Peer Review

AASL Learning Standards & Program Guidelines

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Reviewed:: Aug 22, 2018 by ICT Literacy

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Learning Standards & Program Guidelines provide an integrated set of standards for learners, librarians, and the library program. The standards are based on 6 foundations: inquire, include, collaborate, curate, explore, and engage. Each foundation is then broken out into 4 domains: think, create, share, and grow. 3-5 learning competencies are enumerated for foundation/domain area.

The standards offer a vision for teaching and learning to both guide and beckon the school library profession as education leaders. The learning standards shape the library program and serve as a tool for school librarians to use to shape the learning of students in the school. AASL's newest set of program guidelines defines the future direction of school library programs. Empowering Learners ensures that school library program planners go beyond the basics to provide goals, priorities, criteria, and general principles for establishing effective school library programs.

Type of Material:

Reference Material

Recommended Uses:

This site is best used in collaboration with AASL's associated books. Students can read the documents independently, and then discuss them in class, giving examples of good practice. As homework, student can design lesson plans that connect the AASL learning standards and the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards; or the class can create joint documents (e.g., wiki, GoogleDocs)that cover all the learning and content standards. Students can discuss the program guidelines in class, suggesting some good practices/indicators, and then evaluate a school library in light of those guidelines.

Technical Requirements:

Requires a web browser and Adobe Acrobat for PDF files. This reviewer used the Safari web browser.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Succinctly put, learners will: build new knowledge, demonstrate an understanding of and committment to inclusiveness, work effectively with others, make meaning for oneself and others, discover and innovate in a growth mindset, and demonstrate safe, legal and ethical creation and sharing of knowledge. The AASL Standards mirror the approach of ACRL's Frames in addressing attitudes and frames of mind as much as skill sets. The Standards also align somewhat with the ISTE Standards in that both address themselves to learners as well as educators; both also speak of curation of resources, for example.

Target Student Population:

K-12 students, librarians, and educators across the disciplines.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

basic knowledge of education and school librarianship

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: These new standards provide a neat frame of identical foundations and domains to address the needs of learners, librarians, and the library program. The content was created and reviewed by AASL members, and reflects current research and practice about K12 learning standards, particularly information literacy. The online materials provide the basic information and overview of the concepts. Several documents (standards crosswalks, lesson plan database, apps and websites) provide good support the the learning standards.
Concerns:: To maximize the material, users should access the AASL books that provide the full information. The program guidelines are not well developed or support on this website; the user must access the books for full use.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: The learning objectives may be ascertained in the description of the materials. The learning standards are largely ICT literacy standards for K12 populations. Connections between the AASL learning standards and content standards is clearly articulated. The instructor should be able to design good learning activities for the learning standards, less so for the program guidelines (not enough substance is there). Use of these standards should build effective library programs, preparing learners to deal effectively with the information literacy challenges of college, career, and life.
Concerns:: For full understanding and application, the user needs to consult the accompanying books, which are not free.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The uniform structure of the standards makes it easy to find parallels across the standards for learners, librarians, and library programs. Well-designed graphics lay out structure of the standards clearly. The text appears to be ADA-complaint.
Concerns:: The text is not very interactive or "splashy," and no help feature is included (although it is really not needed since the materials are self-explanatory).

Other Issues and Comments:: These two documents are the professional standards for the school library profession in the US, and are therefore important to know about.
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