National Standards Update: Your Input Needed! Marty Abbott, Director of Education

1. National Standards Update: Your Input Needed! Marty Abbott, Director of Education American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Helene Zimmer-Loew, Executive Director American Association for Teachers of German (AATG) SWCOLT Conference Salt Lake City Februrary 29, 2008

2. THE NATIONAL STANDARDS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROJECT A Collaborative Project of ACTFL, AATF, AATG, AATI, AATSP, ACL/APA, ACTR, CLASS, & NCJLT)

3. Foreign Language Collaborative Projects • 1993 Federal funding received to develop national standards for students K-12 • 1996 Publication of generic standards. • 1999 Publication of language-specific standards in • Chinese, Classical Languages, French, German, • Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish; • (seven languages developed K-16)

4. More Language-specificStandards • Arabic Published 2006 • African Languages—Swahili, Yoruba, and Zulu [in development] • Hindi [in development] • American Sign Language (ASL) [in development] • Need to include more Critical Need Languages

5. ACTFL PERFORMANCE GUIDELINES FOR K-12 LEARNERS www.actfl.org

6. Benchmarks • Novice Learner Range • Parallels Novice High in ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (K – 4, 5 – 8, 9 – 10) • Intermediate Learner Range • Parallels Intermediate Mid in ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (K-8, 5-12, 9-12) • Pre-advanced Learner Range • Parallels Intermediate High in ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (K-12)

7. Comprehensibility How well is the student understood? Comprehension How well does the student understand? Language Control How accurate is the student’s language? Vocabulary How extensive and applicable is the student’s vocabulary? Cultural Awareness How is the student’s cultural knowledge reflected in language use? Communication Strategies How does the student maintain communication? Domains

8. I P A Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) Project www.actfl.org

9. I P A What is an IPA? • Authentic • Reflects tasks that individuals do in the world outside the classroom • Performance-Based • Reflect how students USE the language and cultural knowledge in communicative tasks • Integrated • Integrates Communication plus other goal areas of the Standards • Developmental Progress of Proficiency • Novice Intermediate Pre-advanced • Blend with Classroom Instruction and Experiences • Based on the 3 Modes of Communication • Interpretive Interpersonal Presentational

10. www.cal.org/flnaep

11. The FL NAEP Assessment Framework Visual

12. National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education www.ncate.org

13. NCATE • determines which colleges of education meet rigorous national standards in preparing teachers and other classroom specialists. • is a coalition of 33 national education organizations representing teachers, teacher educators, subject matter specialists, and policy makers.

14. NCATE 2000 Unit Standards • are performance-based—radical departure from input-based system • focus on what teacher candidates should know and be able to do • require institutions to show candidate performance data

15. Required Program Components • Development of proficiency, especially oral • Ongoing assessment of proficiency • Language, linguistics, culture, & literature components • Methods course: on teaching of foreign languages, taught by qualified faculty

16. Program Components cont’d. • Early field experiences in foreign language classrooms • Field experiences supervised by qualified faculty • Opportunities for candidates to experience and use technology • Opportunities for structured study-abroad/immersion experiences

18. INTASC INTASC www.ccsso.org/intasc

19. INTASC: Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium • Program of the Council of Chief State School Officers • Established to promote collaboration among states in standards-based reform of teacher preparation, licensing, and professional development • Centered around performance-based standards and assessments • Compatible with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

20. www.nbpts.org

21. National Certification for Teachers of World Languages Other than English • Designed to recognize accomplished practice in the field • Standards adopted in 2001 • WLOTE Certificates: • Currently available in French and Spanish • Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood (ages 11-18+) • Revision of standards underway • More certificates available in the future

22. ACTFLAssessment for the Performance and Proficiency of Language(AAPPL)

23. Grade Clusters and Proficiency Ranges • Grade Clusters • PK - 7 • 8 - 16 • Proficiency Ranges • Advanced Low - Superior • Intermediate Mid - Advanced Low • Novice High - Intermediate Mid • Novice Low - Novice High

24. Report Example Sean’s performance Understanding Sean’s performance Sean’s performance falls in the Novice Mid range. He can understand conversations and recorded materials in familiar contexts. He relies heavily on memorized words, phrases, and structures and expends enormous effort to accomplish these listening tasks. Next Steps Language learners at this level would benefit from increasing their exposure to spoken language in live and recorded oral texts. Listening should focus on understanding key words and main ideas. Sources for listening practice include level appropriate texts that are related to academic content as well as individual student interests.

25. Situation: Your Chinese class is partnering with a social studies class on a project designed to encourage Chinese-speaking people in the community to vote in the upcoming mayoral election. You’ve agreed to make signs to be placed around community showing each candidate’s priorities. The social studies team has come up with graphics for each sign. Task: Place the Chinese text next to the matching graphics.Type of Response: Modified selected response VOTE!

27. ACTFL PERFORMANCE GUIDELINES FOR K-12 LEARNERS INTASC Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA)

28. Impact of the Standards • State Frameworks • Local curricula • Assessments • AAPPL (Assessment for Performance and Proficiency of Languages) Project • Individual classrooms—Annenberg video library www.learner.org

29. Need to address lack of impact on instruction • Only 16 states have some kind of graduation requirement in languages • Several states are pushing for proficiency exit standard rather than “seat time” • IRS (USED) grant application to assess impact of standards

30. Issues to Consider Do the Goal Areas (5 C’s) or the Standards need revisions? What has the impact been on institutions of higher education? What kind of professional development is needed for teachers? Can standards-based assessments drive changes in instruction?