Cindy Mediavilla defines a full-service homework center as ‘a program dedicated to meeting the curricular needs of students by providing staff or volunteers who are trained to assist students with their homework, space designated for student use during specific days and times, and a variety of library resources, including up-to-date technology, print materials, and online sites that help facilitate the completion of school assignments (2018, p. ix)’.
She maintains no two centers are the same but instead offers guidelines for the commonalities via 15 succinct chapters. The first chapter asks Why Homework Centers? and argues for their provision, including the societal need to offer a safe after-school place for youth, the solution of a supportive welcoming educational environment, and positive changes in student grades, behaviour and communication abilities. Mediavilla admits many centers service low-income or immigrant neighbourhoods, but points to successes in upscale districts too. Nevertheless, the next chapter, Community Assessment, warns to check if the community needs the programme before beginning!
Addressed next are the Service Plan, Staff and Volunteer Recruitment, and Job Duties and Training which sensibly advises of library orientation for non-staff helpers as well as homework center training. Following this are Funding and Partnerships, Collaboration with Schools, and Space and Location which allows for the possibility of use during school hours by other groups, such as for career and job seeking. The content of Service Hours was unsurprising; in contrast to Programming and Corollary Services which discusses training parents to increase their ability to help their children, enrichment programmes that include field trips and community world cafe talks, and extra assistance for college and scholarship applications.
Mediavilla continues with Library Resources which advises on best practices for establishing a homework-related collection and selecting an online homework service. Supplies and Equipment looks at digital equity, whereby the students who attend may not otherwise have high-speed internet access, colour printers and/or software for homework, yet recognises that basic furniture and stationery are also key requirements, and the next chapter Security, User Expectations and Rules of Conduct is similarly pragmatic.
The final chapters, Media and Public Relations, and Evaluation and Measuring Outcomes, offer multiple approaches to their topics. In the former Mediavilla emphasises the placement of links to the homework center web pages via library, school and community sites, and championing by teens to attract their peers. The bibliography is concise, but then the appendices comprise almost half the book, and they add much to its value, including center help advertisements, registration forms and contracts, student, parent and teacher surveys, and behaviour management suggested scripts.
This book is written with both realism and positivity, and Mediavilla’s center examples are clear, doable and inspirational. Although the book is American-centric, there is value for professionals in other countries such as Australia, where public libraries frequently offer ‘Homework Help’ to students, including via eResources such as Studiosity.
Mediavilla currently lectures at the UCLA Department of Information Studies, and consults for the California State Library. This book is an update of her 2001 publication, and the design is impressively reader-friendly. Highly recommended.
Curtin University
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© 2018 Leith T. K. Robinson
https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2018.1466617