What's Happening in Kansas

Abstract

SINCE Kansas has had the opportunity to study statistically its high-school language situation in 1961-62 and to compare it with a similar study made in 1953-54, it is believed that a description of the Kansas findings may be of interest as paralleling what is going on in the midwest and, to a large extent, all over the United States. J. Wesley Childers' indicated that Kansas had increased more rapidly than any other state from 1954 to 1958 in the per cent of those studying foreign languages: 4.4 to 15.1 per cent of the total public secondaryschool enrollment. In 1953-54, according to a study made by John C. Scafe, 8,987 students were in high-school language classes;2 in a study made by George M. Rundell3 in 1961-62 there were 37,114 language students in junior and senior high schools, both public and private. This figure represents 21.3 per cent of the total secondary-school enrollment. While a foreign language was taught in 454 out of the 697 junior and senior high schools, including all the larger schools of the state, 21,366 or 12.3 per cent of all Kansas students in 1961-62 could not take a foreign language even if they wished because their school did not offer any. No one knows how many of these students might be interested in becoming language specialists. Yet even if a high school of about fifty students should be able to afford to employ a language teacher, the question would be where to find one. In 1953-54 only fifteen hours of the language, or its equivalent, were required for teaching it. No high school was required to offer a foreign language although 196 out of 657 did so. Today the requirement to teach a modern language is twenty-four hours in the language taught although, if a teacher has twenty-four hours in one modern language, he may teach a second language with only fifteen hours' credit. Latin teaching requires only fifteen college hours of Latin. A college may issue a statement to the State Department of Education that a teacher's knowledge is the equivalent of fifteen to twentyfour hours based on high-school credit or proficiency gained elsewhere. The number of equivalency letters on file in the State Department of Education is small; and, in statistics, such teachers were included with those having the full requirement. A student with two or three years of high-school language, who starts a language in college at the second-year level, would obviously have the same amount of the language as a student who completed twentyfour hours of college language but who had none in high school. Since May, 1962, all high schools are classified as comprehensive, standard, and approved. Comprehensive schools must offer five units of foreign language, with a minimum of three units in one modern language. Standard schools must provide instruction in three units of foreign language. An approved high school is not required to offer a foreign language but, if it does, the teacher must meet the standard requirements for teaching a language if the school is to receive a superior rating. Otherwise, teachers in approved schools need have only fifteen hours in the language taught. Of the 604 high schools thus classified by May, 1962, sixty-two were comprehensive; 169 were standrd; and 373 were approved. The North Central Association of Colleges and Universities requires that all schools approved by the Association offer a foreign language and that the teacher have at least eighteen hours of credit in the language taught. Two hundred eighteen high schools in Kansas