2019
Program Director
Impact Survey Report:
Student Programs and Teacher Programs
CONTENTS
Contents ... 2
List of Figures and Tables ... 3
Executive Summary ... 5
Introduction ... 9
Questions Asked in the Survey of Directors of 2019 STARTALK Teacher Programs... 12
Questions Asked in the Survey for Directors of 2019 STARTALK Student Programs ... 15
Section One: Impact on Critical Language Programs ... 18
Section Two: Impact on the Institution ... 22
2.1. Teacher Programs... 22
2.2. Student Programs ... 29
Section Three: Impact on Teacher and Student Participants ... 33
3.1. Impact on Teacher Program Participants ... 33
3.2. Impact on Student Program Participants ... 35
3.3. Teacher Programs’ Employment of Past STARTALK Participants... 39
3.4. Student Programs’ Employment of Past STARTALK Participants ... 41
Section Four: Impact on the Field ... 45
Section Five: Impact on the Community ... 52
5.1 Teacher Programs’ Impact on the Community ... 52
5.2 Student Programs’ Impact on Diversity and Inclusion in STARTALK Student Programs ... 55
Section Six: Testimonials on Impact ... 58
6.1. Teacher Program Directors’ Testimonials ... 58
6.2. Student Program Directors’ Testimonials ... 60
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 1. Location and number of programs reported to have started as a result of
STARTALK ... 10 Figure 2. Year teacher programs first hosted STARTALK teacher programs (left)
and number of years offered (right) ... 11 Figure 3. Year student programs first hosted STARTALK student programs (left)
and number of years offered (right) ... 11 Figure 4. Program types, new student programs ... 19 Figure 5. Languages, new student programs ... 20 Figure 6. Percentage of programs reporting academic-year enrollment increases
in 2019–2020 teacher programs ... 23 Figure 7. Areas of impact of STARTALK teacher programs ... 28 Figure 8. Academic-year enrollment increase reported by student programs (left)
and number of students increased (right) ... 30 Figure 9. Increase in new world language courses at STARTALK institutions (left)
and type of courses (right) ... 31 Figure 10. Other impacts that STARTALK programs had on existing world language
programs ... 32 Figure 11. Programs with students who had never studied their STARTALK
language in a classroom setting before attending their programs ... 36 Figure 12. Programs whose students enrolled in a language course because of
interest generated during their STARTALK program ... 36 Figure 13. Opportunities provided for students to explore language-related
education or careers ... 37 Figure 14. Student participants indicating that their educational and/or career
plans were impacted by their STARTALK experience ... 38 Figure 15. Past STARTALK teacher program participants hired by STARTALK
teacher programs ... 40 Figure 16. Past STARTALK teacher program participants hired by academic-year
programs ... 41 Figure 17. Past STARTALK student program participants hired by STARTALK
programs ... 42 Figure 18. Past STARTALK teacher program participants hired by STARTALK
programs ... 42 Figure 19. Past STARTALK student program participants hired by academic-year
programs ... 43 Figure 20. Past STARTALK teacher program participants hired by academic-year
Figure 21. Number of conference presentations by STARTALK student and teacher
programs ... 46
Figure 22. STARTALK programs’ publications, research, and publicity ... 48
Figure 23. Impact of STARTALK teacher programs on the local community ... 52
Figure 24. Techniques to recruit a diverse population ... 57
Table 1. New language programs started as a result of STARTALK, 2015–2019 ... 18
Table 2. Academic-year, school-day programs reported to have started in 2019 ... 20
Table 3. Programs other than academic-year, school-day programs reported to have started in 2019 ... 21
Table 4. Percentage of responses reporting the presence of academic-year teacher training programs at their institutions and enrollment increases in those programs, 2015–2019 ... 22
Table 5. Percentage of responses demonstrating the impact on institutions hosting student programs, 2015–2019 ... 29
Table 6. Percentage of responses reporting conference presentations, publications, and staff research, 2015–2019 ... 45
Table 7. Percentage of responses reporting recruiting diverse student populations, 2015–2019 ... 55
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Each spring, the National Foreign Language Center, which administers the STARTALK program for the National Security Agency, conducts a survey of directors of the previous summer’s STARTALK programs, both student programs and teacher programs. The purpose of the survey is to document the impact of individual STARTALK programs on their communities and on the larger field of language learning and teaching.
2019 marked the thirteenth year of STARTALK summer programs. Over the period of 13 years, STARTALK attracted more than 48,400 student participants, and 10,000 teacher participants benefited from STARTALK teacher training programs. In 2019 alone, STARTALK supported 39
teacher development programs and 99 student programs.
As a result of the dedicated efforts of STARTALK teachers and program directors, new language
courses and programs were started in K–12 schools, institutions of higher education, and
community schools, with over 75% of all new programs being offered in Chinese, Arabic, and
Hindi nationwide.
The influence of STARTALK is felt beyond the time and locations of the programs. As evidenced in the survey results from directors of 2019 student and teacher programs, STARTALK has long-lasting and far-reaching transformational influences on the teaching profession, on the
community, on the hosting institutions, and on the participants themselves.
Section One: Impact on Critical Language Programs
• 11.1% of teacher program directors and 41.3 % of student program directors indicated that their STARTALK programs had influenced the recent start of new language programs.
