Public Comment: No Benefits Apparent from Middle School Language Cuts
Photo: istock
The following public comment was presented at the meeting of the Amherst Regional School Committee on March 12, 2024.
My name is William Roundy, and I am the Department Head of World Languages at the high school. Forty-six educators, including all district language teachers, signed a longer form of this comment, submitted in writing. All of us agree: the proposed changes to the middle school world language program will irrevocably harm it. The proposed changes would shift both 7th and 8th grade language to every-other day meetings, thus cutting 8th grade language instruction in half. To justify these cuts, district leadership proposes that the Amherst Regional Middle School (ARMS) World Language program be exploratory, non-cumulative in nature, and its graduates would start from scratch at the high school.
This curricular shift won’t serve our students and program. In the mid-2010s, we reduced our exceptional, two-year ARMS language program to a year and a half by cutting half of the 7th grade program. This newest proposal would reduce the program again, to half of its original size. This loss compounds the problems we already face at the high school with the new block schedule: a loss of 20% of class minutes and gap semesters. Further, we already tried this every-other-day model at ARMS, circa 2018. It was a failure due to middle schoolers’ executive functioning capabilities.
If the classes don’t progress toward level 2, we sacrifice the most advantageous time to teach language fundamentals, when brains are younger, and we create a domino effect that will impact learning all the way up to AP.
This curricular shift won’t serve our teachers and staffing. The ARMS World Language faculty currently account for 3.4 teachers. We expected and can accept a small reduction in staffing in a bad budget year, but, by my estimation, next year’s minimum language teaching load (minus the middle school duties if they are assigned to language teachers) would be: Chinese 0.2 teachers, Latin 0.3 teachers, French 0.4 teachers, Spanish 0.8 teachers. We’re left with 2-3 positions cut or with majorly-reduced pay, which might be unable to qualify for health insurance. Is this how we value language education and educators? We can assume impacted teachers will apply for better, full-time positions in other districts, which they are fully qualified for. We may be unable to hire replacements. Plus, when the 6th grade moves to ARMS soon, we’ll just have to add all of this language staffing back, having lost our current staff members.
This curricular shift won’t serve our budget. The cuts won’t help long-term. The unattractive teaching positions will be filled with expensive, retired educators or not at all, leading to the temporary or permanent collapse of individual languages. Loss of languages will have families looking to skip ARMS and even ARHS. They will select the Chinese Immersion school, Deerfield Academy, Charlemont, Northampton Public Schools, etc. Two years from now you’ll be in the exact same place, wondering why you have to cut yet another program
One final note. Our grades 7-12 Department of World Languages is one of the most diverse departments in the district, in race, religion, culture, national origin, and first language. And the teaching standards for Massachusetts language curricula include learning about and celebrating difference. Our district states its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and our World Language classes are where these values are taught directly to students. Cutting down this subject is obviously counterproductive to our district’s commitments. Curricular changes must be approved by the School Committee.
Even if you approve some budget tonight, deny the language proposal. It’s unacceptable, and, as the spokesperson for the 7-12 World Language programs, I can affirm that we unanimously and completely reject it. Thank you everyone. Help us fix this!
William Roundy is the Head of the World Languages Department at Amherst Regional High School
Our grades 7-12 Department of World Languages is one of the most diverse departments in the district, in race, religion, culture, national origin, and first language. And the teaching standards for Massachusetts language curricula include learning about and celebrating difference.
If this is indeed deliberate discriminatory targeting, then might we expect the impacted teachers — or some of their APEA colleagues, or students or students’ parents/guardians — to file MCAD complaints against the district and its administrators?