Blog Post #1 - ISCI 761: AASL and ISTE Standards

    As a current high school English teacher, it is easy to let myself obsess over whether or not I'm meeting all the pieces of South Carolina's required classroom standards for English I, II, III, and IV. It is easy for me to become overwhelmed with the verbiage and jargon within each one, especially when I realize they all fall under one umbrella: high school English. As an aspiring high school librarian, I definitely enjoy the AASL and ISTE standards because they span over a multitude of things we need to be able to understand in our daily lives, especially when it comes to helping students. After reading the Knowledge Quest article "School Librarians Level Up!" I began to truly think about how the AASL and ISTE standards work together within the school library, and even outside of it. 

    The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) standards put the student at the center. They promote learning, innovation, exploration, and critical thinking. In the KQ article, it says "The AASL Standards recognize learning as an ongoing endeavor that should not be confined to the four walls of the school building or library" (Freedman & Robinson, 2019). The foundations of these standards truly stand out to me as a classroom teacher because I am always asking my high schoolers to dig deeper and explore the "why" behind their learning. The ability to gain knowledge should span far beyond the classroom, and the AASL standards encourage this.

    Contrary to the six foundations of the AASL standards, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards are strictly geared towards technology integration. Their purpose is to push digital literacy onto students, teachers, and other education professionals, and pave a pathway for innovation in a tech-savvy world. While AASL standards focus on the student's critical thinking and creative exploration, the ISTE standards provide the tools needed to get there.

    While the two sets of standards have a seemingly large number of differences, they compliment each other in many ways. For starters, they both have a future-geared focus. These standards work to push our current generation of students into leading learning-centered lives, whether that comes with evaluating sources and making ethical decisions in their work (AASL), or having multimedia and online collaboration play a role in their craft (ISTE). Secondly, they both push students to be creative, rather than to consume. AASL encourages literacy skills while the ISTE standards focus on being tech-driven, but they both work together to inspire student creativity. 

    So, in conclusion, these two differing sets of standards do not fly solo. They work off of each other to encourage learning, build literacy, and push students and educators to the future. As a future school librarian, I am constantly thinking of ways I can help students and teachers work to be digitally aware and lifelong learners. The AASL and ISTE standards will help steer me in the right direction.

References

American Association of School Librarians: National School Library Standards. (2018, August). National School Library Standards crosswalk with ISTE Standards for students and educators. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/180828-aasl-standards-crosswalk-iste.pdf 

Freedman, J. L., & Robinson, A. (2019) School librarians level up!. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), 10-15.

ISTE Standards. ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards


Comments

  1. Sarah LilesJune 28, 2025 at 8:08 AM

    Hi Beth! I really enjoyed your blog post. I agree that a school librarian should always be looking to help students and colleagues alike how to be digitally responsible. One of the biggest reasons I decided to pursue school librarianship is to fight the tide of misinformation and disinformation flooding our country right now.

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