Archive for the ‘Foreign Language’ Category

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Money, Money

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

We aren’t normally the type to complain about money. We don’t think money is the solution to fixing education in America (using good curricula is!), so we’re not big budget-watchers. But we do realize that an organization’s budget typically reflects its priorities. That’s why we were disappointed to see that the final budget compromise for the Department of Education zeroed out funds for key history, civics, and foreign language programs. Teaching American History, which supplies professional development to K-12 on the subject of history (a very rare commodity these days) is gone. So is the Foreign Language Assistance program. Martha Abbott of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages told Education Week: “Now there is no funding for foreign language K-12 programs from the U.S. Department of Education in an era when our nation’s language capacity is so greatly in need of strengthening.” And $1.2 million for civic education was also zeroed out. The administration is not the only one to blame here–there’s plenty to share among education committee leadership in the House and Senate. None of these parties appears to value the study of any subject aside from literacy (where most of this funding has shifted to) and math. The literacy and math skills obsession started with No Child Left Behind but appears now to be realigning most policies and resources dedicated to K-12 education. It is an obsession that data shows, at best, can only lead to short-term bumps in test scores. No other nation focuses so intently on math and reading skills alone. It is a losing obsession for students, for schools, and for our nation.

Lynne Munson

Posted in Curriculum, Foreign Language, History/Social Studies, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Reversal of Fortune in California

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

A new law in California eliminates California’s arts and foreign language high school graduation requirement by allowing students to take a career-technical education (CTE) course instead.

Sound familiar? AB 1330 is nearly identical to a bill vetoed by then-Governor Schwarzenegger last fall at the urging of Common Core, among others.  By signing AB 1330 into law, Governor Brown damages the teaching of the arts and foreign language in his state and guarantees thousands of students will graduate high school unqualified for admission to California’s public universities.

The new law continues a trend in California (and across the nation): With budgets tight, more than three-quarters of California’s school districts have reduced their art and music offerings over the past two years. One quarter of those districts have dropped the classes entirely.

The University of California and California State University systems require high school students to graduate with an education across the liberal arts, including courses in the arts and foreign language. In fact, arts and foreign-language courses are twice as likely as CTE classes to be certified as college-prep courses.  To be considered for admission to California’s public universities, students must complete fifteen year-long UC-approved school courses with a grade C or better:

History and Social Science, 2 years

English, 4 years

Math, 3 years

Lab science, 2 years (3 recommended)

Foreign Language, 2 years (3 recommended)

Arts, 1 year of dance, drama, music or visual art

Elective, 1 year

The law is packaged as dropout prevention. But easing graduation requirements doesn’t lower dropout rates. In fact, rigorous graduation requirements have been found to reduce the dropout rate for high poverty students. The law’s actual effect will be reduced post-high school options for all of California’s more than 6 million public school students. The law also sends the clear message that the arts and foreign language are not as important to the state as the other subjects.

As states, districts, and schools continue to focus more narrowly on reading and math at the expense of subjects like art and foreign language, we’re disappointed to see California follow this trend.

Stephanie Porowski

Posted in Arts, Foreign Language | 2 Comments »

The “Continuous Narrowing” of ESEA

Monday, October 17th, 2011

In September 2009, when reauthorization of ESEA seemed imminent, Secretary Duncan said, “Let us build a law that discourages a narrowing of curriculum and promotes a well-rounded education that draws children into sciences and history, languages and the arts in order to build a society distinguished by both intellectual and economic prowess.”

Now, more than two years later, Sen. Harkin has released a draft ESEA reauthorization proposal. And, in spite of the Department’s significant influence, the draft bill’s support of the “well-rounded education” Duncan touted is, well, almost undetectable.

The document is 860 pages long. Student achievement in “Core Academic Subjects” is referenced a dozen times, but specifics never arise. This tome contains no mentions of chemistry, physics, or biology, for example. Music gets four mentions; art only one. And history and civics just two. How are we going to improve education if no one is willing to talk about the substance of what is being taught?

Meanwhile, the shape, method, and approach to accountability measures continue to be tweaked, tuned, and obsessed over. The big news the draft contains is a reinvention of the current accountability system, scrapping AYP’s strict performance targets in favor of a measure of “continuous improvement” for all students and for particular subgroups.

But “continuous improvement” will do nothing to address ESEA’s intense focus on math and reading at the expense of the rest of the liberal arts. Although the bill would shift testing requirements to include measures for student growth, required tests would continue to measure student achievement in only math, reading and science. And the science test would remain inconsequential to “continuous improvement.” Why not widen the lens of the “continuous improvement” measure to include other subjects? It is an idea that would present many challenges and face many obstacles, but it is at least worth discussing.

Writing about the unintended consequences of NCLB, Diane Ravitch and Checker Finn predicted, “Rich kids will study philosophy and art, music and history, while their poor peers will fill in bubbles on test sheets. The lucky few will spawn the next generation of tycoons, political leaders, inventors, authors, artists and entrepreneurs. The less lucky masses will see narrower opportunities.”

