Kimberly King

Collection Evaluation and Development Plan

FRIT 7134 – Spring 2009
March 1, 2009

Description of Site

The Muscogee County School District provides services to over 33, 000 students in 64 schools.

It is the second largest employer in the county employing over 6,200 employees. Kendrick High

school is one of eight high schools in the Muscogee County School District. Within the walls of

the building, there are two environmental settings that share the resources of the school media

center. Kendrick High School is a traditional Georgia high school environment consisting of

grades 9-12. Columbus Early College Academy is a magnet program that serves students in a 9-

12 grade setting. ECA students also complete their last two years of high school in college

curriculum at a local university resulting in 60 college credit hours at the completion of four

years of high school.

Kendrick High School is composed of 987 students. There are 337 freshmen, 228 sophomores,

243 juniors, and 179 seniors. The school consists of a mostly African-American population: 94%

African-American, 4% Caucasian American, and 2% Hispanic American. Of this population,

66% of the student body is classified as economically disadvantage. KHS has a special education

population that makes up about 16% of the student population, and about 20% of the population

is concentrated in the ninth grade. There are 74 faculty members. There are 13 Freshmen

Academy teachers, who teach the four academic disciplines. KHS did not make AYP in the past

year due to the graduation rate indicator. Only 62% of the student population is completing a

high school diploma.

The school has two computer labs. There are two mobile laptop labs, one for each school

environment. The media center caters to the needs of these environments with a collection that
estimates to be over 24,000 books and over 800 audiovisual resources. This collection is weeded

continuously throughout each school year. Also, the media center has 20 desktop computers

available for use in addition to the computer labs.

The media center has an array of resources available. However, there are some areas of

weakness. In regards to science, books in the 500s and 600s, and career preparations, especially

those that highlight the CTAE classes offered at the school, there seems to be a need for more

resources. It is my opinion that there is a need for expansion in the area of career preparation

more so than in the area of science due to the change in graduation requirements for upcoming

freshmen.

For this reason, the expansion of this collection would best serve the students of the Freshmen

Academy. Hence, it is necessary to take a closer look at the demographics for the freshman class.

As previously mentioned, the class consists of 337 students. The number of first time freshmen

in the class is 302. There are approximately 60 special education students in the academy. All

students are supported academically in an inclusion class setting. Reading levels are ascertained

through the English classes as there is a school wide initiative to improve reading through the

Scholastic Reading Counts program. Each semester, all students take the SRI. The results of this

pre-assessment reveal that only about 52% of the students are reading on grade level. Most who

are below reading level are within a margin of 200 points are less. An estimated 7-10% of the

students, all who are special education students, are reading at a Lexile score of 500 or lower.

These factors need to be considered when developing this collection.

One last factor to consider is the school’s magnet. At this time, the school is applying for a

magnet in Graphic Communications and Design. The graphic communications program has won
several awards and attracts a considerable amount of students each year to its programs. Yet,

many freshmen are only able to learn about the course through observation and hearsay.

Curriculum Review/Mapping

With the incoming class of 2011, new graduation requirements have be instituted. There are no

longer diploma distinctions; for example, college preparatory or career/technical preparatory

tracks are no longer in place for students to choose from. Instead, there is a general diploma track

for all students. Additionally, there is no longer a life skills diploma in place for students having

certain scores in special education testing. All students will have the same requirements for

receiving a high school diploma. As a part of these requirements, all students must choose a

CTAE pathway, which basically requires students to take three elective courses in the same

CTAE area of study. Introducing this change to the class of 2011 has revealed that most students

have no idea what they are interested in regards to what pathways are available at Kendrick High

School.

In previous years, all freshmen students were required to take Learning for Life, a class geared

towards acclimating freshmen to the first years of high school. The class failed to serve its

purpose, and developing a consistent curriculum was an arduous task. The end result was that the

class would be taught as an elective. Each year, six sections of the class are offered. An integral

part of the curriculum focuses on setting academic goals and career development. Since there are

no standards to support this curriculum, English standards are used as a guide to support this

curriculum. Approximately half of the freshman class has taken or is taking the Learning for Life

course.

