The U.S. Department of Education has surprised the Emporia school district with a bonus of more than $500,000.
Patricia Smiley, director of integrated services for the district, said the district had applied for a Foreign Language Assistance Program grant in 2006.
“We got the letter last year saying we did not receive funding but we had really high scores,” Smiley said. “Then they opened it up again this year unbeknownst to us. ... so we were pleasantly surprised.”
Smiley and Carolyn Koch wrote the grant application, with assistance from Robert Fanning of Kansas State University.
The Department of Education was expected to send the secretary’s regional representative, Mary Cohen, to Emporia this afternoon to formally award the $583,710 grant. The money will be disbursed over a period of three years.
A $161,865 grant will be given for the 2007-08 school year, $199,389 for the second year, and $222,456 for the third year, according to information from Cohen’s office.
Smiley said that the money will be used to expand foreign-language courses for elementary students.
“That multi-lingualism is so important,” Smiley said. “That’s primarily the goal of the grant.”
The first year’s award will be spent hiring a project director, providing professional development, parent training, selecting students, pre-testing to determine baseline scores and hiring teachers.
Years two and three will focus on implementing the enrichment program in many of the elementary schools. The grant in those years will pay for teachers’ salaries, professional development, and materials. The hope is to hold daily classes, Smiley said, or “at least weekly.” One or two schools might be selected for more in-depth language classes.
“We have to match the money and so sometimes that’s based on what’s available,” she said.
The district has chosen Spanish as the language to be taught.
“Originally, when we looked at the grant there were bonus points awarded for different languages — Arabic, Chinese, languages that are not what we would think common,” Smiley said. “We just really didn’t think we’d be able to do that in Emporia. We didn’t know whether parents would be interested in that; we didn’t know if we could hire enough (teachers) to go with that, so we just decided to go with Spanish. That seems to be the need in Emporia.”
Smiley said the district is well aware of the challenges in hiring qualified staff for language programs. The dual-language program, which will begin phasing out in the fall, had been identified as part of the district’s strategic plan. Finding qualified teachers with elementary certifications in Spanish and English proved to be the dual language program’s undoing.
“We’ve had some difficulties in the past, so we’re going to have to address those challenges,” she said. “We’re going to have to learn from our mistakes and see what we need to do.”
The district also will need to watch how the elementary Spanish as a Foreign Language component affects middle school and high school curriculum, she said. The Spanish as a Foreign Language classes already are growing at Emporia high School, and additional sections have been added. The new program for elementary school may change those class needs as the students pass on to higher grades.
The district may need to allow proficiency testing for qualified students to test out of high school Spanish, or give high-school credits to younger students, for example.
“We’re very excited about this grant,” Smiley said. “It’s going to be a lot of work and a lot of planning. I think it’ll provide a lot of opportunities.
sciguy (anonymous) says...
I think education in foreign languages is a vital and much overlooked part of elementary and secondary education. I was lucky to have the option to take any of three foreign languages (four if you include Latin) in high school.
But why only Spanish? Among all foreign languages, the ones most useful now are Russian, Chinese (Mandarin), Arabic, Spanish, Persian, and French.
Students should have the opportunity to learn several languages. If only a couple could be taught, then Chinese and Arabic make the greatest sense. Choosing to teach only Spanish because it "...seems to be the need in Emporia" and because the other languages "are not what we would think common" is short-sighted, narrow-sighted, and wrong.
Chinese isn't common? Over a billion people speak Mandarin Chinese, and China is one of our greatest trading partners.
If only one must be picked, I would strongly suggest Latin, which despite its status as a dead language makes the various romance languages far easier to learn later on. Perhaps this grant wouldn't fund Latin education, but it would probably have the greatest positive influence on students' future learning of languages.
June 12, 2007 at 8:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Wasp (anonymous) says...
The reason they offer spanish is so we can communicate with those who live south of the tracks. When we have enough somolians here, we will offer to teach their language too!
June 12, 2007 at 10 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MelissaE (anonymous) says...
For pete's sake.
Quit griping, Wasp. Be thrilled that the children get to learn more than they did before this money arrived. I'm sure you're out of school now, so it doesn't really concern you (unless you have children in school, to which I'm hoping you see the promise of learning something new vs. stifling something due to skin color).
I'd gladly learn new languages. I don't care which one it is--many different languages are helpful in many different aspects of life.
M
June 12, 2007 at 11:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emporia (anonymous) says...
Thank you, Melissa, again for supporting the possibilities for innovative education for our children. Language learning is NOT about skin color, race. It is about opening doors for students' futures. Language learning is about communication within a global society. Language learning is about making connections with other people. Each educational disclipline has a language of its own: math has its own language, music, science. No one EVER questions learning the language of those disciplines. Why are we denying students the possibility of becoming bilingual or multilingual? Can't we celebrate the possibility of what could be for our children?
June 13, 2007 at 2:19 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )