Re-Entry Resources...YES!

People are often fascinated that I am a school librarian.  In many cases, part of those conversations have included a little education on my part on how a school librarian can impact the lives of the children that they serve.   One of the first responses I receive when I tell someone that I'm a school librarian is, 'Are children really reading today?  With the internet and all, wouldn't they be reading on the computer?'   I always have a strong comeback for that one, but this blog post is not devoted to that

argument.  The next question I receive is, "Where do you work?"  When they learn that I work in a lower income community, responses range from, 'Why???' to 'You could be working in the suburbs somewhere,' to  'More devoted teachers are needed like you,' to 'Oooooh wee girl, I don't know how you do it!'  I have to keep my face and mouth in check because I know it doesn't take much for my temper to go from 1 to 100 when people say insensitive things.

Throughout my career, I have served the children of incarcerated men and women.  This has been especially challenging for me because I have such empathy for the children that I serve.   I don't know what it is like to have a parent who is incarcerated and cannot speak or see them.   What I do know is African-American men and women are seemingly sentenced in higher numbers than other ethnic groups.  For example, 'The Sentencing Project,'  a nonprofit that advocates criminal justice reform, looked at incarceration rates for ethnic groups in every state, using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Here are some of the most striking findings:

•  In state prisons, African-Americans are incarcerated at 5.1 times the rate of whites.
•  Five states — Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin — have a disparity of more than 10 to 1.
• Twelve states have prison populations that were more than half black: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
• Maryland has a prison population that’s 72 percent black.
• In 11 states, at least 1 in 20 adult African-American men is in prison. In Oklahoma, it’s 1 in 15.
• Latinos are incarcerated at 1.4 times the rate of whites.

Source:  The Sentencing Project
What I have learned while serving the children of incarcerated men and women is it is difficult for the students and their families to find reliable transportation and travel within and out of state to see their parent.  It is expensive for my students to speak to their parent on the phone because the calls from inmates because they are priced very high.  My students miss their parent(s) and every aspect of their lives are affected. 

Re-Entry Resources
Serving as a school librarian and working with the children of incarcerated men and women, leads me to locate resources that will help me serve them better.   Yes, I have had parents reach out to me for assistance and I gladly did so because I'm a librarian and my job is to serve all of my patrons.  The following is a new and valuable television resource that has provided me with a deeper understanding of incarceration and re-entry process in this country.  Another resource is of course a valuable booklist that has been helpful for me to continue to do the work that I do.

Inmates For Change -  One of my friends Mr. Jones, a fellow Chicago southsider and business man, is making a difference in the lives of former incarcerated men and women.  He is the founder and CEO of Inmates for Change, an organization that:

• Is dedicated to breaking the bondage of destructive thinking.
• Providing “brokerage” services to ex-offenders at the county, state and federal levels,
• Provides re-entry services to returning citizens and individuals with felony convictions,
• Supplies teachers with a classroom curriculum model of critical thinking, interpersonal interaction, conflict resolution, spiritual connectedness,
• Links men and women to vocational training opportunities and residency assistance.

His show can be viewed on CAN TV, an independent non-for-profit cable news station in Chicago.  Viewers can also view current and past shows on their YouTube channel and call in during their live shows at CANTV.org/hotline.  Take a moment and view one of the shows where Mr. Jones discusses why the “old you” has to die in order to live so that one can successfully re-enter society.

For more information about Inmates For Change, please contact  inmatesforchange@yahoo.com. 

Book Lists (K-12 and Adult) -
Books where the protagonist has one or both parents in jail/prison
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6193.Incarcerated_Parents

For Young Children
SeasameStreet.ORG
http://www.sesamestreet.org/toolkits/incarceration

Organizations
Youth.GOV - A Government run agency that provides support for the children of incarcerated parents
https://youth.gov/youth-topics/children-of-incarcerated-parents

The National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated
https://nrccfi.camden.rutgers.edu

If you have any resources that you would like to share, please send them to me at kcboyd1@gmail.com.  I will gladly include them on this post so that it can help others.

