This web page summarizes the World Language Standards review held August 25, 2005 at PLU with Katy Armagost, Sue Webber, Michele Anciaux Aoki, Caleb Perkins, Paul Aoki, Bridget Yaden, Lauren Kiolet, and Erin Jones.

The notes for this meeting were generated from the initial Review 8/11/2005.

Key questions to consider:

• What do we mean by "standards"?
• Who is the audience for the standards?
• What has already been done in Washington state?
• Where should we start?
• How do we implement standards?
• What about assessment?
• Next Steps
• What we decided

What do we mean by "standards"?

The word "standard" can be confusing because it has several meanings. This ACTFL paper by Paul Sandrock does an excellent job of explaining the concept in simple terms. (We will bring copies of the paper to the meeting on August 25.)

State Standards: Connecting a National Vision to Local Implementation (PDF) by Paul Sandrock, ACTFL

From Sandrock's paper (p. 8):

• What? Content Standards explain what students should know and be able to do. These general goals focus teaching and learning.  ...
• How? Performance Standards describe how students will show that they are achieving the content standards. Performance standards are written with active verbs to help students, teachers, and parents envision the ways that students will demonstrate what is described in the content standards. ...
• How well? Proficiency Standards provide the criteria and/or scale for judging the degree of progress on the performance standards. ...
• When? Where? Who? Program Standards offer descriptions of important components of a school or district program, addressing the availability of foreign language instruction for all students, explaining how the instruction is offered each day and each year, and sharing the program configuration and location (e.g., will the program be a part of the regular elementary school day, or will it be offered after regular school hours?). ...

Within the various state standards, the terminology is not consistent, especially with regard to Performance and Proficiency Standards. This is something we'll need to wrestle with a bit. We can discuss it more at August 25 meeting.

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Who is the audience for the standards?

We identified two distinct audiences with different needs (in terms of deliverables from this effort):

Audience	Need
Administrators	To understand "what's in it for them" -- that is, how learning languages will help students do well on state tests, like the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) To see the relationship of the World Language Standards to the state's Essential Academic Learning Requirements
Classroom Teachers	To get practical information to help them teach their classes To have tools and strategies to help them assess their students to see how well they're learning To feel they're not working "alone," but are part of a larger language learning community To feel that World Languages is a part of our state's education reform effort, not an afterthought

With this in mind, we would envision designing the World Language Standards document to include:

For Administrators:

• Why Learn Another Language? (high-level overview of the benefits of learning languages for increasing student achievement)
• Mapping of World Language Standards to our state Learning Goals and Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs)

For Classroom Teachers:

• Online Lesson Plans (practical applications of the standards to give teachers ideas for standards-based classroom lessons -- these could be an ongoing library that we build on the web)
• Assessment Tools & Strategies (relevant information that teachers can begin to incorporate into their classrooms to improve the quality of assessment data for language learning over time and provide valuable feedback to teachers, students, parents, and education leaders)

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What has already been done in Washington state?

In 1999, WAFLT and OSPI prepared a "White Paper" on World Languages. Parts of that paper were presented to the State Board of Education GRAD (Graduation and Requirements Committee). We recommend that we locate an electronic copy of the paper so it can be made available on the web for historical perspective. In addition, parts of it could be incorporated into the Voluntary World Language Standards document. (Sue Webber will bring her printed copy to the meeting on August 25.)

A number of high school and college world language teachers were involved in developing Competency Based Admission Standards in 1999 for the Higher Education Coordinating Board Admission Standards Action Committee. These documents may also be of interest, but they were never widely reviewed or adopted other than with pilot schools working on performance-based admission standards. They are not formulated in alignment with the National Standards for Foreign Language. (We will bring copies to the meeting on August 25 for reference, but we don't recommend using them as a starting point.)

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Where should we start?

Given the extensive work by ACTFL (American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages) and the AAT's (American Association for the Teaching of Language X's for Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Russian, etc.) that has gone into developing the National Standards for Foreign Language Education, we agreed that it makes sense to start with the National Standards first, then see how to build on or tailor them for Washington state.

• National Standards for Foreign Language Education Executive Summary (ACTFL) (download for free)

Michele & Sue will bring copies of the National Standards book, which includes sections for a variety of languages. Here they are for reference. Note that these are examples of Content Standards that indicate what students should know and be able to do.

Standards for Foreign Language Learning Communication: Communicate in Languages Other Than English Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions. Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics. Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics. Cultures: Gain Knowledge and Understanding of Other Cultures Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied. Standard 2.2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied. Connections: Connect with Other Disciplines and Acquire Information Standard 3.1: Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through the foreign language. Standard 3.2: Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures. Comparisons: Develop Insight into the Nature of Language and Culture Standard 4.1: Students demonstrate understanding of the nature of language through comparisons of the language studied and their own. Standard 4.2: Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own. Communities: Participate in Multilingual Communities at Home & Around the World Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting. Standard 5.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.

