Thread: Kentucky considering making HS students learn a foreign lang

http://www.courier-journal.com

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Requiring a second language
Kentucky is considering making high school students learn a foreign language before they can graduate

By Nancy C. Rodriguez
nrodriguez@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal



øHabla español?

By 2010, all Kentucky public high school students might have to show they can speak, read and write a foreign language to get a diploma.



The state Board of Education will vote on the proposal in December as part of a plan to raise high school graduation requirements.

Kentucky currently doesn't require students to take a foreign language unless they plan to go to a state university, or want to receive an honors diploma.

If the proposal passes, Kentucky will join a handful of states that are making students learn a foreign language before they can graduate.

Teresa Dawes, who has a daughter in eighth grade and a son who is a junior at Estill County High School, said the requirement is needed to make sure Kentucky children keep pace with the changing world.

"If they don't start doing this stuff they're not going to fit in," said Dawes, whose son took Spanish his freshman and sophomore years. "They have to realize that there's more than what we have right here."

But others think Kentucky needs to focus its attention on more "pressing needs in the education system."

"We don't have kids that can even read, and yet we're going to emphasize a different language," said Jim Waters, spokesman for the Bluegrass Institute, a nonpartisan association based in Bowling Green that analyzes state and local public policy.

State and local educators disagree, saying many studies have shown that students who study a foreign language have improved creative and problem-solving skills and score higher on standardized tests. They also say it strengthens students' English skills.

"We live in a flat world. It is a much more global market, and we need to prepare our students for that possibility," said Thomas Saurer, president of the Kentucky World Language Association and a world-language specialist for Jefferson County Public Schools.

School administrators acknowledge the value of learning foreign languages, but some worry how they will meet the requirement when Kentucky already has a shortage of certified foreign-language teachers.

"We've just had no luck at all in attracting a certified, fully qualified language teacher for foreign language of any kind," said John Shook, superintendent of Jenkins Independent schools in Letcher County.

Meeting college needs
Requiring foreign language would align Kentucky's graduation requirements with coursework that students need to be accepted to any of the state's eight public colleges and universities. That coursework requires high school students to take a required number and level of classes, including algebra II and a lab science.

Last year, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education also began requiring that all students have at least two years of a foreign language to attend public universities.

Council officials say they are "delighted" with the state Board of Education's proposal to require foreign language for graduation.

"The rest of the world is much more adept at other languages than we are," said Dianne Bazell, the council's assistant vice president of academic affairs.

Many other countries, including China, Canada and Germany, require their students to learn another language, often beginning that instruction in elementary school.

But only a few U.S. states have followed suit.

Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., require students to take at least two years of foreign language in high school; New York requires one year, which can be taken before high school, according to the Education Commission of the States.

Texas and New Jersey will start requiring high school students to take foreign language in 2008.

Other states either don't address it, require electives that can include foreign language or require it for only students completing an honors diploma.

Kentucky, for example, requires students who want a Commonwealth Diploma to receive a "C" or higher in Advanced Placement French, German, Latin or Spanish, or International Baccalaureate French or Spanish.

But more states are looking to expand their foreign-language instruction, including New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Wyoming and Georgia, said Jacque Van Houten, a world-language and international-education consultant at the state Department of Education.

Competency is key
Kentucky's foreign-language proposal would focus on students achieving competency, rather than completing a certain number of years.

The state hasn't decided how to define competency, although it is looking at roughly equating it with two years of language instruction, Van Houten said. She stressed the state is trying to require students to be fluent before they can graduate.

Testing data shows that while the number of Kentucky students opting to take foreign language in high school is growing, few are scoring at high levels, Saurer said.

Between 2003 and last year, the number of public school students who took an Advanced Placement exam in a foreign language increased to 1,205, from 1,073. Spanish was the most popular language, followed by French, Latin and German.

But most of the students who took Advanced-Placement exams in a language last year scored in the lowest two learning levels.

Many students who take language in high school "get to college, and they would have to start all over again," Saurer said.

For the graduation requirement, Kentucky is looking at using a standardized test that would judge students on how well they speak, read and write the language, she said.

Jewel Duncan -- who has a 3-year-old son and a daughter at the University of Kentucky -- applauds the idea of mandatory foreign languages and also would like to see schools offer more choices to students.

"In our society today, kids need to be bilingual in something," said Duncan, whose daughter took three years of Latin at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington.

In the classroom
At Shelby County High School students can take Spanish or French.

Sophomore LaPorsha Jackson, 15, said she opted to take Spanish "because it's going to help when I go to college."

"We have so many mixed origins in our country, we kind of need to be able to communicate with people later on in life when we get jobs," she said.

Elisabeth Dawkins, 17, said she likes how the language exposes her to different cultures.

"It's really exotic, actually," she said.

Spanish classes at the school last week were spent learning about DÃÂ*a de los Muertos -- Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration of deceased ancestors.

Teacher Lisa Mandeel said her students volunteer as translators at area schools and at community events for the county's growing Latino population.

Teachers sought
One large problem could be finding enough foreign-language teachers to meet the requirement.

Kentucky's shortage of certified teachers has forced many districts, especially those in rural areas, to hire uncertified instructors.

This school year the state has issued more than 30 emergency teaching certificates to school districts, allowing them to hire instructors who do not meet state requirements to teach a foreign language.

Schools like Bullitt East High have been forced to use a long-term substitute to teach some Spanish classes.

Other districts have resorted to sharing teachers with neighboring districts or have their students take courses online through Kentucky Virtual High School, or through KET.

State reaches out
State officials say they are aware of the lack of foreign-language teachers and are working to deal with it.

In 2000, the state went online with KET, in part to increase access to foreign-language classes.

Kentucky also has agreements with Spain, France and Germany to allow teachers from those countries to come to teach in the state. Right now, 26 are working in Kentucky.

And Phillip Rogers, executive director of the Education Professional Standards Board that certifies teachers in Kentucky, said the board is seeing more college students at the state's colleges and universities interested in becoming foreign-language teachers.

"There is a shortage, but the pipeline seems to be improving," he said.

I can certainly see how this language requirement might adversely affect marginal students who might think of dropping out of highschool. It could be the determining factor for someone who will end up with no high school diploma.

Not everyone is cut out to go to college. Those who are will have their two-year language requirement while in high school without his/her diploma depending on it.

In all high schools, there should certainly be choices other than French or Spanish for those interested in foreign language.