National Standards Update:

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National Standards Update Your Input
Needed! Marty Abbott, Director of
Education American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Helene Zimmer-Loew,
Executive Director American Association for
Teachers of German (AATG) SWCOLT Conference Salt
Lake City Februrary 29, 2008
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THE NATIONAL STANDARDS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE
EDUCATION PROJECT
A Collaborative Project of ACTFL, AATF, AATG,
AATI, AATSP, ACL/APA, ACTR, CLASS, NCJLT)
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Foreign Language Collaborative Projects
1993 Federal funding received to develop national
standards for students K-12 1996 Publication
of generic standards. 1999 Publication of
language-specific standards in Chinese,
Classical Languages, French, German, Italian,
Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish
(seven languages developed K-16)
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More Language-specific Standards

• Arabic Published 2006
• African LanguagesSwahili, Yoruba, and Zulu in
  development
• Hindi in development
• American Sign Language (ASL) in development
• Need to include more Critical Need Languages

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ACTFL PERFORMANCE GUIDELINES FOR K-12 LEARNERS
www.actfl.org
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Benchmarks

• Novice Learner Range
• Parallels Novice High in ACTFL Proficiency
  Guidelines (K 4, 5 8, 9 10)
• Intermediate Learner Range
• Parallels Intermediate Mid in ACTFL Proficiency
  Guidelines (K-8, 5-12, 9-12)
• Pre-advanced Learner Range
• Parallels Intermediate High in ACTFL Proficiency
  Guidelines (K-12)

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Domains

• Comprehensibility How well is the student
  understood?
• Comprehension How well does the student
  understand?
• Language Control How accurate is the students
  language?
• Vocabulary How extensive and applicable is the
  students vocabulary?
• Cultural Awareness How is the students cultural
  knowledge reflected in language use?
• Communication Strategies How does the student
  maintain communication?

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Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) Project
www.actfl.org
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What is an IPA?

• Authentic
• Reflects tasks that individuals do in the world
  outside the classroom
• Performance-Based
• Reflect how students USE the language and
  cultural knowledge in communicative tasks
• Integrated
• Integrates Communication plus other goal areas of
  the Standards
• Developmental Progress of Proficiency
• Novice Intermediate Pre-advanced
• Blend with Classroom Instruction and Experiences
• Based on the 3 Modes of Communication
• Interpretive Interpersonal Presentational

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www.cal.org/flnaep
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The FL NAEP Assessment Framework Visual
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National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher
Education
www.ncate.org
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NCATE

• determines which colleges of education meet
  rigorous national standards in preparing teachers
  and other classroom specialists.
• is a coalition of 33 national education
  organizations representing teachers, teacher
  educators, subject matter specialists, and policy
  makers.

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NCATE 2000 Unit Standards

• are performance-basedradical departure from
  input-based system
• focus on what teacher candidates should know and
  be able to do
• require institutions to show candidate
  performance data

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Required Program Components

• Development of proficiency, especially oral
• Ongoing assessment of proficiency
• Language, linguistics, culture, literature
  components
• Methods course on teaching of foreign languages,
  taught by qualified faculty

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Program Components contd.

• Early field experiences in foreign language
  classrooms
• Field experiences supervised by qualified faculty
• Opportunities for candidates to experience and
  use technology
• Opportunities for structured study-abroad/immersio
  n experiences

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INTASC
INTASC
www.ccsso.org/intasc
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INTASC Interstate New Teacher Assessment and
Support Consortium

• Program of the Council of Chief State School
  Officers
• Established to promote collaboration among states
  in standards-based reform of teacher preparation,
  licensing, and professional development
• Centered around performance-based standards and
  assessments
• Compatible with the National Board for
  Professional Teaching Standards

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www.nbpts.org
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National Certification for Teachers of World
Languages Other than English

• Designed to recognize accomplished practice in
  the field
• Standards adopted in 2001
• WLOTE Certificates
• Currently available in French and Spanish
• Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood (ages
  11-18)
• Revision of standards underway
• More certificates available in the future

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ACTFLAssessment for the Performance and
Proficiency of Language(AAPPL)
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Grade Clusters and Proficiency Ranges

• Grade Clusters
• PK - 7
• 8 - 16
• Proficiency Ranges
• Advanced Low - Superior
• Intermediate Mid - Advanced Low
• Novice High - Intermediate Mid
• Novice Low - Novice High

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Report Example
Seans performance
Understanding Seans performance Seans
performance falls in the Novice Mid range. He
can understand conversations and recorded
materials in familiar contexts. He relies
heavily on memorized words, phrases, and
structures and expends enormous effort to
accomplish these listening tasks. Next
Steps Language learners at this level would
benefit from increasing their exposure to spoken
language in live and recorded oral texts.
Listening should focus on understanding key words
and main ideas. Sources for listening practice
include level appropriate texts that are related
to academic content as well as individual student
interests.
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Situation Your Chinese class is partnering with
a social studies class on a project designed to
encourage Chinese-speaking people in the
community to vote in the upcoming mayoral
election. Youve agreed to make signs to be
placed around community showing each candidates
priorities. The social studies team has come up
with graphics for each sign. Task Place the
Chinese text next to the matching graphics.
Type of Response Modified selected response

• VOTE!

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ACTFL PERFORMANCE GUIDELINES FOR K-12 LEARNERS
INTASC
Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA)
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Impact of the Standards

• State Frameworks
• Local curricula
• Assessments
• AAPPL (Assessment for Performance and Proficiency
  of Languages) Project
• Individual classroomsAnnenberg video library
  www.learner.org

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Need to address lack of impact on instruction

• Only 16 states have some kind of graduation
  requirement in languages
• Several states are pushing for proficiency exit
  standard rather than seat time
• IRS (USED) grant application to assess impact of
  standards

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Issues to Consider

• Do the Goal Areas (5 Cs) or the Standards need
  revisions?
• What has the impact been on institutions of
  higher education?
• What kind of professional development is needed
  for teachers?
• Can standards-based assessments drive changes in
  instruction?