Lane Turbyfill

LIS 653
Advocacy Plan

Advocacy Plan: Woodrow Wilson Elementary School

I.

INTRODUCTION
Community Demographics
Woodrow Wilson Elementary is one of five elementary schools in the
Kannapolis City School District, which also includes one intermediate school
(grades 5 and 6), one middle school (grades 7 and 8), and one high school.
According to the US Census data from 2010, the city of Kannapolis has 42,625
residents, with 8.1% under the age of 5 and 26.8% under the age of 18. Of this
population, 68.5% are White, 20.3% are African American, 12.1% are Hispanic,
and 2.4% are Bi- or Multi-Racial (US Census Bureau, 2010).
School Demographics
This year, Woodrow Wilson serves 440 students in grades K through 4,
with an additional 65 students in the Pre-Kindergarten program. Of these
students, 33.07% are White, 24.75% are African America, 34.85% are Hispanic,
and 5.54% are Bi- or Multi-Racial.
In the 2012-13 school year, 95% of the 455 students enrolled in grades K
through 4 attended school daily. The average class size for Kindergarten was
twenty-two, 1st grade was seventeen, 2nd grade was fifteen, 3rd grade was
sixteen, and 4th grade was twenty. These numbers are comparable, if not better,
than the average state class sizes (NC School Report Cards, 1).

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Advocacy Plan
For the 2012-13 school year, Woodrow has forty-three classroom teachers,
100% of which were fully licensed and highly qualified. Of these, 47% held
advanced degrees, eleven held National Board Certifications, and 42% had more
than ten years of experience. The turnover rate was 10% (NC School Report
Cards, 4).
The following table shows the 2012-2013 End-of-Grade test results for
Woodrows 3rd and 4th grade students. The percentages represent students at or
above grade level (NC School Report Cards, 2).

Our School
District
State

Grade 3

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 4

Overall

Overall

Reading
32.9%
33.3%
45.2%

Math
45.7%
44.9%
46.8%

Reading
36.1%
41.3%
43.7%

Math
42.2%
54.9%
47.6%

Reading
34.6%
34.2%
43.9%

Math
43.8%
35.6%
42.3%

School and Library Mission Statements

Woodrows school wide mission statement is To help students think critically
and creatively across disciplines, manage complexity, embrace technology, and
value diversity. Teachers work with students daily to help achieve this mission.
The Media Centers mission statement is To prepare students to be life-long
learners, informed decision-makers, users of information technologies, and
enthusiastic readers. Each week, every class in the school visits the library at
an assigned time, and this time is used to help students grow and learn, relating
topics theyve studied about in their classrooms with resources and opportunities
available in the library.
Media Center and Technology Information

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Advocacy Plan
The Media Center at Woodrow is staffed by one full time assistant. School
hours are 7:40 2:40, and the library is open in the morning from 7:40 8:10,
then from 8:30 2:30, with classes coming and going as per the Connect
schedule. The assistant is responsible for teaching the Connect classes, as well
as checking out books during Open Check Out in the morning and with each
class that comes to the library.
In the past years, a focus has been put on increasing the technology available
for student in the school. This year, an additional two iPad carts are planned to
be added, increasing the count to a total of six sets of iPads for use by students.
The following chart is from the NC School Report Cards from 2013 showing
the number of technological devices per student at our school. This does not
reflect the recent purchases, but it does reveal that the school is well above the
district and state averages (NC School Report Cards, 3).
Our School
District
State

Students per Device

2.46
1.11
1.79

This chart is from the same report, showing the number of books the
school media center has per student enrolled. As with technology, the school is
well above the district and state averages (NC School Report Cards, 3).
Our School
District
State

Library Books per Student

24
16
18

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Advocacy Plan
However, the report also includes a chart about average age of the
collection, which for Woodrow is much older than the averages of the district and
state (NC School Report Cards, 3).
Our School
District
State

Average Year
1993
1998
1997

The media enter includes three different sections, Everybody, Fiction, and
Non-Fiction, as well as a section for reference and professional resources, a
computer lab, a work room, a tutor room, a technology store room, and an
isolation room. In total, there are 2,278 square feet, which includes 575 square
feet of work room, leaving the remaining 1,703 square feet for the main area of
the media center. The computer lab contains twenty-five Thin Client desktops,
there is an additional desktop available for teachers, as well as two on the
circulation counter, one reserved for circulation, the other used by the assistant.
There are five large tables in the middle of the media center, as well as an
additional large and small table in a corner and two more large tables in the work
room, as well as a reading center.

