1

National K-12 Foreign Language Survey Preliminary Results

Title VI 50th Anniversary Conference U.S. Department of Education

Nancy RhodesIngrid Pufahl Center for Applied Linguistics

Photo: Center for Democratic Studies, University of Haifa, Israel

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Background

Survey conducted 2007-08

Goal: Collect comprehensive data on foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools

Focus on national and regional data (not state data)

Replicate 1987 and 1997 surveys

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Sample Selection

Stratified random sample includes 5,115 public and private elementary and secondary schools

Sample representative of all U.S. schools

Stratification:

-- public/private -- urban/suburban/rural

-- school size -- geographical region

-- SES -- minority enrollment

Random: Each school in the subgroups had an equal probability of being selected

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Methodology

4-page questionnaires; separate questionnaire for elementary and secondary schools (20-21 questions)

Superintendents were notified of survey

Principals and FL teachers were given option: respond online or in paper copy

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Response Rate

76% response rate

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US Elementary Schools Teaching Foreign Languages (Public, Private, Total) (1987, 1997, 2008)

22%

34%

17%

31%

53%

24% 25%

51%

15%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

% o

f E

lem

en

tary

Sc

ho

ols

1997 2008 1987 1997 2008 1987 1997 2008

Public Private Total

1987

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US Middle and High Schools Teaching Foreign Languages (Total) (1987, 1997, 2008)

72%

95%

75%

90%

58%

91%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Middle Schools High Schools

% o

f S

ec

on

da

ry S

ch

oo

ls

1987 1997 2008 1987 1997 2008

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Foreign Languages Offered by Secondary Schools With Foreign Language Programs (1997, 2008)

93%

46%

14%

13%

8%

4%

4%

4%

3%

1%

1%

1%

0.3%

93%

64%

24%

20%

9%

1%

2%

3%

7%

0.2%

0%

1%

3%

Spanish

French

German

Latin

SpSpSpkrs

Chinese

ASL

Italian

Japanese

Hebrew

Arabic

Greek

Russian

La

ng

ua

ge

s O

ffe

red

% of Secondary Schools

2008

1997

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

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Foreign Languages Offered by Elementary Schools With Foreign Language Programs (1997, 2008)

0.2%

1%

1%

2%

1%

2%

2%

3%

6%

7%

11%

88%

1%

0.1%

3%

2%

2%

2%

5%

0.3%

3%

8%

27%

79%Spanish

French

SpSpSpkrs

Latin

Chinese

German

ASL

Hebrew

Italian

Japanese

Arabic

Russian

Lan

gu

ages

Off

ered

% of Elementary Schools

20081997

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

10

FLEX 7%

LANGUAGE FOCUS 6%

IMMERSION 2%

NO LAN-GUAGE IN-

STRUCTION 85%

FLEX

LANGUAGE FOCUS

IMMERSION

NO LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION

Foreign Language Instruction in Public Elementary Schools in the U.S. (2008)

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Use of National Foreign Language Standards in Elementary and Secondary Schools With Language Programs (1997, 2008)

Public ES Private ES Public SS Private SS0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Public ES; 1997; 25%

Private ES; 1997; 13%

Public SS; 1997; 31%

Private SS; 1997; 21%

Public ES; 2008; 76%

Private ES; 2008; 47%

Public SS; 2008; 89%

Private SS; 2008; 60%

1997 2008 1997 2008 1997 2008 1997 2008

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Foreign Language Use in Secondary School Language Classrooms (1987, 1997, 2008)

28%

54%

18%

32%

47%

22%21%

43%

35%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Foreign Language Use in Classroom

% of S

econdary

Schools

1987 1997 2008

Less than 50% of time

1987 1997 2008 1987 1997 200850-74% of time 75% or more of time

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NCLB: Influence on Foreign Language Instruction in Public Schools

Approximately one third of elementary and secondary schools reported that FL instruction had been affected negatively by NCLB:

Mostly rural schools

Mostly high minority schools

Mostly low to mid SES schools

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Reasons for Decline in Elementary FL

Budget cuts

Shortage of teachers

Constraints of NCLB

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Funding/Budget Cuts: Comments

“I really don’t think [we can offer FL]. Spanish teaching stopped 2 years ago due to budget cuts (in the millions). Over 300-400 teachers in the district might not have jobs next year due to the deficit.” (CA public elementary school)

“County is going to begin to switch over to foreign language teaching, but school has to wait for the computer teacher to retire.”(VA public elementary school)

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Shortage of Teachers: Comments

“Absolutely! We would not be subcontracting out to a private language school for our teacher if there were qualified teachers available.” (Public elementary school)

“It’s difficult to find teachers certified for elementary school [who are] French native-like speakers.” (Public elementary school)

“We taught Spanish for 2 years, lost the teacher, and will teach again if a new teacher is found.” (Illinois private elementary school)

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NCLB: Comments

“Funds and time have been directed to reading and math. In some cases, we pull students from foreign language and other non-tested content classes in order to provide more extensive reading and math support.” (Public elementary school)

“High stakes testing which does not include World Languages makes it impossible to get additional time for our elementary [language] program. Schools are more focused on the subjects that are tested.” (Public elementary school)

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The Lighter Side

Is your school planning to offer FL instruction in the next 2 years?

“What we do is that we offer foreign language as an elective, but no one has elected it.” (Private K-12 New Mexico school with small enrollment).

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Key Findings

Decrease in public elementary and middle schools teaching languages

Decrease in % of schools teaching languages other than Spanish

Shortage of teachers

Increase in Chinese and Arabic

Increase in the use of language standards and target language in classroom

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iGracias!