Creating a Culture for the Preparation of an ACTFL/NCATE Program Review.

Abstract: This article examines what one university has done to prepare for its program review for recognition by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), a Specialized Professional Association (SPA) of NCATE. The history of the standards movement within higher education is neither long nor exhaustive; however, with the publication of the ACTFL/NCATE Program Standards for the Preparation of Foreign Language Teachers (2002), universities must begin to focus efforts on the training of future K-12 foreign language teachers. Six considerations are offered to foreign language and pedagogy faculty: (1) engaging all faculty in the program review process, (2) establishing a culture of oral proficiency, (3) educating faculty on standards, (4) revising curricula, (5) preparing the seven assessments required by ACTFL/NCATE, and (6) making use of technology for data collection. Key words: ACTFL/NCATE Program Review, assessments, foreign language education, standards Language: Relevant to all languages History of the Standards Movement in Language Learning and Teaching With the publication of Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century (National Standards, 1996) as a collaborative effort of ACTFL, the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG), the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP), and other national language organizations, the foreign language teaching profession was challenged to adopt a new philosophy in which all K-12 students would develop and maintain proficiency in English and at least one other language. The profession presented foreign language teachers with the 5Cs: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities in the K-12 learning environment. At first the impact of these standards on faculty in institutions of higher education was negligible, as McAlpine states: Those of us who teach or are in charge of the educational process in language departments at the college and university level have paid little or no attention to the release and subsequent implementation activities that have ensued since the publication of [the standards]. (2000, p. 75) Between 1996 and 1999, the dissemination of the standards at national, regional, and local foreign language conferences and meetings increased the awareness of language professionals of the need to focus on student outcomes in the foreign language classroom. In 1999, the collaborative, having added the Association of Teachers of Italian (ATI), the American Classical League (ACL), the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACR), the Chinese Language Teachers' Association of secondary-Elementary Schools/Chinese Language Teachers' Association (CLTA), and the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers/Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ), reissued the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (National Standards, 1999); standards for Arabic, written by the American Association of Teachers of Arabic (AATA), became available in 2006. More importantly, the addition of grades 13 to 16 in the document invited college and university faculty to become part of this national movement. Even with a national commitment to the standards, college and university faculty seemed to ignore their existence. Beyer writes: "Unless they have children in elementary, middle, or high school, many college professors may have missed the educational reform movement of the nineties based on 'standards'" (2000, p. 59). In the fall 1999 and winter 2000 volumes of the ADFL Bulletin, 18 articles appeared on the relevance of the student standards in higher education with the goal of fostering a conversation between secondary and postsecondary foreign language professionals. These articles underscore the importance of the student standards in the postsecondary foreign language classroom. …