[CALIBK12] A money maker for CSLA?

[Blanche Woolls]

Yes, the delete button is easy to use, and it's not just this debate or 
post, it's a lot of other things that get deleted. However, please don't 
delete until you read this.

What if CSLA members could put their collective heads together we could 
generate something as good as AR that would make us only a small 
proportion of what AR makes on their sales, or didn't those of you whose 
schools purchase this realize that it is to AR's advantage to sell their 
program widely. They make lots of money, and they have been known to take 
librarians and teachers who talk their program to others on exotic 
vacations in great spots. Are they generous to their clients? If they give 
any of it back to fund schools or help put their chosen books in school 
libraries, it is not something I've read as much about as I have how 
wonderful their funded research says they are.

AR has a stranglehold on research studies that say how good it is and 
that's in a national database for school districts when no one who really 
understands can use to write these Laura Bush grants and the really large 
ones ($100,000+) to raise reading programs in schools. Having read these 
grants, I can affirm that people asked for money to purchase AR thinking 
that was going to give them the documentation they needed to show that 
they were making a good effort to raise reading scores.

So, maybe a committee to write a reading program that CSLA could offer to 
school districts for a fee. It should include the librarian providing a 
specified number of booktalks (a part of the contract) and, as one 
respondent reported beyond booktalks, making suggestions with lots of SSR 
or free volunteer reading going on.

It is obvious that if a school district buys something they appreciate it 
more than what they may not recognize about their teacher librarian 
offering good booktalks. I don't want to take away from what a committee 
might come up with but what if they could sell:

100 good book talks
100 good book promotion ideas
A Doug Ackterman "test" to show how this works,
Something from Stephen Krashen's research that works (his or some he 
reports)
etc.
etc.

If CSLA made the equivalent of the pricing structure of AR on each program 
they sold, the school districts would notice their teacher librarians, 
students would read more. The real saving would come with not purchasing a 
commercial program from AR or Follett (and some of my best friends work 
there) or anyone else.

Happy Holidays, whatever one you share.

Blanche

On Mon, 15 Dec 2008, Debra Bohnett wrote:

> He has a valid point - besides as librarians we should be open to this
> debate and others as a free speech/non-censorship forum for us to
> discuss issues in librarianship.  Those that are not interested or have
> AR fatigue can press the delete button.
>
> Debra Bohnett
> Chavez High Library
> Stockton
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu
> [mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Stephen Krashen
> Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 3:06 PM
> To: calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
> Subject: [CALIBK12] no truce
>
> Am I allowed to respond when my posts (and writings) are inaccurately
> presented on this listserv?
>
>
> --- On Mon, 12/15/08, Marilyn Frenz <mcfrenz at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> From: Marilyn Frenz <mcfrenz at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] response to Bogardus comments
>> To: "skrashen at yahoo.com" <skrashen at yahoo.com>,
> "calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu" <calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu>, "Darla Brown"
> <dbrown at garces.org>
>> Date: Monday, December 15, 2008, 2:36 PM
>> AMEN!!!
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
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