Advocacy Plan: Introduction: Eugene Ashley High School is located in southern New Hanover County near the beach

communities of Carolina and Kure Beaches and the areas near those beaches such as the residents living in Monkey Junction and along River Road and Myrtle Grove Road. This school was built in 2001 and is a school that primarily represents the white middle class of this area of the county. The statistics show that for the 2009-2010 year there were 1275 white students enrolled out of a total of 1645 students. 273 of the students were African-American; 68 were Hispanic, while Asian and Native American were the least represented groups at 20 and 9 respectively (National Center for Education Statistics). I noticed how this affected the dynamic of the school when I attended there. There are African-American students bused in from downtown and the school is primarily thought of as a white school comparatively to counterparts such as New Hanover and Laney High Schools. The reason that African-American students are bused in is because the towns of Carolina and Kure Beaches are over 96 percent white (Kure Beach, North Carolina). The school is not only not vary diverse in the ethnicities and races of its students, but Ashley High School has an economic background that is middle class for North Carolina. The average household in Carolina Beach brings in about $41,000 while Kure Beach residents bring in on average $57,000(Carolina Beach, North Carolina and Kure Beach, North Carolina) and Kure. SchoolDigger.com, which I found is right about all the other statistics about this school, reports that 35 percent of students at Ashley get either free or reduced lunch. This may sound like a lot, but considering that New Hanover High has 44 percent of its students receive free or reduced lunch, it is not a lot for the county. I know from experience that the school is divided

because the white students are perceived as the rich or well off students, while other races and ethnicities, some being bused in from downtown, are perceived as poor, creating a dichotomy in the school which should not be there (Eugene Ashley High).

Mission: Eugene Ashley High Schools Media Center does not have their own set of mission and vision statements, but instead chooses to adopt the credos of the institution. Their mission statement is the simple three words, Achieve-Honor-Serve. The vision of the school is to provide a safe and supportive learning environment where the faculty, staff, students, and parents work together as a team to provide all students with skills to be life long learners in a technological and global society. Simple enough are these two credos, but if you really want to understand what Ashley High School believes in you have to take a look at their list of beliefs. The first belief is the Golden Rule or the Kantian view that all people at the school should receive respect from others. The beliefs stress a collaborative effort between educators, administration, staff and parents. The beliefs stress the need to find the students way of learning on the individual level. The beliefs stress that all students can learn, but they just have different ways of doing so, and it is the educators responsibility to find how the student can learn the material best. The beliefs stress modern, relevant material that students can understand. My favorite of the beliefs is the simple addage School must be about learning-not about learning to pass classes. This is a very modern way of thinking of learning that Ashley High School is promoting to adopt. The belief is that educators can help ALL students learn, there should be collaboration with the community, service-learning is promoted, and that grades are secondary to actual learning. The thought of Ashley High School is that there should be a community of

learners and everyone should be involved from the top to the bottom. The problem with this is that Ashley as an institution, as well as the media center, has not been as successful as it would like to be in promoting these ideals (School Information).

Description of Library: The overall physical space of the library media center is impressive. The library has places for partnership such as a thirty seat area with two televisions and a whiteboard that teachers and librarians can use to present lesson plans. The space is conducive to modern learning with computer stations that can be used for research. One of the schools several computer labs is in the media center as well a space for telecommunications and broadcasting for morning announcements. The media center has resources such as printers, copiers, and broadband internet access that are necessary for modern research. The high ceilings and excellent lighting make this space invitable and seem huge in comparison to a classroom. The space is also inviting with various artwork and posters that liven up all the walls. The posters are of celebrities such as Rachel McAdams or Colin Farrell from such movies as The Notebook and Alexander or they have athletes such as Chris Paul from the NBA or Drew Brees from the New Orleans Saints. The library has other posters promoting such books and authors as Catcher in the Rye and Langston Hughes. The libraries collection is also an impressive thing. Joan Ebsi, a librarian at the school, told me that the school has over 33,000 holdings of items (J. Absi, personal communication, October 5, 2010). Their total number of audiovisual items (video, DVD, etc) totals over 2000 items. The book collection is impressive, with a strong influence on fiction reading (over 7500 items), but the audiovisual items however are not exactly a lot of material that the students check

out or want to check out. 1300 of the audiovisual items, as you can see for yourself if you use Ashleys OPAC, are VHS recordings. Some of the things youll see while searching for a video in their OPAC are items such as 101 Scariest Sports Moments and old workout videos like Arms and Abs of Steele. Despite having maybe a newer date on it (average release age of AudioVisual items in the collection is 1997), many of the movies in the collection were made from the 60s to the early 90s and only have a newer date because most of the movies were released on VHS at a later date then they actually were created. This advocacy plan will address the need for newer materials in the audiovisual areas because there is a desperate need to address this area of the library. One unique feature of the library that the students like, however some librarians I have spoken with disagree with, is the libraries organization method. They have genre specific organization for several types of books. Theyll have a Sci-Fi collection, a War collection, History collection and so on. The fact that the library does not follow the Dewey system in all of its facets (but does in some others) may make some librarians crazy, but the students really like the sections and Joan Absi says that Its not for everyone, but it works for us. Surprisingly enough this big school only has one full time librarian and a library clerk. The school has recently cut back on the number of librarians due to budget cuts. The library has library assistants that are students taking Library Media classes. Ms. Absi feels frustrated by the lack of additional support and feels its hard to colloborate with teachers and provide a library that can accommodate 1650 students, while teaching a class of students interested in librarianship as well (J. Absi, personal communication, October 5,2010). The programs provided by the library are ok, but do not offer a wide variety for all students. The hours are very basic being from 7:45-3:45 Monday through Friday. The fact that