II.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

In order to better serve the staff, students, and parents of the school, an
advocacy plan was created with two goals, as well as corresponding objects and
activities.

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Advocacy Plan
Goal 1: Work with Administration to help explain the role of the Media
Center in instruction and learning, for both students and staff.
Objective 1.1: Administration with definite roles and expectations for
those working in the Media Center.
Objective 1.2: Track per day circulation, both for scheduled classes
and flexible access times, to show use of media center resources and
time requirements.
Goal 2: Explain and facilitate staff and student knowledge and use of
library resources.
Objective 2.1: Students will understand that they are responsible for
independent self-circulation; both check out and check in.
Objective 2.2: Staff will be able to browse online catalog
independently, find resources they desire, locate them in the media
center, and independently check them out.

III.

ACTIVITIES AND STRATEGIES

Goal 1, Objective 1.1
Goal 1 states that the Administration will understand the role of the Media
Center in instruction and learning. This is vital to the Media Center because this
is the main purpose for a media center: to facilitate exploration and growth
through an understanding of the library and its organization, the catalog, as well
as technology. Without this understanding, the Administration will be unable to

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Advocacy Plan
properly support the Media Center in its role as a facilitator for both staff and
students.
The first activity for this objective is for the Media Center staff to attend
Professional Development with the Administration that focuses on the role of a
school library program and its implementation. The audience for this goal is the
Administration, who more than likely have never had any experience running a
school library program, and as such do not know what all happens in a media
center.
The Professional Development would need to be chosen by both the Media
Center staff and the Administration to make sure there are no scheduling
conflicts, as well as making sure the best method is decided upon. A webinar
could be a useful choice, since all involved could participate in one location, such
as the Media Center, through use of the projector and technology available.
Once the session is chosen, it would be the responsibility of the Media Center
to sign up for enough participants, as well as to make sure everyone attending is
kept up to date on the status of the session. Reminder emails should be sent out
one month, one week, and one day before the session, as well as the day of. An
in person reminder would also be very useful.
Evidence of the session would be kept by the Media Center, not only for
future reference, but also as artifacts for staff evaluation. This could include a
print out of the sessions description, an itinerary, any handouts or documents
provided, a copy of a slideshow if used.

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Advocacy Plan
The evaluation for this activity would be a meeting following the session with
Administration to discuss information learned. This discussion could also tie into
the next objective.
Goal 1, Objective 1.2
Because there is currently no media specialist at the school, the expectations
of the Media Center staff have been vague in the past. As such, the second
activity, to follow up with the first, would be a meeting with the Administration to
define what the expectations are for the assistant currently in charge of the
Media Center.
Currently, the only evaluation done for this role is a short classified staff
evaluation done at the end of every year. This has nothing to do with the school
library program, and is more focused on assistants that are in classrooms. As
such, the assistants role in the library is constantly changing in order to fill both
assistant and media specialist role.
As such, there is a need for the administration to sit down with the assistant to
work out exactly what is expected. With a fully scheduled class load and the
recent addition of flexible circulation time, the other needs of the library, such as
shelving, development, maintenance, and running of programs, have fallen by
the way side. A set of priorities needs to be developed for the Media Center so
that not only the assistant knows the expectations, but also other staff members.
The simplest evaluation for this activity would be the creation of a clear job
description and set of priorities for the Media Center assistant. This would aide