Credentialed School Librarians

Systemic Racism & the Publishing World

I love this meme because it fits clearly into my dissertation  research.  My heroes, W.E.B. DuBois and Frederick Douglass are both influencers of this theory.  Here's  a very brief excerpt from one of the papers I'm writing on systemic racism and the publishing world.

Systemic Racism is a theory that accounts for individual, institutional, and structural forms of racism.    

There are several forms of systemic racism.  From a librarian's lens, this type of racism takes place in the publishing world.  Authors of color are often discouraged from publishing their books by major publishing houses or are rejected by publishing houses.  They claim that there isn't an 'audience' for the work or that only a small population of the African-American community reads.

When these same authors self-publish and build their own audience on a Indie level, publishing houses then view them as credible investments.  Why weren't they provided the initial opportunity as their white counterparts?

When African-Americans see content that is of interest to them, they read it.  Moreover, when African-Americans see themselves in literature whether it be a representation of their community, circumstance or experience, they can relate to it......they read books.   This isn't rocket science, but I've been saddened over the years by others in the field that just don't get this.  

Like any other group in this country, our reading interests do count!  I've been asked for years have I've gotten African-American teens interested in reading. 

Here are my three simple steps:

#1 - Listen to what they are interested in 

#2 - Build your collection from those  recommendations 

#3 - Defend the student's interests and the selection of books they are interested in

Unfortunately those who are in decision making positions at publishing houses fail to understand this.  These barriers have been in place for years and is one of the reasons why systemic racism in publishing continues today.  When publishing houses create in-house decision making boards that represent a broad spectrum of diverse cultures and backgrounds in this country, its a step towards a positive change.  

Systemic racism is an ill of our society and can be abolished if everyone unites together to end it.

African-American Boys and Reading

President Obama's 'My Brother's Keeper' Program

     Blogger Edi Campbell recently forwarded an EdWeek Article to me on Twitter called, "Urban Districts Pledge Progress for Boys of Color".   Though there is a reference that reading will be a main focal point, I didn't see a clear statement that would suggest that school libraries and teacher-librarians would be part of the implementation of this program.

     I immediately related the article to my high school in Chicago where the student body is made of 100% African-Americans students.   Could a program like this impact schools like
mine?  The article was indeed an interesting one but now I have to ask a loaded question:   Out of these schools districts that have committed to this program, how many of them have a professionally staffed librarian running the school library?  Here's my two cents on this issue:

1.  Teacher-Librarians Must Be Staffed and Administer the School Library Program Full Time
     Teacher-Librarians would definitely be a huge asset to this national program.  The challenge is motivating the kids to read.   Now we get to meat of things.   Identifying books for purchase, that will appeal to children of color.  When kids see images of themselves and their stories represented, they gravitate to those books.   This why it's also important for educators to get out of that, 'I enjoyed that book when I was their age' attitude.   It just doesn't work for today's students who are different.  Their interests are wide, very diverse and content specific.  Teacher-librarians embrace what students are interested in,  they read the same books the students are reading and they build and connect the books to the the curriculum to make lessons for meaningful.

2.  Students Are a Valuable Source for Information....LISTEN TO THEM!

     Sometimes Administrators get so wrapped up in scores and testing they miss the valuable feedback from students.  Why not rely on your school's teacher-librarian?  Teacher-Librarians are excellent conveyors of information in this area.   Why?  They have the unique of experience of working with students as they move from grade to grade.
 
    Librarians observe a student's development of reading habits and social/emotional growth over a long period of time.  Also, there is a trusting element that is sometimes overlooked.  When students visit their school's library media center, they enter into a 'worry' free environment where their opinion is celebrated and the atmosphere is devoid of the emphasis of testing.

2.  Financially Support the Staffing and Program Administration of the School Library Program

     Dr.  Keith Curry Lance has stated this over and over again.   Libraries must be supported financially and run by professionally trained library staff.  I also want to be very clear about the trained staff statement:  School librarians must hold either an endorsement or Masters Degree in Library Information Science.  School districts can't be cheap and substitute these trained content specialists for paraprofessionals, library aides or volunteers.

