SOMA school district - what foreign language study is offered
EBennett said:
Ideally our students should be learning languages at the elementary level and we should offer Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu and more.
Besides budget constraints there is the practical challenge of finding qualified teachers. My friend is a language supervisor in another district. Hiring people who have the language skills AND can teach is difficult enough for Spanish, French, and all the other languages that have traditional certification programs in our colleges. She managed to certify a Mandarin teacher through the alternate route, but the person is not a strong teacher. Unfortunately people with those skills can find more lucrative jobs in industry.
Bingo. Speaking from experience, it's extremely difficult, even in NYC, to find decent interpreters for languages such as Arabic, Dari, Urdu and Pashto. They are in high demand. The other issue is that some of them don't speak English well enough to be understood.
The optimal time to start a child on learning a new language seems to be around 4 or 5 or so. I'd love to see Kindergarten being more of a kinesthetic experience with a focus on learning a new language through movement, music and games and cut back on the alphabet worksheets.
okay, so you go take a book and take it to the nice lady at the counter and find out ;-)SuzanneNg said:
FYI @ffof. You cannot tell last check out by looking at our books as those records are on the computer.
Apparently CHS used to teach Japanese (20+ years ago) but it was dropped at some point. I don't know the history of that decision, but perhaps someone here does.
There was an effort to get into Mandarin about 15 years ago with a program in the Afterschool Program at Tuscan and Clinton that lasted several years. I believe that it was hoped that it would spur consideration of including it in the main curriculum, but it died. Again, I don't recall the history of the decision, but my older child (now in college) participated for several years and it was pretty good from my vantage as an enrichment program.
I suspect that budget stress is the main culprit and, as noted above, the difficulty in finding qualified teachers for Mandarin, Hindi and other eastern languages. I think that the reason Italian continues to be offered is that there is demand combined with availability of teachers who can teach it as well as Spanish and/or other Romance languages.
There was an effort to get into Mandarin about 15 years ago with a program in the Afterschool Program at Tuscan and Clinton that lasted several years. I believe that it was hoped that it would spur consideration of including it in the main curriculum, but it died. Again, I don't recall the history of the decision, but my older child (now in college) participated for several years and it was pretty good from my vantage as an enrichment program.
I suspect that budget stress is the main culprit and, as noted above, the difficulty in finding qualified teachers for Mandarin, Hindi and other eastern languages. I think that the reason Italian continues to be offered is that there is demand combined with availability of teachers who can teach it as well as Spanish and/or other Romance languages.
Sep 10, 2014 at 6:00pm Edited
I'm not sure budget stress explains everything.
Just as an example, look at the debate over the social studies curriculum in the elementary schools. An expert / author (also parent) who reviewed the curriculum said it had no world history, no contextualizing of America in the world and no study of ancient civilizations. Kids covered the same topics over and over again, essentially the Lenape Indians, American Revolution and Civil War.
I remember writing the Board about two years about this, along with many other parents. Not sure where it stands now. But at least as of 2012-13, the elementary social studies curriculum was pretty weak. Another parent told me, "it's as if American history stopped at the Mississippi river." I haven't seen the full sequence now, but I do know that right now my child gets almost no sense of the greater world from school. He learned more in preschool at the Y.
Now, look at the high school, you have 12 physical education and health teachers (according to recent budget docs). PE and health are obviously very important, but we can't covert one of those positions into a Mandarin language teacher? (or Arabic or Swahili or Hindi or Portuguese or Russian)? (Yes, I know that PE Is required by the state, but the school district can allow students to waive that requirement if they are in a sport or even an extracurricular activity with some PE or health component.)
It's this kind of stuff that really makes me question the priorities of our school district.
Just as an example, look at the debate over the social studies curriculum in the elementary schools. An expert / author (also parent) who reviewed the curriculum said it had no world history, no contextualizing of America in the world and no study of ancient civilizations. Kids covered the same topics over and over again, essentially the Lenape Indians, American Revolution and Civil War.