When completing career exploration content, the Learning for Life teacher has a limited area of

resources to refer students to, especially when it comes to specific fields or areas of interest. This
stands out as a problem considering the fact that all students from the class of 2011 forward will

have to have an area of concentration. Also, many of the CTAE courses will have students

complete career portfolios as a course requirement. Again there are limited resources available in

the media center to support coursework of this nature. If there are more resources available to

support the CTAE classes offered in the school, students would have an easier way to identify

CTAE pathways to meet graduation requirements.

My collection development plan will focus on expanding materials to support the key CTAE

courses in the school and on the following standards commonly used in the Learning for Life

course:

1. ELA9RL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in

literary works from various genres and provides evidence from the works to

support understanding.

2. ELA9RL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a

comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student

composes essays and technical documents. The student

a. b. Supports important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed

references or allusions to the text.

b. Includes a formal works cited or bibliography when applicable.

2. ELA9RL5 The student understands and acquires new vocabulary and uses it

correctly in reading and writing.

3. ELA9LSV2 The student formulates reasoned judgments about written and oral

communication in various media genres. The student delivers focused, coherent, and

polished presentations that convey a clear and distinct perspective, demonstrate

 solid reasoning, and combine traditional rhetorical strategies of narration,

exposition, persuasion, and description.

The above listed standards are used to develop a career project and a success project. Students

read 2 books as a class. One is fictional and the other is nonfictional. The fictional book sets the

tone for the success project. With this assignment, students explore the formula for success. They

find models of successful individuals, research how they got to their goals, and do a presentation

on this information. The nonfictional book sets the tone for the culminating career exploration

assignment. In completing the project, students are to explore tips for job seeking and

networking. They are to isolate an area of interest and research it. They are to do a portfolio of

all information including a resume, cover letters, and letters of recommendations. Lastly, they

are to put together some type of presentation to reveal what they have learned about a specific

job area they are interested in. They use mostly internet resources to get this assignment done.

While discussing this information with the Learning for Life teacher and in exploring resources

with the media specialists, it has become evident that more is needed for our children. It was

suggested that the Learning for Life class be expanded back to its original purpose that of serving

all first time freshman. In so doing, the career exploration unit can be combined with activities

that the media specialist have in place to help students complete assignments on careers. It is my

idea to have them complete an exploration of the CTAE areas in KHS so that they can choose a

pathway with general knowledge of what will be taught in that pathway. This will increase the

need for there to be resources available in the areas where there is little to no information

available.

Collection Evaluation
The media center has a plethora of information that pertains to healthcare occupations and

business. These two areas are CTAE pathways. However, graphic communications and design

and drafting are two CTAE pathways that are difficult to find in our media center. How was an

evaluation done to determine this?

First a quantitative analysis was done. The collection consists of over 24, 000 print items and 800

audiovisual items. I decided to use Destiny as if I were a student to see what I could find. There

are 53 books available on the topic careers and jobs. Only one book was available when graphic

communication was searched, and no results were returned on graphic design. There are no

books available on drafting. I spoke with the media specialist to confirm this information. One of

them showed me a small selection of career development books in the reference section. There

were only 10 books available here. She told me that the count on the internet was accurate and

that there were 15 books available on jobs and various job skills. All together, the books on jobs,

careers, and graphic communications make up about 3% of the schools collection. The number

of graphic communication and drafting books is certainly not adequate for the number of

students who need access to these materials. There is also a stark contrast of these books when

compared to the materials that are available on the subjects of health occupations, business

administration and marketing, and family and consumer sciences, which are other pathways

offered in the school.

Next a qualitative analysis was done. The youngest book in the career/job collections was dated

2003. Most of the others had publication dates in the 1980s and 1990s. One book stood out to

me, Health Careers in Georgia, 2002-2004. This book was obviously in need of updating. The

one graphic communication book was published in 1967. Lastly, one career book that focused on

careers in printing had a publication date of 1998.

