We think we are doing the right thing in the middle grades. We think that if we eliminate a specifically designated time for reading, if we reduce the purchase of school library books, we can shift responsibility for reading from reading teachers and school librarians to all middle-grades teachers, who will, in turn, provide the expertise, time, and resources needed to engage youth with books. We are wrong.
Think about the important work that art, English, health, home economics, industrial arts, mathematics, music, physical education, social studies, and science teachers need to accomplish. They must keep abreast of their fields of study, maintain materials from beakers to globes, and provide suitable instruction for their students. It would be wonderful if these teachers had classroom sets of books, read to their students, and promoted voluntary reading. It would be wonderful if these teachers had the time and training to support those students struggling to read materials at their grade level. But for this to happen, it would take enormous amounts of professional development and classroom sets of materials, and this simply has not happened in most Indiana middle-grades schools.
While we engage in rhetoric about school reform, our middle-grades library book collections decline, even though we have clear evidence that the size of a school library's staff and collection is the best school predictor of academic achievement (Lance, Welborn, and Hamilton-Pennell, 1992). A book company representative recently related that a teacher had told her his school was converting to the middle-school concept and therefore was eliminating reading classes. A counselor from a middle school recently asked the Middle Grades Reading Network about how to make programs available to her students. It was recommended that the counselor work with a key reading teacher and the school librarian so that they could develop a plan. This was not possible. There are no reading teachers in the school, and the school librarian is interested only in technology. Circumstances have damaged the whole reading foundation for these two schools.
Fortunately, elementary schools do promote books and libraries. A total of 66 percent of Indiana's fourth grade students use the school library at least once per week. But this drops to only 24 percent in just four years when these students become eighth graders (Callison and Knuth, 1994). Is it true that older students are not interested in reading? Or is the problem outdated and unattractive books in an era when these same students are surrounded by new and glitzy computers, movies, and television programming.
The Reading Excitement and Paperback Program (REAP), funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc. and administered by the Indiana Department of Education, supplied 124,982 books to 90 schools. In all instances, book circulation zoomed. While only five percent of Indiana schools were involved, this is ample evidence that new library books cause a dramatic increase in reading.
There are two important reading programs available only to Indiana students. These programs promote reading by having teachers read aloud to students and by having students read current books. Both call for school librarians and reading teachers to unite in making books accessible to students and in encouraging students to participate.
The Indiana Department of Education annually pulls together a group of knowledgeable educators, who select 10 books for teachers to read aloud to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. They distribute this information to all schools. The schools should then purchase the books and encourage teachers to read aloud to their students.
The Association of Indiana Media Educators annually enlists talented volunteers from their organization to review hundreds of new books and then select 20 books for various grade levels (Young Hoosier Book Award 1995-1996). They distribute this information concerning the Young Hoosier Book Award to all schools, who then need to purchase the books. However, schools should have more than one copy of each book, because all students in the school need the opportunity to read the book over the course of the school year so that they can vote for their favorite book. Therefore, it is recommended that five copies of each book be purchased.
After many years of publicity about these programs, only 3,159 out of 233,222 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders participated in the 1993 Young Hoosier Book Award program. After promoting this program with the schools in the Middle Grades Reading Network, we found that this low 1.4 percent of participation did not increase.
Then it dawned on us that the schools might not have the Indiana Department of Education Read-Aloud books to read to their students or the books on the Young Hoosier Book Award list for them to read. We sent a questionnaire to the librarians in our Network schools asking them to place a check by the Indiana Department of Education Read-Aloud books and the Young Hoosier Book Award books available in their libraries.
What do you think was revealed in the survey? Surely one would expect that at least one copy of each book on these widely publicized lists are in each school. Unfortunately, only 3 percent of the schools had all 10 books on the state Read-Aloud list and only 26 percent of the schools had at least one copy of all 20 books on the Young Hoosier Book Award list.
It seems clear that the reason that most middle school students are not read to from the Indiana Department of Education Read-Aloud books and the reason that most students do not participate in the Young Hoosier Book Award program is that the schools have not been able to purchase the books.
How can this occur when Indiana schools are accredited by a process called PBA (Performance Based Accreditation)? Unfortunately, the quality of a school's library book collection or the circulation rate of books is not a part of the PBA evaluation. Further, although schools must spend $8.00 per student for library materials, salaries of school librarians can be included in this amount. Thus, in most cases, schools do not have to spend any money on books to meet state requirements.
Indiana schools may purchase computers through the Capital Projects Fund, and they are required to have a technology plan. As a result, schools are spending hundreds of millions of dollars for computers. Now compare this with how much is spent on school library books for almost a million Hoosier students in over 1,900 schools. Would you believe $7 million? Is reading really important in Indiana schools?
While the state has not recognized the need to maintain adequate school library book collections, some schools do manage to get all the Read Aloud and Young Hoosier Book Award books and have their students participate. Obviously they figure out a way to purchase the books. Schools need only one copy of each of the 10 Read-Aloud books, but, in order for all students in the school to read the 20 books on the Young Hoosier Book Award list, schools need to purchase five copies of each book.
Many schools who do promote reading use either the Accelerated Reader or the Electronic Bookshelf programs. They include the Young Hoosier Book Award books so that students can answer questions after reading the books. Librarians and reading teachers play key roles in these schools. They read all the books and provide booktalks to entice students to read the books. They also provide lists of the books to parents, who may wish to purchase books for presents.
Indiana middle-grades schools purchase only 25 percent of the books needed to keep their school libraries current (Callison and Knuth, 1994; Humphrey, 1992). In order to publicize this problem, schools should discard books that are no longer current and useful. This is over half of the book collections in most schools. The Indiana State Reading Council, the Association of Indiana Media Educators, the Indiana Parent Teachers Association, and other reading stakeholders are working together to help Indiana revive the will to provide two books per student per year for school libraries (Becoming a Community of Readers: A Blueprint for Indiana, 1995).
Our elimination of reading teachers and de-emphasis of books, if that is the strategy to improve reading among Indiana's young adolescents, has failed. What is worse, once time is given to other areas and funding streams are reduced, it is very difficult to restore these vital elements. Because we fail to back up our good intentions with effective, well-conceived alternatives, we have injured the very students these changes were designed to aid.
References
Callison, D., & Knuth, R. (1994). The AIME Statewide Survey of School Library Media Centers: Expenditures and Collections. Indiana Media Journal, 16, 110-113.
Humphrey, J. (1992). A Study of Reading in Indiana Middle, Junior, and Senior High Schools. Indianapolis: The Indiana Youth Institute.
Lance, K., Welborn, L., and Hamilton-Pennell (1992). The Impact of School Library Media Centers on Academic Achievement. Denver: State Library and Adult Education Office, Colorado Department of Education.
Young Hoosier Book Award 1995-96. Indianapolis: Association for Indiana Media Educators.