Program aims to bring books to classrooms

Constance McAlister recently saw a girl struggle to walk down the hallway at John Bartram High School under the weight of a dozen books borrowed from her teacher's classroom library.

The student told the Bartram principal that she borrowed so many because they were there and her teacher let her.

"How wonderful would it be if this is contagious?" McAlister said. "We're hoping that all our students build an intimacy with books, with reading."

But with libraries in fewer than half of the city's public schools, that's a goal that's been hard to reach.

The district's new literacy initiative, "1,000 Books in Every Classroom," seeks to bring the experience of a library into classrooms by putting dozens of books, journals and other reading materials in English-based classes, a district official said.

Bartram is one of the first seven participating schools, and McAlister said she is hopeful the program will encourage reluctant readers to willingly - and regularly - pick up a book.

"The more you play tennis, the better you get at it. It's the same with reading," she said. "The more you read, the more it will increase your literacy-based skills."

The program - which a district official said will take place mostly in struggling schools without certified librarians - will also recruit authors to address students about the importance of reading.

Some of the schools will also introduce mandatory "schoolwide book reads," in which the entire school reads the same book, said Cheryl McFadden, director of empowerment high school instructional support.

Though schools like Bartram, in Southwest Philly, are footing part of the bill for the books with money from a Department of Labor grant, other schools are relying mainly on help from the community and parents, McFadden said.

Studies show that students who frequently visit well-stocked and well-staffed school libraries end up with higher test scores and perform better on reading and writing exams.

But getting principals in the district to invest in libraries and certified librarians has been an uphill battle for years, librarians and their supporters say.

Lois McGee, the district's director of integration instruction, who works with library-content specialists, said the district pushes for libraries.

"The importance of library services has been focused on a lot more than it has been," she said. "We've presented statistics and the importance of programs to principals. Still, the decision is left to them."

Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which also represents librarians, has urged officials to make money for libraries and certified librarians a mandated part of school budgets instead of leaving the decision to principals.

In 1987, every school had a library staffed with a certified librarian and trained library assistant. But beginning in the late 1990s, at a time of huge budget deficits, the school district began eliminating librarian positions.

Now, there are only 120 libraries in the district's 258 schools, district officials said. And those 120 libraries have only 71 certified librarians with master's degrees in library science.

The libraries without certified librarians are staffed either by teachers, volunteers or library assistants, McGee said.

"It's a temporary fix," Janet Malloy, a librarian at Swenson Arts and Technology High School, in the Northeast, said of the library-staffing issue. "I don't consider that a fully functioning library.

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's reform plan, "Imagine 2014," pledged to strengthen libraries, but it's unknown what effect pending budget cuts will have.

"Dr. Ackerman said she wants schools to be equitable, but you have to fund it from Central Office," Malloy said. "It has to be mandated from downtown."