I remember writing the Board about two years about this, along with many other parents. Not sure where it stands now. But at least as of 2012-13, the elementary social studies curriculum was pretty weak. Another parent told me, "it's as if American history stopped at the Mississippi river." I haven't seen the full sequence now, but I do know that right now my child gets almost no sense of the greater world from school. He learned more in preschool at the Y.
Now, look at the high school, you have 12 physical education and health teachers (according to recent budget docs). PE and health are obviously very important, but we can't covert one of those positions into a Mandarin language teacher? (or Arabic or Swahili or Hindi or Portuguese or Russian)? (Yes, I know that PE Is required by the state, but the school district can allow students to waive that requirement if they are in a sport or even an extracurricular activity with some PE or health component.)
It's this kind of stuff that really makes me question the priorities of our school district.
Sep 11, 2014 at 9:12am Edited
ALee said:
Now, look at the high school, you have 12 physical education and health teachers (according to recent budget docs). PE and health are obviously very important, but we can't covert one of those positions into a Mandarin language teacher? (or Arabic or Swahili or Hindi or Portuguese or Russian)? (Yes, I know that PE Is required by the state, but the school district can allow students to waive that requirement if they are in a sport or even an extracurricular activity with some PE or health component.)
It's this kind of stuff that really makes me question the priorities of our school district.
Agreed. Especially when you see the dollars we spend per FTE at CHS:
ELA Teachers - $75,273 per FTE
Math Teachers - $71,556 per FTE
Science Teachers - $82,977 per FTE
Social Studies Teachers - $77,667 per FTE
World Lang. Teachers - $74,442 per FTE
and
PE & Health Teachers - $90,875 per FTE
Am I missing something? Is there an AP "Team Games" or "Dancing" class offered by the PE/Health Dept.?
Sep 11, 2014 at 9:20am Edited
Some of the difference may be explained by years of experience - if all the PE teachers have 20+ years experience and most of the other departments have newer staff that would make a difference.
Where did you find this information? I'd be interested in seeing the breakdown for some other districts.
Where did you find this information? I'd be interested in seeing the breakdown for some other districts.
Sep 11, 2014 at 9:44am Edited
EBennett said:
Where did you find this information? I'd be interested in seeing the breakdown for some other districts.
This particular document is called Cost Center Analysis. I'm not sure it exists in other districts. The information is definitely publicly available, but our school district compiles it in one place. As I understand things, the previous board leadership demanded the creation of this document so they could have transparency when it came to costs. The current board kept it.
Not in the least intending to defend the size or cost of the PE department, but could some of the difference in cost/fte be in coaching stipends? Those are above and beyond the salary.
I think that the experience level/tenure of the PE faculty is higher than typical. And they can't just fire them all and hire newbies, even if they wanted to.
Perhaps many already have masters degrees?sac said:
I think that the experience level/tenure of the PE faculty is higher than typical. And they can't just fire them all and hire newbies, even if they wanted to.
max_weisenfeld said:
Not in the least intending to defend the size or cost of the PE department, but could some of the difference in cost/fte be in coaching stipends? Those are above and beyond the salary.
sac said:
I think that the experience level/tenure of the PE faculty is higher than typical. And they can't just fire them all and hire newbies, even if they wanted to.
I'm not in a position to question salaries. There's a lot we don't know by just looking at numbers. There could be coaching stipends involved. And I do believe that experienced teachers should be paid.
At the same time, I don't believe tenure prevents a reduction in the size of one department and expansion of another.
It's the rare kid I have met coming out of high school who has any more than a passing, and self-conscious familiarity with any language studied in HS.
I loooved high school spanish. I was part of a very small group that was in AP Spanish senior year. Nobody else wanted to take more than was required. It was so fun! We were so beyond our textbooks (I actually don't recall if we had textbooks for AP spanish?) that we decided what we wanted to learn and learned it - we went on field trips to various spanish restaurants, went to the city to see Spanish plays, watched spanish language movies. It was great!! I hope my kids have the same opportunity some day
I may have missed it, but does anyone know the languages offered in Middle School? I saw the links to the HS offerings, but I can't find Middle School info.
Did IB add any foreign languages to grades 6-8?
Did IB add any foreign languages to grades 6-8?
