Another in an occasional series of informal reports, analysis and opinion based on a meeting of the Harford County Board of Education.
A decision last week by the Harford County Board of Education to award high school credit for foreign language courses completed in middle school also sparked a backlash against mandates and raised the specter of inequity in Harford County Public Schools.
At the outset, school board members and Superintendent Robert Tomback agreed in principle: Students who complete high school level coursework should earn high school credit.
The debate arose over how such credits should be classified, and therefore whether students who essentially satisfied the high school foreign language requirement when they were in middle school should be mandated, or simply encouraged, to continue their language studies in high school.
The Debate
Superintendent Robert Tomback recommended classifying the high school credits earned in middle school as electives, meaning that they would count toward graduation but they would not offset the two foreign language credits generally required in high school.
As such, students who took one or two years of a foreign language in middle school would still have to take two more years in high school, if not for love of the subject, then to meet the high school requirement. Ideally, these students would rack up a total of six years of study by the time they graduated, plus college credit for passing the Advanced Placement exam.
In a rare, impassioned speech from the dais, Tomback championed his plan. Apparently referencing his tenure as superintendent, Tomback said that his recommendation was “consistent with the mission of the school system over the past four years”, which he said was to expand opportunities for more students to further their studies, including foreign language, math and science, leading to better opportunities in college and in the workplace.
However, several board members questioned whether mandating the additional foreign language study was appropriate, or even necessary.
Leading the charge, Board Member Bob Frisch opined that an eighth-grader who successfully completed the same foreign language coursework as a high school student deserved the same type of credit; much like high school students earn college credit for passing Advanced Placement exams. Frisch further explained: “The key word here is to ‘encourage’ students…I don’t think we should be mandating.”
Board Member Jim Thornton worried about the potential for a gap in foreign language studies between middle school and college. However, Frisch countered that foreign language classes were not required in all colleges nor were they part of all career paths. In any event, Frisch said, students and parents should be allowed to decide. That last point garnered agreement later on from Board President Rick Grambo.
Board Member Cassandra Beverley asked if other Maryland districts had found that the way the credits were classified made a difference in whether or not middle school students continued to take foreign language classes in high school. In other words, did students continue their studies without a mandate? According to the response provided by a member of Tomback’s World Language Task Force, limited data from three or four school districts indicated that students did continue, even when it was not required.
The Inequity
Board Member Alysson Krchnavy raised the specter of inequity, noting that not all county middle schools offer foreign language classes in the first place. Siding with Tomback in the debate, Krchnavy reasoned that giving some middle school students credit that satisfied the high school foreign language requirement would be inequitable in what she described as a “ a huge, huge way.”
In fact, the inequity is already striking. Among the eight county middle schools, only Aberdeen, Fallston and Southampton, offer high school level foreign language classes, with Fallston offering the greatest number of languages (three), and accounting for more than half of the 434 students currently enrolled in such classes at the three schools. Edgewood, Magnolia and Patterson Mill offer only “exploratory” classes; Bel Air and Havre de Grace middle schools offer none of the above.
Below is a chart from HCPS displaying the language offerings and enrollments at each school, provided in response to a request from The Dagger:
Responding to Krchnavy’s point about exacerbating inequities, Frisch shot back, “That’s our fault, the fact that we don’t have languages in all of our middle schools,” he said, “That’s on us. We shouldn’t punish students who by virtue of where they live have the opportunity to take a language in middle school…”
In September, Tomback’s task force recommended standardizing language offerings, and replacing exploratory classes with Level 1 and Level 2 language courses in middle school. In order to begin implementing these recommendations next year, the school system’s budget request for fiscal year 2014 includes $134,454 for three more middle school foreign language teachers.
Frisch clarified his comments after the meeting, telling The Dagger on Thursday that equalizing language offerings among county schools had not been made a priority soon enough, which he said was a matter of will and not necessarily a matter of money.
The Vote
Back at the Monday meeting, Frisch proposed an amendment that would have allowed the credits earned in middle school to satisfy the high school foreign language requirement; Frisch’s amendment failed by a narrow margin in a 5 to 4 vote. Finally, Tomback’s recommendation passed in a vote of 6 to 3, with implementation planned for the 2013-14 school year.
Why will only the HS foreign language classes taken in MS be given high school credit? Why not math? My children successfully completed Algebra I and Geometry in MS, including the HS assessment test. I have repeatedly ask Mr. Bill Lawerence this same question. At least in math, these HS courses are offered at all HCPS middle schools.
