District 207 Information Literacy 1997 - Present

The School Board formally approved district 207’s information literacy program in 1997. The road leading to that approval began in the summer of 1994 when Dr. Suzanne Millies, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, formed a committee to address the growing concerns over the districts failure to adequately teach students a research process. This committee consisted of administrators, faculty members, lead librarians, and department chairs from English, Social Science, Science and Technology with equal representation from the three district high schools. The committee met for the next two years, writing an Information Literacy Framework. The committee based this framework on two realities. First, recent advances in computers led to the proliferation of electronic means for gathering information. Retrieving information electronically had quickly become an integral part of higher education and the world of work. Second, the committee learned through staff surveys that some students were graduating from the Maine High Schools without ever having to produce a significant product in research. Although many teachers were teaching many of the information literacy skills, there were glaring discrepancies within departments and even within identical courses. The committee felt that in order to guarantee that students master information literacy skills by the time they graduate, the framework needed to create a comprehensive and systematic mechanism to insure that all students receive sufficient instruction to lead to mastery. Because many of the skills were perceived to be complex, some of these skills would be taught several times during the course of a student's high school career. The outcomes for the framework were:

A. Students will formulate questions based on information needs.
B. Students will identify sources relevant to the topic, using appropriate search strategies.
C. Students will locate and gather information based on relevant search strategies.
D. Students will interpret, evaluate and organize information.
E. Students will synthesize information to develop decisions and solutions to their questions.
F. Students will translate their findings into an effective, instructive, and/or persuasive product.

Additionally the committee felt that the following secondary outcomes would also result from this instruction:

A. Students will learn to work cooperatively in teams.
B. Students will develop decision-making skills.
C. Students will develop problem-solving skills.
D. Students will develop critical thinking skills.
E. Students will develop skills in assessing their own work.

This framework would require certain "anchor" courses to teach information literacy skills. The selection of these courses was based on the analysis of a survey, which indicated the courses in which 80% of the teachers were already teaching many of these skills. The intent was clearly not to add another layer of requirements on a course, but rather to enhance the instruction that was already taking place in those courses and to insure that all teachers of those courses would be required to teach information literacy skills. To that end, the following courses would become anchors in the framework.

The committee also recommended that the teachers in each department teaching anchor courses design the information literacy activity based on the outcomes established by the Information Literacy Task Force. Since the committee's survey revealed that a sizable number of faculty were not acquainted with all of the skills listed in the survey nor were they comfortable using many of the tools for the acquisition of information, the district would provide in-service to these staff members. In addition, teachers in anchor courses would be trained in using the information literacy rubric. In order to verify whether or not the district accomplished what it had proposed, the district would implement an information literacy rubric that would be directly linked to the goals of the framework. Since the acquisition of information literacy skills would require continued reinforcement over four years, students would be expected to achieve the levels of proficiency defined on the rubric at the end of each year. This information would be tracked by inputting the results from the scoring of the rubric onto the mainframe computer. An implementation schedule was developed phasing all information literacy projects starting in June of 1997 with Grade 9 to be completed by June 2001 with Grade 12. Teachers in courses other than anchor courses also received instruction in hopes that they would also benefit from the training. In-service of teaches took the form of half-days, institute days, Internal University courses (district professional development program tied to salary), drop-in sessions, department meetings, and after school sessions. The initial cost of the proposal involved the purchases of equipment for the Learning Resource Centers, in-service for staff, and the development of curriculum.

Since the inception of the initial proposal in 1997 the district has made minor changes to this model. Now the Information Literacy Framework is completely operational with the Grade 12 Government courses coming online in 2001. Today a district level committee that meets during the school year continues the work of the task force. Yearly data is collected and shared with this committee resulting in a continuing effort to improve and enhance the existing information literacy model. Results of data compiled by the district show continued student improvement towards mastery of the information literacy skills the task force determined to be important components of the research process.