Dear CLTA Colleagues,

As you probably know, California does not have content standards for foreign languages. Administrators ask teachers to teach to the standards, but unlike other core subjects, we have none. Consequently, CLTA has spent countless hours promoting and supporting their creation.

We have good news. It took a long time and much effort and tenacity on the part of many, but at last California has a Field Review DRAFT of Foreign Language content standards!  The draft standards, along with a FIELD REVIEW survey form,  are now posted in the CLTA Website.  These standards, once adopted, will guide our instruction in the classroom.

The California Department of Education requests that you review the Draft Standards, complete the Field Review Survey and encourage colleagues to do the same. The State Board of Education will need sufficient responses to be certain that the Draft Standards reflect professional consensus about what California’s language students should know and be able to do.

For those of you who are going back to school soon, please take this opportunity to include the review of the standards and the completion of the survey as part of you department's meeting agenda. Again, the goal here is to have as much input as possible from the field so that when the standards are submitted formally  for adoption by the State Board of Education, we can claim that they have been reviewed by a large number of foreign language educators.

The State seeks input and responses from those who teach commonly and less commonly taught spoken and written languages and American Sign Language, and from those who teach in all segments of the educational system, from elementary, middle, and high school settings to junior colleges, colleges and universities, and from teachers in immersion and dual-immersion programs.

You may download the Draft Standards and the Field Review Survey. Please review the Draft Standards and respond to the the 11 questions of the Field Review Survey. Then e-mail, FAX, or mail the survey to the CDE addresses at the end of the survey. Responses to the Field Review must be received by the CDE by September 21, 2008.

In October, 2008, the Standards Writing Committee will make changes to the Draft Standards based on the Field Review and in November, 2008, will submit a final draft to the State Board of Education.

Please join me in thanking our colleagues in the California Language Teachers Association (CLTA) who have worked for the past twenty years to convince the State that language learning is central to the education of California’s students. The adoption of California’s first ever Foreign Language Standards brings us parity with the other subjects taught in California’s schools.

Should you have difficulty accessing the DRAFT Standards and the Field Review Form, please contact Julie Morsellino by phone at (650) 736-9036 or by e-mail at julieqm@stanford.edu.

Questions related to the review process, should be addressed to Arleen Burns, Foreign Language Consultant, California Department of Education by phone at (916) 323-5818, or by e-mail at aburns@cde.ca.gov.

Thank you for your support throughout this arduous process, but we are almost at the end!

Lorraine