We know that is happening already. And if anything resembling Harkin’s draft becomes law, the problem will only get worse.

Lynne Munson

Posted in Arts, Assessment, Curriculum, English/Language Arts, ESEA, Foreign Language, History/Social Studies, Math and Science | No Comments »

What’s Your Mission?

Friday, July 1st, 2011

In today’s New York Times, David Brooks opines on the rift between education historian Diane Ravitch and many in the education reform movement she once championed. While Brooks finds faults with much of Ravitch’s message, the truth he finds in it is solid gold:

“Most important, she is right that teaching is a humane art built upon loving relationships between teachers and students. If you orient the system exclusively around a series of multiple choice accountability assessments, you distort it.

“If you make tests all-important, you give schools an incentive to drop the subjects that don’t show up on the exams but that help students become fully rounded individuals — like history, poetry, art and sports. You may end up with schools that emphasize test-taking, not genuine learning. You may create incentives for schools to game the system by easing out kids who might bring the average scores down, for example.”

School leaders: Rather than rallying around tests, unite your schools around a clear and vibrant mission. And, we would add, make it about exposing your students—whatever their demographic backgrounds—to the best in the arts, history, foreign languages, sciences, mathematics, and literature.

Stephanie Porowski

Posted in Arts, English/Language Arts, Foreign Language, History/Social Studies, Math and Science | 1 Comment »

New York’s Budget Mistake

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

According to Gothamist, “Next week New York students may take Regents exams in Spanish, French, and Italian for the last time.” The state’s foreign language Regents exams are the latest victims of state budget cuts. And, saving the state only $700,000,  one of the more regrettable.

Currently, students in New York must demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language in order to graduate with a “Regents diploma with advanced designation.” Without the state’s foreign language exams, students will still be evaluated for proficiency―but the “how” is left up to districts.

Meaning already cash-strapped districts will be required to create their own tests. And somehow the state will need to find money to ensure districts are testing.

Nationally, only one in five students takes a foreign language. But New York, with nearly 800,000 students taking a foreign language, is only behind Texas and California in foreign language study. Granted, population drives this ranking, but New York is inarguably language-rich: Its “Empire City” is home to an estimated 800 languages.

Not only do the Regents exams in foreign language bow to this diversity of culture, they also support schools preparing students to contribute thoughtfully to a  global world.

Plain speak: Dropping exams in Spanish, French and Italian to save less than a million dollars is a mistake.

Stephanie Porowski

Posted in Assessment, Foreign Language | No Comments »

What’s a Liberal Arts Education Really Worth?

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

In Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, philosopher Martha Nussbaum writes:

“With the rush to profitability in the global market, values precious for the future of democracy, especially in an era of religious and economic anxiety, are in danger of getting lost. … World history and economic understanding must be humanistic and critical if they are to be at all useful in forming intelligent global citizens, and they must be taught alongside the study of religion and of philosophical theories of justice. Only then will they supply a useful foundation for the public debates that we must have if we are to cooperate in solving major human problems.”

Yes, Kevin McCann, education is about “finding out what you want to do in the world.” It’s also about learning to pursue those desires with thoughtfulness and integrity. As Nussbaum also writes, “Knowledge is not a guarantee of good … behavior, but ignorance is a virtual guarantee of bad behavior. In a world full of simple stereotypes, we will only preserve democratic values of debate and mutual respect if we try hard to understand the past and the present.”

Our students need jobs. But do the requirements of a good job—at any level—necessarily exclude deep study of history, foreign language and art?

What’s your take on the purpose of education?

Posted in Arts, English/Language Arts, Foreign Language, History/Social Studies, Math and Science | 2 Comments »

Parlez-Vous Français? Odds Are, No

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

A new report from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) shows a promising enrollment increase in foreign-language courses and programs.

But it’s only a slight increase ― from 8.6 million students in 2005 to 8.9 million students in 2008. In fact, foreign-language course-taking decreased in seventeen states. Nationally, only one in five K-12 public school students is taking a foreign language. And, of those students, most are taking foreign language at the high-school level.

These numbers are all the more troubling in light of data from the Center for Applied Linguistics, showing that rural schools and schools whose students are of low socioeconomic status (SES) are disproportionately less likely to offer foreign language instruction.

Confession: I’m not an entirely objective commentator. I had a year-long stint as a foreign language teacher at a French école primaire (elementary school). While the French aren’t anywhere near the top of the PISA charts, they are in-line with the trend in high-performing countries. They are teaching foreign language early, with the goal of near-native proficiency.

In an interview with Ed Week’s Eric Robelen, ACTFL education director said, “We’re still woefully behind almost all other countries of the world, particularly industrialized countries. … When you look at all the other countries that surpass us on the PISA tests, they all have early-language programs, they start children learning language in elementary schools.” Smart practice, for one, because studies have shown that students who take at least one foreign language tend to do better on standardized tests.

