School library professionals often complain that their principal or district-level administrators have a poor understanding of the work that they do. Reasons for this are varied and have been well documented in school library literature. The bottom line is that administrators' lack of education regarding the important contributions that the school…

Today's principals must have knowledge of content area standards and be involved in curriculum planning and pacing. They assign strong master teachers as mentors to new teachers. They are involved in what's happening in their classrooms and practice ongoing assessment of the classroom teaching, focusing on improving student learning. Today's…

In this article, the author talks about the Florida Power-Library School (FPLS) program. She describes the why, who, what and how of the Florida Power-Library School initiative, as well as the favorable results for schools. Schools successfully completing this process see relationships among staff and community members strengthened. Library media…

What administrators know and understand matters when it comes to organizing a school for teaching and learning. When principals and assistant principals discourage the use of practices unfamiliar to them or do not support best practices, they can actually hamper student achievement and professional growth. This is especially true when it comes to…

Principals should change their traditional evaluating methods while evaluating the library media specialists who also have to serve as a teacher or assume other additional responsibilities and adopt evaluation methods similar to those used for teachers. The "prep" period librarians provide a way to continue the method of instructing students in…

Discusses ways to evaluate school library media programs and how to demonstrate quality. Topics include how principals evaluate programs; sources of evaluative data; national, state, and local instruments; surveys and interviews; Colorado benchmarks; evaluating the use of electronic resources; and computer reporting options. (LRW)