The credits for Algebra I and Geometry completed in middle school are also counted as high school electives, meaning that students must still satisfy the math requirements for high school graduation. Here’s a link to more information on that decision made back in June 2011
http://www.daggerpress.com/2011/06/13/harford-county-board-of-education-high-school-elective-credit-for-middle-school-mathematics-promotions-and-appointments/
I meant to include in my comment to make it a full HS credit, not just an elective for the math classes.
Also, that this measure should have been a retro active one, giving those credits to current HS students.
They do get credit for Algebra and Geometry.
That is a play on words and entirely not true. Middle school students that complete Algebra and/or Geometry only receive elective math credits for their high school transcripts. These students must still take the required number of math classes (4) in high school to graduate. In other words because they are smart and show initiative in middle school they are punished when they get to high school and are forced to take two more math classes than their less talented or ambitious classmates.
I find interesting (and discouraging) that the opportunity to take more classes, or creating the opportunity for students to take more advanced courses is viewed as “punishment”.
Why should a student be forced to take higher-level courses, for example, Spanish 3 and 4, when they could use those periods to explore other subjects they would otherwise not be exposed to? They could take a home economics course, or an accounting course, etc.
They’re not being “forced” to take any more language courses than are required to graduate. They have the same amount of electives as their less talented and less ambitious classmates…
I still see it an an opportunity, not a punishment.
James,
You are missing the point. They ARE being forced to take more Math classes. They are required to take 4 Math classes in HS, regardless of the fact that they took 2 Math courses in middle school that are considered HS level Math courses. They should be allowed to have credit for the same Math courses they took in middle school and be allowed more electives. That’s fairness. And that’s never going to happen in this county. Sad thing is that if your child moves to another county or state, the Math credits count towards graduation. This is a fact that I have researched extensively.
Granting actual foreign language credit for middle school students in no way diminishes their “opportunity” to take additional foreign language classes in high school if they choose to do so. Not granting full credit to these middle school students does not create any additional opportunity they do not already have. In truth these students are being “forced” to take two additional foreign language classes they would otherwise not need to take because of this decision and current HCPS graduation policy. The “punishment” (or lost opportunity if you prefer) comes in the inability to take other classes these students may wish to take.
Wrong. They are not being forced to take them in the middle school.
Robert, No one in middle school is being forced to take a foreign language. The forcing comes in high school (if you choose this track versus high end tech courses) even if you have successfully completed a foreign language course while in middle school.
But if a student discovers that he/she is not gifted in math, they still must wind up taking pre calculus and calculus to graduate. And those D’s and E’s are like punishment to their GPA.
My proposed solution:
Every middle school should offer at least two (Spanish & French, Mandarin, German or Latin), preferably three, foreign languages. To offer only a single language, or even worse, no languages at all, especially at some schools and not others, is a gigantic disservice to the students of Harford County. If the middle school is going to call the class “Spanish 1” (or “Algebra 1” or whatever), the same as a high school class, they must use the same high school curriculum and county-wide final. If some kids require an exploratory class, fine, offer that, but the students that work hard and achieve goals at the high school level should be properly rewarded regardless of which building they are currently in.
On a side note, why are only “exploratory” classes offered at Patterson Mill? There is not even the excuse of lacking a qualified language teacher in the building…
Homeschool. End of comments.
Winning, you win. Chicken nuggets
“…two foreign language credits generally required in high school”
No, two foreign language credits are not required in high school. Four year Maryland (government) colleges and universities require two foreign language credits or two credits of advanced technology such as computer programming for admission. If a student attends a community college, which makes economic sense, then this requirement is generally waved.
But the students that want to take one or two years of language in middle school are likely the high performers also going to four-year schools immediately from high school. Many 4-year STEM programs do not integrate well with attending a community college, because many programs start the major-specific classes the first semester, and the vast majority of those classes are not duplicated at the community colleges.
This issue really boils down to how rigorous the harford county community wants a high school education to be. If courses completed in middle school are granted actual high school course credit (not elective) then you run the risk of students taking the easy way out in high school. I surely dont want the high school experience to be watered down. To require certain high school courses for graduation helps to maintain a degree of rigor.
Oh boy, the rigor game. Every time someone says rigor or rigorous you take a drink and when they say increased rigor you chug.
Is taking a foreign language necessary for success later in life? Could those resources be better put towards STEM so our college graduates get degrees in engineering rather than French Literature?
Is part of the motivation here to better position students to AP Spanish help the revenue at College Board and impressing their lapdogs at U.S News
I think it is great that so many support languages in the middle school, but last year each middle school had to cut a teaching position. I’m willing to bet there will be more cuts this year. If equity is to be achieved, that means hiring more teachers. $$$?