AASL and ISTE

Meshing the AASL and ISTE Standards in School Libraries

The National School Library standards issued in 2017 by the American Association of School Libraries (AASL) and the 2018 Standards for Education Leaders issued by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)  are comparable in a variety of ways. Their fusion in school libraries could help guide leaders in meeting the dynamic needs of librarians, teachers, and students. 

What Are They?

The AASL standards are anchored by six Shared Foundations: Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage. Each of these foundations have the same four Domains: Think, Create, Share, and Grow. There are three sets of standards for libraries, librarians, and students alike. The purpose of these standards is to provide guidance in aligning the goals of school libraries as well as to help both the media specialists and student patrons to be successful.

The ISTE standards are anchored by five to seven standards, each with a set of indicators. Included with the standards are 14 Essential Conditions that are necessary to properly incorporate and use technology in the classroom. There are five sets of standards for students, educators, administrators, coaches and computer science. The purpose of these standards is to integrate technology into classrooms to support education in the current and ever-changing digital era. 

Are They Practical?

High school librarian, Deborah Ehler-Hanson, and director of instruction in Fair Haven Vermont’s schools, Casey O’Meara, explored the use of AASL Standards in creating a proficiency-based learning system as well as grading standards in Slate Valley Unified School District (SVUSD) in their article in Knowledge Quest, “Portrait of a Graduate and the National School Library Standards.” According to the article (2019), “The Vermont Education Quality Standards (EQS) require students to reach proficiency in transferable skills...communication, collaboration, creativity, innovation, inquiry, problem solving, and the use of technology (Vermont Agency of E . 2019a)” (p. 25). These skills align with many of the AASL Shared Foundations such as Inquire (inquiry), Include (communication), Collaborate (collaboration), Curate (innovation, creativity,) Explore (problem solving), and Engage (communication). Ehler-Hanson and O’Meara (2019) believe that “the AASL Standards not only support the district’s vision and portrait of a graduate, they also support transferable skills and proficiency-based grading and learning for all students in Vermont beginning with the graduating class of 2020” (Vermont Agency of Ed. 2019a)” (p. 25).

Can They Work Together?

One transferable skill in the Vermont EQS that is not listed as an AASL Standard Shared Foundation but that is worked into their Domains and Competencies is the use of technology. Although it is mentioned directly in the Curate and Engage Foundations, it is possible to incorporate the use of technology in other standards such as Inquiry and Collaboration. Whereas the AASL seem to include technology fluidly throughout the standards, the ISTE uses technology as the basis for its standards and digs deeper into how the technology is used while still addressing many of the same concepts as the AASL such as being a Global Collaborator (collaborate) and a Digital Citizen (include). The Vermont EQS seems to mimic the AASL’s fluidity by including technology in the indicators for many of its standards such as Inquiry: “I can find information from multiple resources, both digital and/or print” (Ehler-Hanson & O’Meara, 2019, p. 27). Similar to the ISTE standards, the Vermont EQs includes technology as one of its transferable skills, making it a central focus in addition to incorporating it throughout the standards, which reflects the importance of digital literacy in today’s learners, educators, and administrators. 

Both the AASL and the ISTE standards address important skills that are often interchangeable, but each does so in a different way. The end result seems to be very similar though - to support educators and students in learning, growing, and thriving in the 21st century. The ISTE standards place afocus on technology, which is vital in the current digital age, but the AASL standards do not ignore the important role that technology plays. Both sets of standards can be, and should be, used together to guide librarians and other educators in the goal of educating students. Although the AASL standards is the baseline for aligning the goals of libraries and librarians, neither should not ignore the importance of the ISTE technology standards in best utilizing technology in their libraries as well as teaching students to thrive in the digital age.

Resources

Ehler-Hanson, D. & O’Meara, C. (2019). Portrait of a graduate and the national school library standards. Knowledge Quest,47(5), 23-29.