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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dr. Abby Emerson, Former Elementary School Teacher and Current Education Professor
2:46:17
ยท
3 min
Dr. Abby Emerson, a former elementary school teacher and current education professor, testifies in strong support of Intro 1125, which would require the DOE to track and report library data in NYC schools. She emphasizes the importance of school libraries and librarians for student literacy, research skills, and bridging community gaps.
- Shares personal experience of the benefits of a school library and librarian from her time as a fifth-grade teacher
- Highlights the need for both phonics instruction and access to high-interest books that students want to read
- Discusses challenges in maintaining school libraries without dedicated librarians and space constraints in some schools
Abby Emerson
2:46:17
Hello.
2:46:17
Thank you for having me here today.
2:46:20
Ten years ago, I was a fifth grade teacher at a school on the Lower East Side and that had a fabulous library and wonderful librarian.
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While I had a relatively robust classroom library in my own room, nothing compares to having a fully functioning, organized, high interest, current supply of books for students.
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The ability to send kids to get books they were excited about on an ongoing basis was critical to my reading instruction.
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Our librarian also welcomed families in the morning and younger siblings were able to access books as well.
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We also partnered with her to work on research projects.
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She taught lessons related to digital literacy, research skills, tech skills and the like.
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The library also served the two co located schools within our building and so it served as an important bridge between two very different and frankly very segregated schools.
2:47:09
I'm here today to speak in strong support of Intro eleven twenty five.
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My name is Doctor.
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Abby Emerson.
2:47:14
I'm a former elementary school teacher and now current education professor and parent of three children in DOE schools.
2:47:22
I was really surprised to learn that the DOE doesn't track library data already and this seems like one small but highly necessary step to getting libraries into our schools.
2:47:33
I had some figures here about oh this number of libraries and whatnot but frankly today I've heard a lot of different numbers between the rally outside and in here.
2:47:42
And I think that's kind of the point is we aren't really clear on what is going on and then it makes it really hard to advocate as necessary.
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So we need that.
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The science of reading is a hot topic in education these days and there are a number of benefits to the practices in the NYC reads program.
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Phonics instruction is coming back and that's great but I have heard concerns from educators that sometimes there's too much emphasis on phonics without also providing high interest books that kids want and choose to read and it's that balance that we absolutely need.
2:48:17
So a strong phonics program must be accompanied by access to quality text that a school library would do.
2:48:23
Years ago, I worked at another New York City school that had a book room and teachers could access the books but without a librarian it quickly devolved.
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And busy teachers couldn't maintain it, books would obviously disappear into classrooms, not returned.
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So the librarian is what makes it functional.
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And another thing I was thinking about that I heard today is that for my daughter's school, my children's school, building space is a key issue.
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I'm sure everyone in our school community would love to have a library but frankly I can't even advocate for it because there's literally nowhere in the building for it to go.
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So it kind of we're we're at a stall there.
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We've heard today a lot about the research, test scores, graduation rates, morale, all of these things go up when a librarian is employed.
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So I encourage us all to think about this and support eleventwenty five as a critical step to ensuring all New York City Students have access to some amazing benefits.
2:49:22
Thank you.