The page cites all the research and practice based “why’s” of learning a second language along with links to trusted and fact-based resources.  A parent considering enrolling their child into Hartford Public Schools may view the page and believe that there is a strong word language learning environment in the district.  Caveat emptor – buyer beware.

HPS states that its students will be global-ready “through the attainment of high levels of proficiency in at least one language in addition to English.”  Proficiency being the key word here.  How is “proficiency” reached when in at least one school, students in grades K-8 have a world language class once a week, and that is at a school with the name, “Global Communications Academy!” 

The state of Connecticut’s Common Core of Learning states that “by the end of grade 12, students will listen, speak, read and write proficiently in at least one language other than English, and will understand the cultures(s) of that language.”  HPS tells the state that they can accomplish that goal with student’s meeting once a week.

Rosetta Stone, the foreign language software, states that students should spend 30 minutes a day with the software, which would make them fluent in the language in 3.5 years! The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), which HPS links to on their world languages page, states that the “secret sauce” for attaining proficiency in a world language is (1) practice, (2) long-term, sustained motivation, and (3) developing a positive identity as a user of the language.  Allowing students to interact with the language only once a week, as is done at HPS, is a failure to follow best practices.  The foreign language instruction “bible,” Languages and Learners, Fifth Edition, by Helena Curtain and Carol Ann Dahlberg (2016, p.413), states that “current best practice for these programs calls for 20 to 40 minutes a day, three to five days per week,” which is 3-times more than what HPS practices.

Since HPS only requires one high school credit in a world language, those K-8 students meeting once a week will only be required to take another year of a world language over the next four years!  When and how are they expected to, required to, become “proficient” and able participants in a global community?  Elementary schools in Hartford do not even have a world language curriculum – the planned objectives, lessons, and assessments of a course of study.  Unless you consider ‘winging it’ a planned course of action.

Due to the lack of a district wide elementary school plan of action for world languages, the four elementary schools with world languages in the district act independently of each other and have their own course schedules, like Global meeting once a week.  It is reported that middle school students at Hartford Magnet at Trinity College (HMTCA) receive Spanish instruction on a daily basis, while other middle schools in the district ‘wing it’ with the once-a-week schedule.  Other schools work on a rotational basis, whereby they have a group of students for limited period (ie., 10 weeks, a marking period), then those students are replaced by another group, and the former group is done with their world language instruction for the school year. 

It is due to this lack of importance given to the study of world languages in Hartford that no English-speaking African-American student born in Hartford and educated at HPS has ever achieved the Seal of Biliteracy on their high school diploma, and the district ignores this bit of inequity in its education program.  This notable recognition is affixed to a graduate’s diploma when they have become proficient in two or more languages.  Year after year the Superintendent recognizes those students at HPS who have earned the Seal; they are all foreign-born students proficient in their native language, who have come to this country and, for most, have learned English, or they are locally born heritage language speakers.

HPS’ disrespect for a core subject which provides more intrinsic, broad-based learning opportunities than any other subject on the menu, has been picked up by students and framed their attitude toward learning a world language.  In Hartford, world languages are categorized as a “unified arts” courses in elementary and middle school, where it sits with P.E., music, art, and library.  The students call these courses “specials,” and say, “Mr. this class doesn’t count.”  And how can you argue with that when you see that student once a week, or for 10 weeks and then never again.  Is this “developing a positive identity as a user of the language” which ACTFL argues is part of the “secret sauce” to achieving proficiency in a world language?

Lumping world languages in with “unified arts” marginalizes it, making it seem optional or even extraneous.  This perception is not only incorrect, but it does a massive disservice to our students, reducing their exposure to crucial life and world-readiness skills.  Such malpractice sends a message, consciously or subconsciously, that world languages are secondary or even expendable.  By doing so, we perpetuate the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” especially towards marginalized black, and impoverished children in urban settings.  To deprive, or to not require, any student of becoming proficient in a language other than English is to deprive them of a foundational element of 21st-century competence! 

Title IV, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), previously known as the No Child Left Behind Act, “recognizes world languages as a critical part of a well rounded education,” but they stop short of prescribing how schools or states should categorize the subject.  Is meeting once a week a solution to a “critical” part of a student’s education?

On HPS little world languages webpage, they state that their mission is to “[leverage] the linguistic diversity of school communities to enrich language programs.”  The U.S. Census Bureau reports that nearly half of Hartford homes (44%) speak a language other than English.  HPS reported in September that there are 81 different languages spoken by Hartford students.  The only leveraging of this linguistic diversity by HPS is when they use their foreign born and English language learning students as an excuse as to why achieving academic success for the district is, as Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez puts it, “a challenge.”  What should be leveraged as a positive throughout the district, is being leveraged as a negative throughout the district.

Sitting at the head of this sham, this educational malpractice, is Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez, a bilingual Latina.  Go figure.