction or curriculum and were analyzed within the context of “what strategies make collaboration successful? 

2) Burns and Dawkins explored the alignment of the Standards Framework for School Librarians from AASL’s National School Library Standards with the ALA/AASL/CAEP Preparation Standards. The research team’s goal was to identify overlap between expectations school librarians are presented with during their preparation for practice and the Competencies they are asked to demonstrate in practice.

3) Thpmpson et al. examined the difference in school librarians’ teacher self-efficacy among those who worked in elementary, middle, and high schools. The research team attempted to determine if elementary school librarians’ self-efficacy could be a predictor of reading scores for the schools’ overall average rates on the Virginia Standards of Learning assessment.

• Kammer, Jenna, Matt King, Allison Donahay, and Heather Koeberl. “Strategies for Successful School Librarian and Teacher Collaboration.”
• Burns, Elizabeth, and April M. Dawkins. “School Librarian Preparation and Practice: An Exploration of the AASL National School Library Standards and ALA/AASL/CAEP School Librarian Preparation Standards.”
• Thompson, Jessica, Michelle Barthlow, and Kelly Paynter. “School Librarians’ Teacher Self-Efficacy: A Predictor of Reading Scores?”

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Pleasure reading benefits study

Reading for fun has academic benefits for students, according to a recent study. The study found that students in elementary school often read for fun, but that changes in high school -- and that love of reading appears to decline. The study found significant differences between students who read for pleasure outside of class—immersing themselves in fantasy novels or spy thrillers, for example—and those who primarily read books to satisfy school assignments. Not only was there a powerful link between reading for fun and stronger language skills, but students who disliked reading frequently attributed their negative outlook to experiences they had in classrooms. Too much emphasis on analyzing the compositional nuts and bolts of texts and reading merely to absorb information came at a psychological cost, the researchers found, as students disengaged from voluntary reading.

Martin-Chang, S., Kozak, S., Levesque, K.C. et al. What’s your pleasure? exploring the predictors of leisure reading for fiction and nonfiction. Reading & Writing (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-020-10112-7

Representation in children's books study

 1,133 books from 19 different award categories, published over the last 100 years, were studied to examine issues of race and gender. The analysis of images revealed the following about race in children’s books:

•  Books in the Mainstream collection are more likely to depict lighter-skinned characters than those in the Diversity collection.  Specifically, books in the Mainstream collection are much more likely to depict characters who are racially ambiguous in terms of skin color, disproportionately using skin colors that cannot be classified either as that of light-skinned characters nor as that of dark-skinned characters, a technique the authors call “butterscotching.”
• Over the last two decades, representation of lighter skin tones in Mainstream books has actually increased.
• Children are more likely than adults to be shown with lighter skin, in both Mainstream and Diversity collections.
• Females have always appeared in pictures over time, but they are predominantly white females and still average less than 50 percent of pictures and text.

The authors also compared the female appearances in images to female mentions in text and found:

• Females are more consistently seen in images than written about in the text, except in the collection of books specifically selected to highlight females. The authors deduced that this suggests “symbolic inclusion of females in pictures without their substantive inclusion in the actual story.”
• Males, especially white males, are persistently more likely to be represented by every measure, with little change over time.
• Adukia, A. et al. (2021). What we teach about race and gender: Representation in images and text of children's books. Becker Friedman Institute. 
• https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=new-study-looks-race-gender-representation-in-award-winning-childrens-books&utm_source=Marketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=april22AcademicNewswire

 

Print vs. Online Reading Meta-Analysis

 A recent meta-analysis found that children ages 1 to 8 were less likely to understand picture books if they read the ebook version instead of the print version, but only when the ebook didn't have effective enhancements. For the analysis, researchers examined more than 39 studies involving more than 1,800 children. Though generally print picture books outperformed their digital counterparts in terms of reader comprehension, if the ebooks contained enhancements that reinforced story content not only did the print advantage go away but students learned more. Adults’ mediation during print books’ reading was more effective than the enhancements in digital books read by children independently. However, with story-congruent enhancements, digital books outperformed paper books. An embedded dictionary had no or negative effect on children’s story comprehension but positively affected children’s vocabulary learning.

Furenes, M., Kucirkova, Review of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654321998074

https://www.aera.net/Newsroom/A-Comparison-of-Childrens-Reading-on-Paper-Versus-Screen-A-Meta-Analysis   

COVID19 impact on libraries report

ALA published “State of America’s Libraries Special Report: COVID-19,” which serves as “a snapshot of the library communities’ resilience, determination, and innovation in unprecedented circumstances. The State of America’s Libraries report is released annually during National Library Week, April 4–10, and this year’s issue focuses on the impact of the novel coronavirus on all types of libraries during the previous calendar year.” An example of the findings: “Coronavirus opened a floodgate of misinformation. Library staff worked to eradicate misinformation about COVID-19, which was infused with xenophobia and especially Sinophobia, resulting in a surge of bigotry against Asian or Chinese people. Throughout 2020, librarians responded to misinformation about vaccines, the census, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the 2020 Presidential Election.”

Additionally, “attempts to remove library materials continued during the pandemic, despite many libraries and schools closing or moving their activities and services online. …  In 2020, more than 273 books were challenged or banned. Demands to remove books addressing racism and racial justice or those that shared the stories of Black, Indigenous, or people of color grew in number. At the same time, books addressing themes and issues of concern for LGBTQIA+ people continued to dominate the list.” The top 10 most challenged books of 2020 were the following:

1. George by Alex Gino
2. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
3. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
4. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
6. Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
9. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
10. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2021