Moving on from the age of the collection, I asked the media specialist to give me some

circulation statistics. There were about 5 books that discussed printing. These books had been

checked out this school year back in September. The books on job skills, about 15, had been

checked out once are twice sporadically through the past two to three years. The one graphic

communication book had not been checked out in the past eight years. This analysis revealed that

the collection that could be used for the standards listed above is dated and poorly circulated.

The media specialists showed me a great resource that is available. Our county has purchased the

GCIS – Georgia Career Information System. This system is provided at no additional cost to the

media center. Students use this resource more than any other when compiling research on careers

and jobs. They also explained to me that keeping current career resources is costly since the

material becomes outdated approximately every five years or so. Also, the Drafting and Graphic

Communication teachers have books and other resources in their classrooms, which decrease the

need for the resources to be available in the media center. Lastly, they mentioned to me that

most of the books were thick, nonfiction books, which are types of books our student population

shy away from.

With that being said, I think some resources are still needed. There need to be more books with

lower reading levels to accommodate the low Lexile readers. There need to be audiovisual

resources added in these content areas since there are none. Fictional materials need to be

included that focus on character development themes. Biographies that student consider to be

successful need to be added to the collection so the internet will not be the only source for

research. Since the CTAE teachers do have their own resources and funding to purchase these

resources, I do think that some money needs to be spent in providing additional materials for
character education classes like Learning for Life. This is will also help the media center be

consistent with materials that are available for the other CTAE courses.

Materials Oder and Budget Summary

(Attached Excel spreadsheet)

Two vendors were selected to complete this material consideration: Titlewave and Mackin. The

selected items came to a total of $2929.89. These items consists of mostly nonfiction selections

accompanied with a CD-ROM selection, four fiction selections, ten DVDs, two eBooks, and one

audio recording. None of the items are included in other languages. This decision was made

based on two factors. The Spanish and French items already in the collection do not circulate,

and there is not an ESOL program in the school.

Selecting materials to focus solely on Graphic Communications and Drafting was difficult. Most

items were above interest level for the target group of students, and there is a limited number of

resources in the field to begin with. However, some items of use were found. I tried to include as

many audiovisual items as possible. Also, the selected items in this area are very general as the

goal is to give an overview of the two fields so as to peek students’ interest in perhaps choosing

one as a CTAE pathway.

To expand on the general area of jobs and careers, DVDs, books, and a CD-ROM item were

selected. These items will aid students in completing the necessary components for portfolio

completion. Students can use these materials instead of solely relying on GCIS. I tried to select

materials that would not quickly become outdate. Even after a few years of time, the information

will be valuable and useful as they contain information that will not become obsolete.
To address the areas of success and the success assignment, I selected several biographies of

contemporary artists. These artists are the ones typically selected by students to complete their

success project. The biographies have low Lexile levels so that all students can read them with

ease. Students typically rely on trivial internet sources like Wikipedia or ask.com to do research

on individuals not found in our systems biography CD-ROM software. The biography will give

them a credible reference. The biographies are also short being 150 pages or less so that students

will not be deterred by book size.

The final area of my selections consists of four fictional novels. These books can be used as

additional fictional novel read with the unit. The books focus on themes revolving around life’s

conduct. As the students complete the career development unit, they will address what are

appropriate life actions and how certain actions can be avoided. The novels fit well into that

theme. The novels are Dope Sick by Walter Dean Myers, After Tupac and D Foster by

Jacqueline Woodson, Fact of Life by Gary Soto, and Do the Math: The Writing on the Wall by

Wendy Lictman.

Finding materials to address these areas was difficult, but there are some available. I think the

best items were chosen to supplement materials already available and to replace outdated items.

These resources can be used with the aforementioned standards to help students complete a well

rounded unit on careers and choosing path ways at Kendrick High school.