Big Surprise: Schools Hiring Fewer Nurses, Librarians

According to recent findings released last week by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC), California is issuing fewer credentials for K-12 service positions like librarians, school nurses and administrators, and schools are hiring fewer service staff.

Between the 2006-07 and 2010-11 school years, CTC issued 11% fewer service credentials, while the number of people working in service positions dropped by 9%. The biggest decline was for nurse credentials—a 26.4% drop, while the number of nurses working in the public schools went down by 13.3%. The number of school social worker credentials fell by 18.9% and 10% for school psychologists.

There was an 8.3% increase in new teacher librarian credentials in 2010-11. However, the number of librarians working in the schools fell from 1,234 in 2006-7 to 895 in 2010-11, a 27% drop. There was also an increase in speech pathologist credentials and the number of speech pathologists working in schools declined.

(To read more, see the Bay Citizen)

Less Than 25% of California Schools Have Librarians

(Image from Flickr, by library_mistress)

Less than 1 out of 4 California schools have full-time credentialed librarians, according to the state Department of Education (See San Francisco Chronicle, 1/2/12). There are only about 900 school librarians in the state, down roughly 20% from two years ago. Many schools have cut librarians entirely, while others have hired them part-time or are sharing them with one or more other schools. Some have put non-credentialed staff or parents at the front desk and one school has even hired students to staff its library.

While anyone can run a book through a bar code device, credentialed librarians are trained to teach students research techniques, deliver curricula, and instill a love of books and reading. Credentialed school librarians can help teachers develop lesson plans and research projects and teach students how to use databases, properly cite sources, and explain copyright laws. Some studies have found a correlation between having full-time credentialed librarians and student achievement.