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Advocacy Plan
in supporting the library program, as well as settling any unrest about what
should be accomplished first and what can be deferred to a later date.
Goal 2, Objective 2.1
Goal 2 focuses on moving staff and students towards being independent and
responsible with their use of the Media Center. This is in line with the current
school wide focus on character development, with responsibility and respect
being two of the main traits and the core of the student pledge. To keep the
Media Center in tune with this drive, the objectives are centered on staff and
students taking responsibility for respecting the resources available.
For the first object, students need to be able to explore the online system on
their own. As such, before the activity begins, a terminal needs to be set up for
the students to use while in the media center. This could be a spare laptop set
up on a podium at the end of one of the book shelves. This would allow students
access to the online catalog, as well as establish a place for the first activity.
The activity to go along with the first objective for this goal is to set up an
informational kiosk. This kiosk will guide students through the checkout
procedures by modeling and interaction from students. There is already an
interactive PowerPoint slide show that has been created to facilitate this activity.
The slide show high lights important features of the online catalog, such as
searching, checking books in and out, and renewing them.
To evaluate this activity, the circulation data that has already been gathered
for Goal 1 could be used, focusing on circulation done during the flexible access

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Advocacy Plan
periods. Focusing on these times shifts away from circulation led by the
assistant, to circulation that is predominately independent. During these times,
students are completely responsible for checking their materials in and new ones
out, unless there are problems.
Goal 2, Objective 2.2
The second objective focuses on the teachers and their ability to, similar to
the students, find and circulate materials on their own. This actively involved the
staff in the media center, making them a part of the process instead of just an
end user. In the past, teachers have requested materials, they were shown the
possible resources, they chose what they wanted, and that was all the
involvement there was. Now they are in the library, utilizing it, and understand it.
This will help engender support for the library program.
In order to achieve this objective, a two part activity will be set up. Similar to
the flipped model used by the Khan Academy and other programs, the activity
will involve a short video tutorial that the staff will watch on their own in
preparation for a professional development session held in the library. As with
the informational kiosk, the video tutorial for this has already been created. As
such, all that remains to be planned out is the date and time for the in person
professional development session.
The simplest evaluation for this activity would be an exit survey for the staff.
They could answer if they found the session to be useful, what they had wanted
to learn, what they did learn, and what they are still curious or have questions

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Advocacy Plan
about. This information would be useful in setting up a follow up session to
further explore the areas of need discovered in the data.

IV.

PLAN EVALUATION
With the implementation of this advocacy plan, there will surely be a shift in
the dynamics of the school. Not only does the plan get the administration, staff,
and students involved and into the media center, it shifts the responsibility for
taking care of the program onto these audiences, each in a different way. The
administration will be shown what good a strong school library program can do
for students, in terms of motivation to read, explore, learn, as well as grown and
achievement with test scores. Students will discover that they can be
responsible for their own learning and growth, and begin to foster a drive for this
growth that will hopefully continue for the rest of their lives. And staff will be
encouraged to seek out new resources to add to their previous knowledge bases
and help expand their grasps on teaching methods and strategies, as well as
topics of interest for students.
To evaluate the success of the plan, data should be collected both before and
after implementation about traffic in and out of the media center, as well as
purpose behind that traffic. If teachers only enter the library to drop off their
class, they are obviously not taking advantage of the resources held within. If
students only come to the media center because it is their assigned time, they
are not coming out of a need to learn and grow. And if the administration does

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Advocacy Plan
not enter the media center at all, they are unable to see what all takes place
throughout the day.
In addition to the traffic data, a short questionnaire could be drawn up to ask
the users of the library why they came to the library, what they intended to gain
from their visit, and if they chose to came on their own. This would serve as an
answer to the purpose behind the traffic in the media center.

Lane Turbyfill
LIS 653
Advocacy Plan
Bibliography
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. NC School Report Cards 2012-2013
School Year. (1) 2013. <http://www.ncreportcards.org/src/schDetails.jsp?
pSchCode=336&pLEACode=132&pYear=2012-2013>
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. NC School Report Cards 2012-2013
School Year. (2) 2013. <http://www.ncreportcards.org/src/schDetails.jsp?
Page=2&pSchCode=336&pLEACode=132&pYear=2012-2013>
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. NC School Report Cards 2012-2013
School Year. (3) 2013. <http://www.ncreportcards.org/src/schDetails.jsp?
Page=3&pSchCode=336&pLEACode=132&pYear=2012-2013>
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. NC School Report Cards 2012-2013
School Year. (4) 2013. <http://www.ncreportcards.org/src/schDetails.jsp?
Page=4&pSchCode=336&pLEACode=132&pYear=2012-2013>
U.S. Census Bureau. Kannapolis (city), North Carolina State & County QuickFacts. 8
Jul. 2014. <http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/3735200.html>