I think it is still Spanish only...IB didn't come with the resources to add language teachers.
Bringing PE teachers into this conversation is just wrong and a red herring. Students are mandated by law to have at least 150 hours of PE - (don't kill me if I am a little off in my #) that is not the case for Foreign Lang. I think they may only be required to have two years of it. So we can not compare the two.
As for ebooks - they are great for non fiction mainly because most non fiction publishers allow for more then one person to check them out at a time. Fiction ebooks are still not great mainly because or the publisher restrictions. Also studies have shown that student prefer to read fiction still in book form. Having been a part of the overdrive study I don't think it is worth it based on the cost associated with it.
bookbabe66 said:
Bringing PE teachers into this conversation is just wrong and a red herring. Students are mandated by law to have at least 150 hours of PE - (don't kill me if I am a little off in my #) that is not the case for Foreign Lang. I think they may only be required to have two years of it. So we can not compare the two.
I think it's 150 minutes a week of PE/health. Not 150 hours /year.
Jan 3, 2015 at 11:13am Edited
The District used to offer German. Also, I think, Russian and Japanese (not sure about Mandarin or any form of Chinese), although both may have been independent study if there were not enough students for a class. We offered Japanese in some form because we had a yearly exchange program with a high school in Tokyo. If I remember correctly, most years they sent us at least one student for several months, but we seldom had a student who had studied Japanese in order to return the favor. Does anyone know if we still have that exchange program (just a private exchange between the two schools) or, if not, when it ended?
And we had at least French, Spanish and Latin from the 7th grade, up.
And we had at least French, Spanish and Latin from the 7th grade, up.
If language classes are very important to you, some of the private schools in surrounding towns might have what you are looking for.
St. Rose of Lima and Our Lady of Sorrows both start Spanish in Kindergarten. St. Rose also offers Latin in 6th-8th grades. Kent Place lower school offers both French and Spanish in K, and then you choose one to pursue through grade 5. Oak Knoll also does French and Spanish in the lower school starting in K.
Delbarton offers French, German, Italian, Spanish and Arabic.
Seton Hall Prep offers Mandarin, French, Italian, Latin and Spanish.
Newark Academy offers, French, Spanish and Mandarin.
Kent Place upper school offers French, Latin, Spanish and Chinese.
Pingry has French, German, Latin, Spanish and Chinese.
St. Rose of Lima and Our Lady of Sorrows both start Spanish in Kindergarten. St. Rose also offers Latin in 6th-8th grades. Kent Place lower school offers both French and Spanish in K, and then you choose one to pursue through grade 5. Oak Knoll also does French and Spanish in the lower school starting in K.
Delbarton offers French, German, Italian, Spanish and Arabic.
Seton Hall Prep offers Mandarin, French, Italian, Latin and Spanish.
Newark Academy offers, French, Spanish and Mandarin.
Kent Place upper school offers French, Latin, Spanish and Chinese.
Pingry has French, German, Latin, Spanish and Chinese.
Delbarton offers Arabic? It's an all-boys school, right? I've been looking for a HS that offers Arabic for my 7th grader but not much luck.
Perhaps Hungarian would be the right language to learn for this thread.....
sac said:
Apparently CHS used to teach Japanese (20+ years ago) but it was dropped at some point. I don't know the history of that decision, but perhaps someone here does..
Less than 20 year ago there was a japanese class. IIRC correctly it was taught using vhs tapes or laser discs (dvd was in its infantcy) and the teacher overseeing the class taught spanish too. There was talk of using the "TV studio storage room" (sorry "distance learning lab") to offer several other world languages but that didn't pan out. I was tempted to take it but my schedule was pretty packed with english, gym , photography and hanging out in Mr. Chase's room for film making / inde study. Also no one I knew spoke japanese so if i needed help no where to go (also had my 2 years of world language wrapped up the the end of soph year)
FWIW a few other world languages are available through online courses at CHS. You have to get special permission to take these classes.
In order to add a comment – you must Join this community – Click here to do so.
Sponsored Business
Promote your business here - Businesses get highlighted throughout the site and you can add a deal.
How does this work?