     Lance's latest study focuses directly on the school building level and the different types of school library staff and the impact that make on student achievement.  Read the report here:    http://www.lrs.org/documents/closer_look/CO4_2012_Closer_Look_Report.pdf

     Lance also reported the impact of poverty and compared the staffing in wealthier school districts with school districts that have students who were eligible for the Free and Reduced-Cost meals. (Please note, this is a generally accepted indicator of poverty in education)   An indicator of poverty with poverty utilized as a control variable, both endorsed librarians had a higher, positive and statistically significant correlations with reading scores than non-certified librarians.

Source:  "Change in School Librarian Staffing Linked with Change in CSAP Reading Performance, 2005 to 2011. (Lance, 2012)

Watch Dr. Stephen Krashen's passionate presentation at the  Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education meeting last February.

3.  Hire Teacher-Librarians That Have Had Cultural Competency Training

     Today's Teacher-Librarian must be knowledgeable and respectful of their student's culture, social and academic specific needs.   Having and understanding this valuable information will greatly assist them as they administer library programs that are equitable for use of all students.  The inability to have these key components in place will be a disservice to the students.   Period.

     Last March, YALSA President Shannon Peterson moderated a webinar featuring Kafi Kumasi and Vanessa Irvin Morris to discuss recommendations from The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action report to improve cultural competencies in libraries.   During their lively and informative discussion, they discussed the role that cultural competencies play and will continue to play in Young Adult Teen Library Services.  I strongly suggest all school librarians and district stakeholders watch this webinar posted below.

4.  Greater Presence of African-American Males in K-12 Education

     I have worked at the elementary and high school levels throughout my career in Chicago Public Schools.  One thing that upper level administrators lose focus on is the impact African-American male teachers make on students of color.  There's no denying this, it's a winning solution because this is another way of closing the cultural gap that often takes place in schools.   

     Wouldn't it be great if there was a recruitment drive to encourage African-American males to earn MLIS degrees and serve their communities as teacher-librarians? Credential librarians of color still make up a small percentage of the overall librarianship workforce.  Industry leaders hope to change that as the nation's changing demographics continue to make its mark, and the field experiences a heavy wave of retirements.   Schools can do their part in supporting the recruitment and retention.

          Dr. Dawn Tafari, is a member of the clinical faculty in the Education Department at Winston-Salem State University which has created a support network for black male teachers.  "It's important for black children to have a relationship with a teacher who has experienced some of the things they have experienced," explains Dr. Tafari. "Especially in our urban areas, a lot of black boys don't see successful black males and who have successfully navigated the K-12 system themselves, then that can help to be a motivation."  I see the results of this everyday.  My school is blessed to have a strong black male presence and the their impact results in my students graduating and transitioning into higher education and society.

I hope this post was informative and makes you think about the strong impact of school libraries and librarians in the lives of today's youth.  I leave you now with this quote from one of my heroes:

Donation from DaBook Joint
http://www.dabookjoint.com/young-adults-c-8.html 

"The better the school library, the higher the reading scores"

Dr. Stephen Krashen

Feb., 2014 Presentation:  LAUSD Board Meeting

References
Urban Districts Pledge Progress for Boys of Color (Superville, 2014) EdWeek Online., 

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/11/05/11boysofcolor.h34.html via @educationweek

Change in School Librarian Staffing Linked with Change in CSAP  Reading Performance, 2005 to 2011. (Lance, 2012)

http://www.lrs.org/documents/closer_look/CO4_2012_Closer_Look_Report.pdf

Increasing African American Male Teachers in Public Schools Benefits All Students
(Mosley, 2014)  http://wfdd.org/post/increasing-african-american-male-teachers-public-schools-benefits-all-students 

LIS Cultural Competency Training. Slideshare Presentation.   (Mestre, 2011)
http://www.slideshare.net/lmestre/lis-cultural-competency 

Hiring the Next Wave of Multicultural Librarians (Linton, 2013)
http://www.nationaljournal.com/thenextamerica/workforce/hiring-the-next-wave-of-multicultural-librarians-20130131

Video
Dr. Stephen Krashen defends libraries at LAUSD Board Meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAui0OGfHQY

What's Next for Teen Services?: Cultural Competencies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a7izSpU3oU