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##  Implementing a District-Wide Foreign Language Program: A Case Study             of Acquisition, Planning, and Curricular Innovation. ERIC Digest.            

Recent federal legislation has called for American students leaving             Grades 4, 8, and 12 to demonstrate competence in challenging subject            matter, including foreign languages. If American students are to                complete these grades with demonstrable proficiency in a foreign                language, language programs at all levels will need to be                       significantly expanded and improved. This is particularly true at               the elementary school level. The importance of including foreign                language study in the elementary school is supported by research on             the amount of instructional time required to develop functional                 proficiency in a foreign language (Carroll, 1967) and by the widely             held professional view that language competence can only be achieved            by children who follow articulated, sustained sequences of foreign              language instruction (Donato & Terry, 1995). 
This digest describes            the implementation of a successful district-wide elementary school              foreign language (FLES) program that resulted from the                          superintendent's vision to have all students in the district study a            common foreign language throughout their schooling. This vision was             based on the superintendent's belief that American secondary school             graduates in the 21st century will be competing for positions in                which bilingual language proficiency will offer a considerable                  advantage. This digest highlights five overarching themes believed              to be key to the success of the program. PROGRAM EVOLUTIONIn              1996, the Chartiers Valley Public School District in suburban                   Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, implemented a FLES program in all 11 of               its kindergarten programs. The school system is relatively small,               comprised mostly of students from European-American working-class               families. 
The project began when researchers from Carnegie Mellon             University and the University of Pittsburgh met informally with the             Chartiers Valley County School superintendent in May 1995 to discuss            his vision for foreign languages in the district. A number of                   questions were raised at the meeting: Was the vision plausible?                 Which language would be offered? Was there community support? Could             the school district and the universities work collaboratively to                their mutual benefit? Would the school board provide the necessary              budgetary authorization? The meeting marked the beginning of a                  mutually beneficial university-school district partnership and                  resulted in the formation of a foreign language program committee               that would oversee the planning and eventual implementation of the              program. Two of the committee's initial tasks were to decide which              foreign language to choose for instruction and at what grade level              to begin the program. 
"Choice of language." Several options were              considered, including French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. A                  number of factors were evaluated, such as the availability of                   certified teachers and appropriate materials, potential community               support, and perceived utility of proficiency in the target                     language. For pragmatic reasons, the committee opted to select only             one language and to make its study compulsory for all children. The             committee agreed to conduct a community survey to determine the                 level of support for such a program and to gather feedback                      concerning the choice of a foreign language. The survey was                     administered to a representative sample of parents and to all                   members of the school board. Results of the survey indicated broad              general support for a foreign language program and specifically for             the teaching of Spanish. Data also showed preference for a program              that aimed at developing cultural knowledge, engaging students in               the excitement of language learning, and building basic language                proficiency. 
"Where to start." The second major question was                  whether to begin the program from the bottom up--that is, from                  kindergarten--or from the top down, working backwards a year at a               time from Grade 9, where foreign language instruction in the school             district then began. 
After considerable discussion on issues such             as scheduling, teacher availability, and the necessity of developing            long-term articulation, the decision was made to propose to the                 school board the implementation of a Spanish FLES program that would            begin in September 1996 for all district kindergartners. The                    proposal recommended extending the program one grade level each                 year. That is, all kindergartners and first graders would be                    required to participate in the program in the 1997-1998 school year;            all kindergartners, first and second graders in the 1998-1999 school            year; and so on. The Board of School Directors formally approved the            plan and authorized a 5-year pilot project. 
