Program Administration and Leadership
What Program Administration and Leadership covers
The exam tests whether you can run a school library media program as an instructional leader: mission and planning, staffing, budgeting, facilities, policy, advocacy, and evaluation. Georgia expects the library media program to align with the school improvement plan and to serve all students and teachers, not just library visitors.
Core rules and concepts
- Mission: write a board-approved mission that connects to the school's goals and AASL's shared foundations. Post it; use it to justify decisions.
- Planning: conduct a needs assessment (surveys, circulation, collaboration logs, collection data), set measurable goals, and review annually.
- Scheduling: flexible scheduling is the default for collaboration and inquiry; fixed classes are a deficit. Publish open-access hours and co-planning time.
- Budget: build a program budget from goals, curriculum, and usage data. Track line items; use Title I, LSTA, grants, book fairs, and PTA funds only under district rules. Avoid relying on book fair profit for essentials.
- Staffing: certified library media specialist plus paraprofessional where funded; define roles, train volunteers, and protect clerical time.
- Policy: board-approved selection, reconsideration, privacy, circulation, acceptable use, and copyright policies. Know the difference between a challenge (formal) and a complaint (informal).
- Advocacy: continuous, data-based, and relational-principal meetings, annual reports, newsletters, student showcases, school board presentations.
- Evaluation: use multiple measures (instruction, collaboration, circulation, databases, facility use, stakeholder feedback) and report outcomes, not just inputs.
Worked example
A principal proposes cutting the library media specialist to part-time and using the space for testing. Reasoning: first, gather data-collaboration hours, classes served, database usage, reading growth, and the program's alignment to the school improvement plan. Second, present a cost-benefit case and alternatives (flexible scheduling, para support, grant funding). Third, involve stakeholders and cite board policy and Georgia library media program expectations. Do not argue from tradition; argue from student outcomes and legal/policy obligations.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating the library as a fixed prep period rather than a flexible instructional program.
- Writing a mission that is generic and disconnected from the school improvement plan.
- Handling a book challenge alone; board policy and a reconsideration committee govern.
- Confusing advocacy with a one-time event.
- Assuming ALA positions are district policy; know your local board policy.