JANUARY 2025 UPDATE
DC’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) is currently leading a multi-year, multi-phase Reimagining High School Graduation Requirements Initiative to “support innovative approaches to preparing young people for life after graduation,” including the expansion of opportunities for students to earn academic credit through non-traditional means. Globalize DC is actively engaging with OSSE and the State Board of Education to ensure that we use this moment to advance a new competency-based credit for world languages policy for DC. We know that to finally push this policy forward to actual implementation we will need to significantly ramp up our advocacy this time. So we invite all those individuals and organizations with a stake in this effort to join us. Email sally@globalizedc.org if you’re interested in getting involved or just want to learn more.
Background
In 2016, when Globalize DC launched our afterschool Japanese language program, Japanese Plus, we consulted with DC Public Schools officials to help us create a course, aligned with DC world language standards, that would make participating students eligible to earn language credits towards high school graduation. Since then, the process for awarding academic credit for our students’ Japanese language study has been burdensome, confusing, inconsistent, and ultimately unsatisfactory. DCPS students have been eligible for elective (not world language) credit, while each charter school has its own policy regarding awarding of credit. This experience led us to the view that it’s time for DC to adopt a competency-based credit for world languages policy, which would allow students in both DCPS and DC charter schools to earn world language credit based on an accepted assessment.
As a result, Globalize DC has become the primary advocate pushing for competency-based credit for world language learning in DC. We believe a well-crafted and well-implemented policy can significantly increase access for DC students to language learning outside their schools, especially beneficial to students in schools and communities with less-than-robust language offerings. The policy will also create new opportunities for heritage language speakers to earn academic credit and recognition for languages they have learned in their homes and home countries.
Progress to Date
In December, 2015, the DC State Board of Education (SBOE) approved a resolution listing recommendations which grew out of its High School Credit Flexibility Task Force. This resolution included a recommendation to “allow students to receive credit for demonstrated knowledge in world languages and mathematics.” This resolution was forwarded to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to initiate rulemaking to implement these endorsed recommendations. In OSSE’s follow-up communication, the State Superintendent indicated that, given the range of comments on the subject, “further discussion [of credit by exam for world languages] would be beneficial,” and the recommendation was stricken.
In May 2018, the State Board of Education approved a resolution to adopt the recommendations of another task force — its High School Graduation Requirements Task Force, including renewed support for competency-based credit for world languages – “provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate they have mastered course content for world language and mathematics.” Since that time, OSSE has taken no action on this policy recommendation.
The Case
In regard to current world language education in DC and around the country, we are trying to meet 21st century goals working within an outmoded 20th century framework. The required two credits of world language, offered in a DC public school classroom, even in the same language, will generally yield only novice proficiency, allowing the student only very limited ability to use the language in real life situations. Today, in our more mobile, technologically and globally interconnected society, students are currently learning languages outside the classroom in many ways, with real potential to move towards bilingualism. Yet there is no established mechanism for recognizing, encouraging, or allowing students, including heritage speakers, to build on these other modes of language acquisition. In addition, languages offered within schools are very limited – in most cases to Spanish and French – and access to in-demand “critical languages,” as well as higher level language instruction (AP), is rare and inequitably available.
As long as students’ language learning is confined to the four walls of their own school, DC world language education will be limited and inequitable. We want to build the capacity of our local schools to offer great language programs, but we should also recognize that authentic and high-quality language learning is taking place outside the schoolhouse doors. A competency-based approach to language credit will allow us to reduce the artificial barriers that exist between officially recognized language learning and unrecognized language learning and create a more seamless approach that builds on the multiple ways that students actually acquire languages. It will also allow us to create more viable pathways towards proficiency, bilingualism, and biliteracy for DC students.
Read more HERE. Email sally@globalizedc.org if you’re interested in getting involved or just want to learn more.