A COMPARISON OF CURRENT CURRICULUM OFFERINGS OF SCHOOL MEDIA EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN OKLAHOMA, KANSAS, MISSOURI, TEXAS AND ARKANSAS AS PERCEIVED BY MEDIA EDUCATORS

Scope of Study. This study surveyed all media education professional preparation programs in colleges and universities in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Arkansas to determine if the curriculum offerings were compatable with selected competencies for media specialists as determined by media professionals. The competencies were selected from the Behavioral Requirements Analysis Checklist (Case, 1973), the ALA (1976) Certification Model for Professional School Media Personnel and the Oklahoma Teacher Certification Testing Program (1982). The Evaluative Checklist for School Library Media Education Programs was developed to evaluate five major categories of competencies. The five major categories were: (1) professionalism, (2) library media center management and administration, (3) school library media selection, production, and utilization, (4) school library media services and functions, (5) research and evaluation of school library media programs. The "Evaluative Checklist" was administered to one media professional from each university which offers a state department of education approved media education professional preparation program. Each media professional was asked to rate the level of program adequacy in each area.; Findings and Conclusions. The evaluative analysis of the educational media professional preparation programs as determined by media professionals led to the following conclusions: (1) Curriculums of media education programs were generally perceived as neither weak nor strong in the majority of the competency areas. (2) The competency area of research and evaluation of library media programs was evaluated as the weakest area in the media education programs surveyed. (3) No state was found to be weaker or stronger than any other state in providing professional preparation in the identified competency areas. (4) Selection of materials was consistently identified as the strongest component of each program surveyed. (5) The size of the college or university appeared not to influence the level of program adequacy provided in each competency area.