the library is only open a few minutes before and after school shows that there is not flex scheduling offered at this time. The media center does however offer such things as a book club and promotes special events. This year they have had Fanboy Comics, a local comic book store, come and talk with the students and promote graphic novels. As well as special promotions the library also does very common events such as Banned Book Week or having book fairs for library funds.

Goals and Objectives: Eugene Ashley HighSchool does a great job of providing resources as far as literature goes and thenumber of computers. The number of computer resources, 750 schoolwide, isastounding and is almost 2:1 student to computer ratio. In this past years ALAspublication of The State of Americas Schools, it states that the average school has around 220 library and network connected computers within a school (ALA). Ashley clearly has the advantage in the technology area. We have also seen how Ashley has over 30,000 items in its collection, including videos, DVDs, audiobooks, and even a fewcomputer disks. There are only a few things about the collection that need changing and updating to make Eugene Ashley Highs Media Center even better than it already is. These things are removing many of the VHS tapes that are older and replacing them with DVDS, blueray discs, and bringing in modern forms of storytelling such as video games and video game systems. The main things our goals and objectives will focus on, however, is at the heart of the attitudes of the school. The goals and objectives of this advocacy plan will be centered on the schools mission and vision statements as well as its core beliefs.

Goal 1: The schools media center will serve as aspringboard for service learning, community outreach, and cultural diversityawareness by its students and teachers. Objective 1.1: 5 specialized student volunteers will be available at all times for tutoring and research help. Activity 1.1: Library staffwill form a student taskforce called S.O.A.R., Students Offering AssistanceReading. These students will be comprised of the brightest students in theschool. These students will be comprised both of the students enrolled in theLibrary Media Skills I and II classes as well as certain students recruited bythe librarians, teachers, and administration. The recruited students should bestudents in the most advanced classes offered by the school. They should berecruited based on their skills in specific areas that they can offerassistance in such as specific languages, math, science, and computer assistance. TimeFrame 1.1 The administrators will form a taskforce compromised of the librarian at the start of each school year. These should be a wide array of teachers from all disciplines. The librarian will advertise the group via posters, email, the internet, and even print out shirts for students who volunteer. Teachers from each discipline should identify gifted students in an area of expertise and submit a list of them to the library staff and to administrators half way through the semester. These students will be recruited by everyone involved to participate in the S.O.A.R program and incentives will be given such as extra credit on assignments and so forth. Evaluation 1.1: The librarian will have a sign in sheet to check students in during the day that are members of this volunteer group. The librarian will give in the sign in sheets to an administrator at the end of every week. The sign in sheets will serve as a barometer in itself to show if students have been coming in to volunteer. Email and phone methods will be used by the library staff to stay in contact with this group.

Objective 1.2 10 percent of all students will get involved with service projects promoted by the school and media center. Overview of area nonprofits: Wilmington and the surrounding areas have several charitable organizations students can volunteer at. There are many different types of programs for every student to get involved in depending on their likes and their skills. The first organization that the library will promote is the Cape Fear Literacy Council. This particular nonprofit helps adults with English language skills such as reading and writing. Kids Making is a nonprofit located in downtown Wilmington offers students a chance to not only help out, but get specialized training in woodworking as well. Early Bread at St. Peter the Fisherman Episcopal Church is one of many programs that feed the poor in our community. The Cape Fear Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation serves to clean up area beaches and do special projects to work with beach eco systems. Another eco friendly way for students to serve and learn about nature is to volunteer at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. The librarians, teachers, and administrators will make a list of all the local nonprofits the school promotes and give it to students. Activity 1.2: The school will hold small seminars on service-learning projects for students in different classes. Environmental Science classes will get to learn about the Surfrider Foundation or the NC Aquarium. Students in shop classes may learn about the Kids Making it program. The programs should be organized by administrators, library staff and teachers. The administrators should be the ones calling representatives from non-profits. Library staff and teachers should colloborate on how to incorporate lesson plans with the service learning. Librarians should promote materials that pertain to the area of service learning, such as

environmental sustainability if the students were going to be working with the Aquarium or another environmental program. Evaluation: Students of all seminars will be asked in a timely manner (i.e. a month) by their teachers to fill out a form asking if they did volunteer with one of the local projects they learned about, and if so what they did. Librarians should keep track of how many students check out materials are promoted at the seminars. Both of these statistics should be viewed by administrators in order to analyze what programs the students are responding too and participating in, and what the students are interested in learning. Timeline 1.2: The seminars should be conducted over a few days of one week each month in order to accommodate several classes.