The President and Secretary of Education have challenged US students to garner critical language skills. But their talk of a well-rounded education isn’t translating into policy: the President and the DOE continue to focus on STEM initiatives at the expense of other education areas. And the President has proposed consolidating funding for foreign languages into a broader fund, focused on promoting a “well-rounded education.”

Unfortunately, with the President’s (technology-heavy and science-light) STEM-obsessed track record, the words “well-rounded education” ring a bit empty.

Stephanie Porowski

Posted in Foreign Language | 2 Comments »

Lowering the Bar in Wyoming

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

With an eye to keeping its best and brightest students in the state, Wyoming offers top high school students Hathaway Merit Scholarships. To be eligible for any of four levels of the scholarship, students must take a foreign language, among other requirements.

But the Wyoming Senate is poised to lower requirements for the scholarship. On Monday, House Bill 13, which would modify Hathaway’s requirements so that high school students could take fine and performing arts or vocational classes in place of a foreign language, passed a vote in the House.

With so many of its students struggling in college, the state should think twice before lowering the rigor of the scholarship. Wyoming (like most other states) already posts abysmal college retention and graduation rates: Only 77 percent of students at four year—and 65 percent at two-year—colleges return their sophomore years. While only 57 percent go on to earn a degree. Nearly seventeen percent of the lowest and—and ten percent of the middle—tiers of Hathaway recipients lose their scholarships because of poor academic performance.

Yet HB 13 has broad, if misguided, support in both parties, as well as in the arts community. A supporter of the bill says, “It puts all these core areas on equal footing.”

Maybe so. But it relegates all of these subjects to optional status. To better prepare scholarship recipients for the academic rigors of college, and to establish art and foreign language as “core areas” of a liberal arts curriculum, Wyoming should require both subjects. And do away with skills-obsessed and content-lite vocational ed options.

Update: Yesterday the Senate approved the bill by voice vote. It comes up for a second reading today. Stay tuned.

Stephanie Porowski and Lynne Munson


Posted in Arts, Foreign Language | No Comments »

Moving Forward (With Urdu)

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

Thanks to America’s predictably poor performance in the latest round of PISA exams the education community is abuzz about our generation’s “Sputnik moment.” Everyone’s got a take on our nation’s math, science and readings deficiencies (you can read ours here).

Getting less attention is what CIA Director Leon Panetta recently had to say about America’s focus moving forward. Speaking at the Foreign Language Summit last week, he said:

“For the United States to get to where it needs to be will require a national commitment to strengthening America’s foreign language proficiency. A significant cultural change needs to occur. And that requires a transformation in attitude from everyone involved: individuals, government, schools and universities and the private sector.”

Really? Something besides math and reading skills to power the US into the 21st century? At the summit, even Arne sang the praises of a well-rounded education.

Talk of 21st-century learning tends to toss serious foreign language study (along with most other content) aside in favor of skills instruction. So it’s refreshing to hear officials acknowledge that 21st century learning necessitates the study of other cultures.

A teacher speaking at the summit said it well: “When schools adopt programs in Arabic, Chinese, Urdu, or another critically needed language, they are affirming the role of languages in a well-rounded education as well as the importance of including students in international dialogue.”

For this reason, among others, Common Core opposed a bill in California that would have effectively eliminated the state’s foreign language requirement for high school graduation. And we’ll continue to oppose any measure that narrows the purpose of education.

Panetta argues that foreign language skills will prepare the next-generation CIA to operate effectively. Taking his argument a step further — knowledge of other cultures will prepare the next generation of US citizens to contribute thoughtfully to an interconnected world.

Stephanie Porowski

Posted in Foreign Language | 1 Comment »

Should Foreign Language Get the Ax?

Monday, November 1st, 2010

A recent article confirms a growing trend in American education: axing foreign languages to clear space in tight budgets or course calendars.  This trend is particularly disturbing considering that learning a foreign language has been shown to aid in the mastery of other subjects.

For example: “the cognitive skill[s] that comes from mastering a complex, graphic, non-alphabetical writing system” can be extremely useful when applied to mathematics. Some even link “Chinese success in science, math and education to the pattern recognition and mental practices needed to learn the language at an early age in the first place”.

Yet Americans are shying away from other languages.  From 1997 to 2008, the share of all U.S. elementary schools offering language classes fell from 31 percent to 25 percent, while middle schools dropped from 75 percent to 58 percent. In contrast, most European and Asian countries make second and third languages compulsory, beginning early in the early grades.

This is particularly interesting in light of our embarrassingly low scores on international assessments.  If studying a foreign language builds cognitive ability, is it really that surprising to see US students lag behind their bi- and tri-lingual peers?  Honestly, we’re not shocked.

California politicians recently attempted to water down (to the point of elimination) its high school arts and foreign language graduation requirement.  Fortunately, critics slammed the bill for its potentially devastating impact on state education and the Governor responded with a veto.

International comparisons aside, learning a foreign language is an integral part of a broad liberal arts education.  Let’s make this education available to all our students.

Skye Frontier

Posted in Foreign Language | 1 Comment »

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