Several states have developed extensive Foreign (or World) Language Frameworks, aligned with the National Standards. Two we would recommend examining further are:

• Nebraska K-12 Foreign Language Frameworks (PDF)
• New Jersey World Languages Curriculum Framework

These can be downloaded for free. The Nebraska Frameworks book can also be ordered (as a binder).

(Michele will bring a copy of both of these to the meeting. Katy and Michele will be prepared to present an overview of them at the August 25 meeting, and Sue of the National Standards.)

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How do we implement standards?

There are many resources available to help teachers implement standards. Our committee needs to review some of these and think about what to use and when to use them and how to introduce them to language teachers. See, for example:

• Bringing the Standards into the Classroom (or PDF)
  National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center
   
• Developing Curriculum (PDF)
  Dr. Mimi Met's presentation at 2003 P-20 International Education Summit
   
• Foreign Language Standards
  Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) Resource Guides Online, by Kathleen Marcos
   
• Meeting the National Standards: Now What Do I Do?
  Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) Digest, article by Jean Leloup and Robert Ponterio, SUNY Cortland

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What about Assessment?

Assessment is a large topic and we can probably only begin to touch on it at the August 25 meeting. In a sense, the challenge of assessment is one of the main motivators behind standards. Once the Content Standards define What is important to learn, we can use Performance Standards to determine How students will demonstrate what they know and are able to do, and Proficiency Standards to determine How well they know it.

One very helpful assessment framework to look at is the framework designed for the National Assessment of Educational Progress for Foreign Language (NAEP-FL), developed in 2000. Although the actual NAEP-FL has not been implemented yet (it was originally scheduled for 2003), the framework represents the thinking of dozens of top academicians and teachers in the language learning field and is grounded in the National Standards.

• National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) for Foreign Language
  Project coordinated by CAL for the National Assessment Governing Board in 1999-2000; includes specs for the assessment based on the National Standards

One idea is to see if we can identify a teacher, school, and district which would like to pilot using this Assessment Framework.

Other resources we should review:

• ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K-12 Learners, see:
  http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3327
   
• Oregon Japanese Language Proficiency Package
  see oral & literacy benchmarks http://casls.uoregon.edu
  (links no longer available)

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Next Steps

Some of these are concrete next steps, and some are ideas to keep in mind. We'll sort out specifics at the August 25 meeting.

1. Ask schools from the World Language Survey that said they'd be willing to share their standards to provide us a copy.
2. Connect up with the Catalyst group of College in the High School (103) teachers to involve them.
3. See about offering classes on World Language Standards on in-service days, perhaps through the ESDs (Educational Service Districts).
4. Consider providing guidelines to districts for textbook adoptions.
5. Review the Teacher Certification Standards from OSPI that relate to World Language teachers. Are the universities using them?
6. Begin correlating the National Standards with the Washington State Standards (learning goals, components, and essential academic learning requirements). (Here's a first draft correlation: WL Standards & EALRs (Word). Feel free to download it and begin editing it.)

Things to decide at Aug 25 meeting:

1. Decide who will write Washington's standards.
2. Decide on desired outcomes for meeting with Dr. Mimi Met on August 31.
3. Decide what will be presented at WAFLT Conference Oct. 14-15.
4. Decide the scope of Washington's Voluntary World Language Standards doc (or Framework):
   • Content Standards
   • Progress Indicators?
   • Learning Scenarios?  (Sample Lesson Plans)
   • Curriculum Planning Guide?
   • Assessment (Resources/Guidelines)?

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What we decided

1. Decide who will develop Washington's standards.
   > The Planning Group as identified so far, plus other representatives where needed. Specifically, currently we have: WAFLT, OSPI, UW (public univ), PLU (private univ), ACE (non-profit). Would be good to have representative from independent schools and community college.
    
2. Decide on desired outcomes for meeting with Dr. Mimi Met on August 31.
   > Mimi's input on our work from a national perspective (we're on the right track or not, what else to look at or consider, etc.). Is the focus of our work appropriate?
    
3. Decide what will be presented at WAFLT Conference Oct. 14-15.
   > Michele will submit a proposal on the voluntary WL Standards and also share data from WL Survey. Caleb will co-present if he's able to get to Spokane.
    
4. Decide the scope of Washington's Voluntary World Language Standards doc (or Framework):
   • Content Standards    
     > Yes
   • Progress Indicators?   
     > Yes (determine what to call them)
   • Learning Scenarios?  (Sample Lesson Plans)
      > Not sure about that yet. Maybe ask Mimi about usefulness of sample lessons.
   • Curriculum Planning Guide?
      > Not yet
   • Assessment (Resources/Guidelines)?
      > Not now, maybe later
      
5. What do we call them: Foreign or World Language Standards (Standards for languages other than English, etc.)?
   > We felt that since "World Language" has been the generally accepted term in Washington for the past decade, we'll stick with that (recognizing the slight confusion since the National Standards are for "Foreign Language.")

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