KSDE CONNECTION
REGINA PESZAT, Ph.D.
World Languages Education
Program Consultant
Curriculum Standards and Assessment
(785) 296-1891
Kansas State Department of Education
Landon State Office Bldg.
900 SW Jackson Street Suite 653
Topeka, KS 66615
September 11, 2019
Dear World Language Teachers,
According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), 60% of teachers teach within 20 miles of where they went to high school. With a shortage of teachers in critical areas like math, science, and world languages, it is important that we encourage students to become teachers in all of our districts, urban and rural.
Lisa Ritter, the current president of ACTFL, says we also need to recruit and retain “a language teacher workforce that better reflects the demographics of our students.” (The Language Educator, Aug./Sep. 2019, pg. 7). The Education Summit in Kansas City on April 4 will also be addressing this issue.
If you have a World Language Club or a teacher prep program or both at your school, or are thinking of starting one, you will find the materials that ACTFL has created very useful for getting students interested in exploring the career of teaching. The Educator Rising 2.0 Initiative can be found on the ACTFL website: https://www.actfl.org/assessment-professional-development/educators-rising
ACTFL has provided everything for busy teachers to just grab and go. The modules are designed to be flexible for time and location. For each of the 10 Modules there is a facilitator’s guide, a PowerPoint, videos and other ancillary materials.
If you or your school is using this or another “grow your own” program to inspire students to become world language teachers, I would love to hear about it.
Regina Peszat, Ph.D.
World Languages Education Program Consultant
Curriculum Standards and Assessment
(785) 296-1891
Kansas State Department of Education
Landon State Office Bldg.
900 SW Jackson St., Suite 653
Topeka, KS 66612