School Libraries build Strong Students infographic--how can you use it?

School districts are making decisions NOW about what positions to cut and school librarians are vulnerable. Support from people who are not school librarians is crucial, talking to school board members and superintendents, attending budget hearings.

How could you use the new AASL "Strong Libraries build Strong Students" infographic? In an AASLForum message, Virginia school librarian Ann Crewdson said: "The infographic has style! It’s succinct and shows the importance of school librarians in a visually appealing and educational way. I’ve forwarded it to PTAs, Parent FB groups and the superintendent of public instruction in my daughter’s school district. I plan to forward it to more groups and leaders soon."
It's here:
http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslissues/advocacy/AASL_infographic.pdf

Thanks in advance for any ideas, Sara

--
Sara Kelly Johns, School Librarian
Lake Placid Middle/High School Library
Instructor, Mansfield University School Library & Information Technology Program
AASL Division Councilor. ALA Council
AASL Legislative Committee
67 Canaras Ave.
Saranac Lake, NY 12983
johns@northnet.org
skjohns@gmail.com

Librarians at Occupy DOE

They came, we came! Grey haired retirees, union presidents (yes, that IS Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers' Union), administrators, student poets, teachers who quit rather than continue the abuse excessive testing imposes on the most vulnerable students (and all the rest), professors of education, students who organized walk outs in protest of the tests, authors, librarians, musicians, lawyers, parents, grandparents, graduate students of education, education historians, patient spouses (mine!), and more. Susan Polos, librarian in the Bedford School District, pulled me into this and I cannot begin to express my gratitude to her.

It was a small but powerful group gathered in front of the imposing Department of Education fortress. So much information: dots connected that reveal the deliberate unravelling of public education.

Some folks to read in books or on blogs: Diane Ravitch (http://dianeravitch.net), Lois Weiner, Stephen Krashen, Sam Anderson, Nancy Carlsson-Paige. I encourage you to look at the United Opt Out website. We can begin to dismantle this takeover of education by corporations bent on making millions/billions from their irrelevant tests that harm our children. Remind all parents of children in public schools: their children's data including test scores, any services received, SS#s is for sale to the Gates foundation, Rupert Murdoch, and all the testing companies. It is possible for parents to opt out of these tests---and schools are required to provide an alternative learning environment for the testing time. 

The Common Core State Standards are another travesty: Created largely by a representative of a testing corporation and without a single early childhood educator---which explains why they are so developmentally inappropriate. I've heard, but haven't yet verified, that there actually wasn't a single educator in their development. 

What you can do:

Write letters to local newspapers, congressional representatives, state education commissioner, senators, Arne Duncan (whose ties to big testing companies are mind boggling). 

Onward!

Melissa H.