McGarrah Elementary School

Memo
To: Dr. Cassandra Hopkins (Principal) From: Jennifer Wilson CC: Dr. Bobby Rorie (Vice Principal) Date: 1 May 2012 Subject: Media Center Evaluation Summary

I recently reviewed our media center with the help of Suzy Searcy, our school media specialist. This memo is to inform you, the administration of McGarrah Elementary School, the results of our evaluation. The Georgia DOE 2010 Library Media Program Evaluation Rubric was used to conduct the evaluation. There are five categories listed on the rubric: student achievement and instruction, staffing, facilities, access, and resources, administrative support, and staff development, along with separate indicators. Each of the five categories are scored based on three levels of proficiency (basic, proficient, and exemplary). This memo also contains an action plan for all categories that scored basic or proficient on the evaluation, in order to improve our schools media center. Category 1 Student Achievement and Instruction: Our media center received exemplary marks in all areas of category 1. Category 2 Staffing: Our media center received basic marks for category 2. Based on the DOE rubric: a media center that has a base size or larger, which is our media center, shall employ a full-time Library Media Specialist for each base size school or larger. (Base size defined by unweighted FTE: K-5, 450; 6-8, 624; 9-12, 970) (CGB, 160-5-1-.22) Based on the review of our media center, our school is basic in this area. We are in compliance with state board rule, but the Library Media Specialist is required to perform other duties on a daily or frequent basis. Although our Library Media Specialist is available to teachers to assist throughout the instructional day, she has other duties to perform throughout the day, due to the lack of funding for additional support (i.e. a media clerk) in the media center. The need for assistance is crucial for the media specialist to aide teachers and students in locating materials for their lessons and/or enjoyment. Our media specialist also teaches several lessons daily and/or weekly, but is struggling to continue with this practice as she has to do more than one thing at a time. A solution to this issue and to move our media center out of the basic area and into the proficient and/or exemplary level, is to ask for more volunteers from our community and out parents (after they have

McGarrah Elementary School

Memo
To: Dr. Cassandra Hopkins (Principal) From: Jennifer Wilson CC: Dr. Bobby Rorie (Vice Principal) Date: 1 May 2012 Subject: Media Center Evaluation Summary

their back ground check, of course). Category 3 Facilities, Access, and Resources: In Category 3, our media center received exemplary marks in each area, except area 13. This area states that Effective and engaging software and on-line resources will be an integral part of every schools curriculum. The GALILEO on-line service provides Georgia students and teachers access to exceptional on-line resources at no cost to the local school district. Searches performed in GALILEO databases will exceed one million annually and the number of full-content items viewed will exceed one million annually. State of Georgia Technology Plan 2003-2006. Our school received basic marks because the number of GALILEO searches by students and staff is low, they either will be the same as last year or lower. It is the plan of the media center to immediately begin professional development training sessions for teachers within the school on how to effectively use and teach with GALILEO in the classroom. Category 4 Administrative Support: In category 4, we had 2 areas with exemplary marks, 2 areas with proficient marks, and 1 area with basic marks. The area the received basic marks were a system media contact person (SMCP) is appointed and communication from the SMCP is received and posted for all Library Media Specialist and staff. The media coordinator or curriculum coordinator may serve as the SMCP to facilitate communication to and from the DOE, but the problem is that the SMCP does not encourage or have opportunities for the Library Media Specialists to meet regularly instead they delegate other media specialist to relay messages. The 2 areas that received proficient marks were as follows: A library media advisory committee exists and meets a minimum of twice a year. Planning and evaluation of the library media program is executed regularly. (This committee may be the same as the technology committee in some schools.) We received proficient in this area because at the current moment we do not have a library media advisory committee (I know that one is coming though) and no meetings of this type have taken place. In order to move this particular area from proficient to exemplary,

McGarrah Elementary School

Memo
To: Dr. Cassandra Hopkins (Principal) From: Jennifer Wilson CC: Dr. Bobby Rorie (Vice Principal) Date: 1 May 2012 Subject: Media Center Evaluation Summary

we suggested that the media committee be put together and begin meeting immediately (a meeting has been set for Fall 2011, but no other meetings have been scheduled). We are also requesting that at least 2 meetings take place each year, instead of 0 or 1. The other area that received proficient marks was that the library media program budget exceeds the minimum state allocation and that local funding supplements state allocation. Our media center meets the minimum, but received money from state funding of $10,000 to purchase needed materials. There isnt much of plan in this area as we have no authority over how our school and/or our school district chooses to use their funding. The money that our media center does receive, the media specialist plans on using it towards purchasing new texts, AR tests, and other items to support and maintain the media center. Category 5 Staff Development: Our media center received exemplary marks in category 5. Category 6 Other: The integration of technology into our classrooms is very prominent. Some minor updates to our software and programs may be needed, but overall our media center is sufficient and our technology needs are met.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Wilson Media Specialist (2nd Grade Teacher) jennifer.wilson@clayton.k12.ga.us

McGarrah Elementary School

Memo
To: Dr. Cassandra Hopkins (Principal) From: Jennifer Wilson CC: Dr. Bobby Rorie (Vice Principal) Date: 1 May 2012 Subject: Media Center Evaluation Summary

2201 Lake Harbin Rd. Morrow, GA 30260 770-968-2910