The next steps                    involved recruiting an appropriately certified teacher for the first            cohort of students, planning for curriculum development activities,             informing community members about the new program, and                          systematically providing other teachers and administrators working              in the system with information about the program. INCORPORATING               THE SPANISH PROGRAM INTO THE CORE CURRICULUMThe Spanish program             began in September 1996 in all kindergarten classes in the district,            comprising a total of 223 students. Each class met for 20 minutes a             day, 5 days a week. The Spanish specialist, who was certified in                both foreign language education and elementary education, worked                with students in their regular classrooms, and in effect team-taught            with the regular classroom teachers. In the first year, a strong                collaboration between the kindergarten teachers and the language                specialist developed almost immediately, a collaborative style that             has continued with each grade that has been added. 
The curriculum             was developed following the school-district template for planned                courses of study; that is, each thematically organized unit was                 specified according to (1) student learning outcomes; (2) content,              materials, and activities; and (3)procedures for assessment. The                main focus of each lesson was on vocabulary building and                        comprehension. Every attempt was made to integrate Spanish with                 ongoing activities in art, music, library, physical education, and              the computer curriculum. EXPANSION THROUGH THE PRIMARY,                       INTERMEDIATE, AND MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVELSThe foreign language                  program committee continued to meet quarterly to discuss various                aspects of the program and to plan for its expansion in the                     1997-1998 school year. Plans for the second year followed the same              model used during the first year, namely 20 minutes of instruction              in Spanish 5 days a week with a specialist teacher who came to the              classroom. The curriculum for the second year built on concepts and             vocabulary learned during the first year and retained its                       integrated, thematic focus, but moved toward greater oral                       participation by the students. The same model was followed for the              1998-1999 school year with the addition of a second dually                      certified (in elementary and foreign language education) teacher as             the program expanded to include all students from kindergarten                  through Grade 2. During the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 school years,               the committee addressed a number of issues, including the expansion             to Grade 3 and Grade 4 and the need to begin the process of thinking            carefully about the expansion that will occur in 2002-2003 into the             middle school. THEMES OF SUCCESS: A MODEL FOR OTHER DISTRICTS AND             THE NATIONSeveral features of the program at Chartiers Valley               are considered key to its success. 
"Careful and collaborative                 planning and evaluation." A hallmark of the program has been the                overarching concern for careful and collaborative planning and                  evaluation each year as the program expands. Advance planning has               been a distinguishing characteristic of the program, one that is                often lacking in the implementation of FLES programs (see Curtain &             Dahlberg, 2000). 
"Gradual program expansion." Consonant with the              theme of careful planning, program expansion occurs one year at a               time. This allows for the development of a well-articulated                     curriculum based on annual assessment of students' expanding                    abilities. 
"Attention to progress in proficiency." An overriding              concern of the program is this: that as students progress through               the program, they should also progress in their linguistic and                  cultural knowledge. Observations of early language programs often               reveal that children are faced with repetitions of the same content             presented in the same way from one year to the next. The program in             Chartiers Valley has been careful to avoid this problem. 
"High                quality foreign language faculty." Each year, as the program expands            to another grade, an additional teacher is hired with certification             in both foreign language and elementary education. Hiring only high             quality, well-prepared teachers who understand both second language             acquisition and how children learn helps to ensure the success of               the program. 
"Reflective practitioners." Closely related to                   teacher qualifications is teachers' orientation to their work.                  Teachers in the Chartiers Valley program are reflective                         practitioners who make instructional decisions and modifications                based on classroom observation and practice. COLLABORATING ON                 CURRICULAR INNOVATIONTo gain insight into the opinions of those             who collaborated in the design and implementation of the                        program--the superintendent, school board members, principals,                  regular classroom teachers, and Spanish teachers--an interview                  protocol was developed to examine their perspectives on their                   experience. All participants expressed remarkable enthusiasm and                considered the program a success. During analysis of the interview              data, several overarching and consistent themes                                 emerged. 
"Articulating a shared vision." The superintendent wanted            a foreign language program for the Chartiers Valley School                      District, "because of a sense that American education was                       behind [the rest of the world] with regard to exposure to foreign               languages." From the time he first proposed the idea of a foreign               language program as part of the district's plans, his vision                    resonated positively throughout the committee overseeing                        implementation of the program. 
