Facing the Reform Challenge: Teacher-Librarians As Change Agents (Feature ARTICLE‪)‬

SCHOOL REFORM INITIATIVES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COMPLEX, MESSY, AND AMORPHOUS, THEY ENCOMPASS TOPICS RANGING FROM SCHOOL-BASED MANAGEMENT TO USES OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM, FUELED BY FEDERAL AND STATE MANDATES TARGETING HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR ALL STUDENTS TO SUCCEED, REFORM INITIATIVES HOLD SCHOOL SYSTEMS ACCOUNTABLE FOR AN INCREASINGLY DIVERSE STUDENT POPULATION, IT IS NO WONDER THAT EDUCATORS CONSIDER THEMSELVES AT THE "EPICENTER OF A CONTINUING TEMPEST" (KINSLER & GAMBLE, 2001, P.3). The history of school librarianship reveals that teacher-librarians have participated in evolving concepts of reform in education (Urbanik, 1989). beginning with the progressive movement of the early and mid-1900s and continuing through the science and math emphasis of the post-Sputnik era, the pendulum swing back to basics in the 1980s, and the current focus on standards-based education. The school library's participation in these movements, however, has been largely "as a reactive agent to educational change" (Carroll, 1981, p. 22). In spite of the evidence that the relationship between high-performing schools and successful library programs has grown over the last several decades (e.g., Lance & Loertscher, 2005: Lonsdale, 2003; Todd & Kuhlthau, 2005), general reform literature has not recognized the role of school libraries in relation to student achievement. For this reason, leaders in the field of school librarianship have urged teacher-librarians to become facilitators and leaders of education reform rather than reactors to it.