Save FLES in the T/E School District We the undersigned residents of Tredyffrin and Easttown townships want the children of the Tredyffrin/ Easttown School District (TESD) to learn a foreign language in elementary school. This is currently an objective of the existing Foreign Language in Elementary Schools (FLES) program. The TESD administration made a recommendation to the School Board Education Committee on the morning of November 10th under the agenda topic "Non-Mandated Programs" that would: 1. Cancel the FLES program 2. Seek to accomplish FLES objectives other than language skills though other classes and activities 3. Abandon the language skills objective because the FLES program in its current form has been un-successful in meeting that objective The school board will eventually decide on whether or not to accept the recommendation sometime before January. We believe for the community to make an informed decision we need the administration to propose what it would take to achieve the language skills objective. We are therefore petitioning to 1. Retain the current elementary school foreign language skills objective 2. Request the administration to propose how to re-invent FLES to succeed in achieving the original language skills objectives 3. Retain the current FLES program until it can be improved to meet the language skills objective ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND I. The benefits of starting language education at an early age are generally agreed upon and part of the original rationale for starting the TESD FLES program per the TESD website, these include: 1. "Scientific studies indicate that there are sound physiological and psychological reasons to initiate foreign language study with children at an early age. And, 2. "Cognitive research shows that very young children learn language easily due to the elasticity of the brain. In fact, this research states that the learning window, when the peak acquisition of a foreign language occurs, is between birth and ten years of age. Yet, for most students, foreign language is introduced and formally studied when they are twelve years of age or older II. The current FLES program has several objectives, per the TESD website, these are: 1. "To build enthusiasm for language learning through early success which will be transferable to all languages 2. To promote learning of Spanish, an essential World Language, at a prime language learning time. 3. To demonstrate speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in a foreign language at the beginning Intermediate proficiency level (as specified by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.) *This will be after completion of a 1-4 grade sequence of Spanish study. 4. To increase general language awareness, including awareness of the student's native language. 5. To enhance knowledge of world history and culture and experience an increased global awareness which will serve students throughout their lives. We are proposing that the FLES program be re-invented to focus on objective number 3, language skills with a belief that progress will be made inherently towards the other objectives III. The rationale for canceling the FLES program (as presented to the InterSchool Council on Tuesday night 11/11/09) centered on 2 main points 1. The program is failing to meet its objectives. The only objective that is measured is language skills, number 3 above, using standards from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Other objectives are not currently measured in a robust or meaningful manner. 2. The administration proposes to focus more classroom time/ resources on addressing newer - since FLES was initiated - mandatory accountability requirements, for example passing standardized math and English tests. There may have been other supporting points however we do not have a copy of the presentation. IV. Several alternate proposals to address the language skills objective are found to be lacking: 1. Make FLES an optional extra-curricular activity. We fundamentally oppose this on the basis of the inequity to those students who will not have the wherewithal (for a multitude of reasons) to be able to participate. These students would be deprived of a opportunity to develop critical life skills at an age when they can best acquire those skills 2. Shift to technology based and other alternative instruction methods. This proposal needs to be developed further to demonstrate that it can accomplish FLES language skills goals. V. We recommend not abandoning the original language skills objectives and making the changes necessary to achieve success in language skills

Sponsor