"Careful planning." The success of             the program has been due in large part to the careful planning                  devoted to its development and implementation. Crucial to this                  planning was the involvement of all stakeholders, who were                      continually encouraged to voice their opinions and                              concerns. 
"Empowerment." There was a unanimous feeling of                     ownership for the program among survey respondents. This empowerment            felt by teachers, department heads, principals, and others was                  attributed to the superintendent's strong leadership. 
"Support of             and for the teachers." Another central thread woven throughout the              interviews was that of support of and for the teachers. For example,            there was a continuing search for teachers with dual certification              in elementary education and Spanish. A great deal of attention was              paid to ensuring that the Spanish program was incorporated into the             regular curriculum of the primary school with a minimum of                      disruption. Care was taken to provide assistance to the Spanish                 teachers through continuing linkage with the university partners and            for classroom teachers by the systematic provision of in-service                training. Respondents noted that the Spanish teachers also had the              support of the classroom teachers. 
"Concerns for the future."                 Concerns for the future. The most resounding theme reflected a                  realization that issues of articulation from elementary school to               middle school and from middle school to high school will be critical            if the district is to have a coherent and viable foreign language               program across 13 years of instruction. Several respondents                     mentioned the need to re-think the language curriculum in the middle            school (Grades 6-8) and high school (Grades 9-12) to accommodate                students who have studied a foreign language throughout elementary              school. As the chairperson of the high school foreign language                  department stated, "there will need to be drastic changes in the                curriculum in the later years of schooling," but she hastened to add            that she sees this "as a wonderful problem." CONCLUSIONBy                 telling the story of one district's lived experience with FLES, this            digest has described key elements in the development of a successful            educational innovation. The direction and decisions of this district            rested on concerns of several important constituents and reflect                Markee's (1997) observation that innovative projects are affected,              positively or negatively, by complex sociocultural variables, such              as cultural beliefs; political climate; historical and economic                 conditions; administrative attitudes; institutional support; and                technological, sociolinguistic, and language planning factors. When             viewed globally, the themes of vision, planning, empowerment,                   support, and future concerns described above reflect all of the                 sociocultural variables listed by Markee and attest to their                    importance, as well as the need to acknowledge and address openly               these factors when designing and implementing new programs. Others              in the process of contemplating the development of a program such as            the one presented here, or in monitoring and evaluating current FLES            programs, might well be advised to benchmark successes and failures             against these themes. REFERENCESCarroll, J. B. (1967). "The               foreign language attainments of language majors in the senior year:             A survey conducted in U.S. colleges and universities." Cambridge,               MA: Harvard University, Graduate School of Education. 
Curtain, H.             A., & Dahlberg, C. (2000). "Planning for success: Common pitfalls in            the planning of early foreign language programs. ERIC Digest."                  Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and                             Linguistics. 
Donato, R., & Terry, R. M. (Eds.). (1995). "Foreign              language learning: The journey of a lifetime." Lincolnwood, IL:                 National Textbook. 
Markee, N. (1997). "Managing curricular                    innovation." New York: Cambridge. 
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This digest was prepared            with funding from the U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational            Research and Improvement, National Library of Education, under                  contract no. ED-99-CO-0008. The opinions expressed do not                       necessarily reflect the positions or policies of ED, OERI, or NLE.           **Title:** Implementing a District-Wide Foreign Language Program: A Case Study             of Acquisition, Planning, and Curricular Innovation. ERIC Digest.            **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, 4646 40th Street,              NW, Washington, DC 20016. Tel: 202-362-0700; For full text:                     http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest.                                           **Descriptors:**  Articulation (Education), Cooperation, Elementary Education,  FLES,            Language Proficiency, Program Descriptions,  Program Development,                Program Implementation,  Reflective Teaching, Second Language                  Instruction, Second Language Learning, Spanish                               **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests                                                                 
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