Goal 2.1: The library will promote new modes and devices for learning and storytelling, typically not promoted by libraries. Objective 2.1: 15 percent of student body will rent videogames or participate in school game nights in the first year of purchasing video games and equipment. Activity 2.1: Library will host bimonthly videogame nights. The idea will to promote both reading and videogaming, which is found to promote cognitive thinking skills. Students will play games that require complex thinking and colloboration such as Call of Duty. These game nights will expose students to new games; get them excited about creating their own story (which they are doing in many of the videogames, and help spread the word about this new material the library will start providing. The game night should be hosted by library staff and parent volunteers, but also attended by teachers, administrators, and of course, students.

Evaluation 2.1: The librarian will monitor the check out rentals and see how many students check out materials. The librarian will also have an online rsvp form via the media centers website that can monitor who is going to come to an event. At the end of the year 15 percent of all students should have checked out materials related to gaming or participated in one of the game nights. Timeline 2.1: Bimonthly meetings of video game nights and weekly promotions of gaming materials.

Objective 2.2: Hold a schoolwide Alternate Reality Game attended by atleast 5 members of groups consisting of administration, teachers, parents, and atleast 25 students. Activity 2.2: The ARG will be promoted all fall. The premise of the storyline/game will be written by a random selection of the students who sign up to play. These students, with help of the librarian will create a blog or a website dedicated to the storyline and game. The backstory and characters will be created by this core group as well as certain guidelines for the particular ARG. Evaluation 2.2: The core group and the librarian should monitor participation as participation with an ARG will determine the outcome. Frequent email reminders and blog/website updates will keep players/readers up to date on the storyline. Timeline 2.2: The fall should be spent forming the core group of players and selecting a story theme, background of characters, and get the blog/website ready. The spring should be spent playing/reading the ARG and end before school ends.

Objective 2.3: The library will promote 5 live performances throughout the school year that should accummulate 20 percent of all students in attendance. Activity 2.3: The librarian will get student assistants and parent volunteers to recruit students with different talents to put on shows or acts. The shows and acts should be of different students and different styles. One could be a step show, another could be an acoustic performance, and another could be a play a student has written. The point is to let students organize the performances. Librarians and teachers should encourage the performances and should be promoted through the library and schools websites and on the announcements the week of the performance. Librarians will assist in books on certain performance methods or materials deemed useful to the performance. If the students want to do put on a play, then maybe resources such as oral speeking DVDs, books on how to write dialogue, or costume design books, would be useful. Evaluation: 5 performances organized and performed by students should be put on. These should be all different acts that will draw different demographic groups in as well as returning patrons. The events should be publicized atleast 2 weeks in advance and promoted using social media such as Facebook. The social media will allow for guests to reserve a spot. The adminstrators and library staff should monitor levels of student excitement and participation and occasionally take an oral poll of what they thought of the performances.

Overall Evaluation of the Advocacy Plan: Administrators, library staff, teachers, students and parents should all be part of a committee to focus on implementing this plan over the course of the first year. They should look at the implementation of the S.O.A.R program, the participation in local nonprofits and service learning efforts, and examine how the library

promoted new ways and different of storytelling and learning such as video games, Alternate Reality Games, and things such as concerts in the library. They should examine how much trouble each program had getting students to come out, and if they believe any program needs to be cut, do to ineffectiveness, lack of considerable interest, or other noteworthy reasons. This committee should take factors into consideration such as conflicts with other school programming and how affective the communication modes and advertising for the programs were. The main way the committee will know how the programs worked though is simple, to ask students. A combination of personal testimony and questionnaires should be gathered by the committee focusing on why a student, parent, or staff member of the school felt compelled to participate or not participate in the program, and what they would personally like see promoted by the library media center and the school in its colloborative effort. This way through data, eyewitness accounts of events, personal testimony of how the programs implemented affected a students learning, and questionnaires and surveys, the committee can properly deem if this advocacy plan was a success or a failure and what needs to be tweaked about it for upcoming school years.

Bibliography: ALA. (2011). The state of Americas libraries: a report from the American Library Association. Retried from http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/apa Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Retried from http://www.city-data.com/city/Carolina-BeachNorth-Carolina.html Eugene Ashley High. Retrieved from http://www.schooldigger.com/go/NC/schools/0333002595/school.aspx J. Absi. (Personal Communication, October 5, 2010) Kure Beach, North Carolina. Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Kure-BeachNorth-Carolina.html National Center for Education Statistics. (2009-2010). Eugene Ashley High. Retried from http://nces.ed.gov/globallocator/sch_info_popup.asp?Type=Public&ID=370333002595 New Hanover County Schools. Eugene Ashley High School: school information. Retried from http://www.nhcs.net/ashley/