• 16 new language programs were reported to be offered during the school day at PreK–12 schools, and six new language programs were reported at a college level.
• New academic-year student programs were offered in eight languages, at various school levels, in 17 states.
Section Two: Impact on the Institution
Teacher program directors reported the following impacts on their institutions in the 2019– 2020 school year:
• 31.8% of teacher program directors reported an increase in student enrollment in their academic-year teacher training programs; four programs reported an increase in the range of 11–25 students, and two programs reported an increase in the 1–10 student range
• The enrollment increase across the reporting institutions totaled 66 new students.
• An additional 50% of teacher program directors reported other positive influences on their academic-year programs beyond the direct impact on enrollment numbers, such as starting professional development workshops for experienced as well as newly certified teachers, facilitating the transition for students in relevant majors into the teaching career track, and increasing enrollment in K–12 student programs in their communities.
Student program directors reported on the impact of their STARTALK programs on motivating student interest in learning the target language:
• 74.6% of student program directors indicated that their STARTALK programs influenced an increase in enrollment in academic-year world language programs in the 2019–2020 academic year (an increase in the reporting percentage over the most recent years), with a total of 2,517 additional students reported to have enrolled in academic-year language programs as a result of STARTALK participation.
• 38.5% of student program directors reported that their institutions added new courses to their world language programs. This included adding new levels of a language already taught and/or adding another section or sections of an existing course.
• Student program directors also reported other impacts, such as improving the teaching
practices of instructors in the program, who also teach in other programs (87%), and increasing student motivation and participation in world language programs (78.3%).
Section Three: Impact on Teacher and Student Participants
Student program directors provided the following evidence that their 2019 programs had an impact on motivating students to put serious effort into continuing their studies of the target language:
• STARTALK introduced languages to new students: 85.9% of student program directors reported that, in 2019, they had students who were learning their target language for the first time.
• 76.9% of student program directors said they had students who enrolled in further study of the language due to interest generated during their STARTALK program.
• STARTALK raised students’ awareness of additional opportunities, including study abroad (57.6%) and/or NSLI-Y study abroad (47%), and the Seal of Biliteracy (37.9%).
• 70.7% of student program directors reported that they had students who indicated that their educational or career plans were influenced by their world language study.
STARTALK programs also played a role in providing career opportunities for participants:
• 27 teacher program directors (75%) indicated that they hired STARTALK teacher program participants into their STARTALK program; 18 teacher program directors (50%) hired STARTALK program trainees into their year-round academic program.
• 81 job roles across 27 STARTALK teacher programs (75% of programs) were filled by past STARTALK teacher program participants.
• 18 STARTALK teacher program directors (50%) reported filling 38 job roles in academic-year programs with a former STARTALK teacher trainee.
• 64.4% of student program directors reported that they hired past STARTALK student program participants in their 2019 STARTALK programs.
• 55.4% of student programs reported that they had employed past STARTALK teacher program participants in their summer STARTALK programs
Section Four: Impact on the Field
STARTALK programs continued to contribute to the field of language learning and teaching in 2019–2020, particularly through the dissemination of research:
• 41.7% of teacher program directors and 17.4% of student program directors indicated that their programs gave presentations related to STARTALK at the ACTFL conference in 2019. • 44.4% of teacher program directors and 31.5% of student program directors indicated that
their programs gave presentations related to STARTALK at other conferences in 2019. • 11.1% of teacher program directors and 6.5% of student program directors indicated that
staff from their STARTALK programs published articles related to STARTALK in 2019. • 11.1% of teacher program directors and 13% of student program directors reported that
researchers at their institutions were conducting research about STARTALK or using STARTALK data in their research.
• 25% of teacher program directors and 39.1% of student program directors reported that their STARTALK programs received local, national, or international publicity in 2019.
Section Five: Impact on the Community
In 2019, STARTALK continued to garner community support in creating a culture of professional growth among language educators and in promoting student engagement and access to
language-related resources:
• 77.7% of teacher program directors identified five or more areas where STARTALK teacher programs have made an impact on the local community, including improving pedagogy and teacher effectiveness (88.9%), sparking teacher interest and engagement (86.1%), fostering a sense of community around STARTALK (86.1%), and encouraging the development of new teaching resources (77.8%).
• 22.2% of teacher program directors highlighted additional impacts on the community, such as building professional networks, informing school-level and state-level decisions, boosting the country’s workforce in language education, and increasing advocacy for professional development for teachers of critical languages.
STARTALK student programs were successful in continuing to recruit diverse populations of participants in 2019:
• Student programs succeeded in recruiting participants from various socioeconomic groups (85.9%) and from various ethnic groups (87%).
• 39.1% of student program directors indicated that they had students identified as needing special education support in 2019.
• Programs used a wide variety of recruiting techniques, such as targeting promotional materials to areas with diverse populations (81.5%) and attempting to ensure diversity through the acceptance process (66.3%), to ensure that access to STARTALK programs was broadly available.
Section Six: Testimonials on Impact
• 23 teacher program directors (63.9%) commented on additional areas of impact, highlighting the transformation teachers go through as a result of attending STARTALK. Other general feedback provided by teacher program directors included comments about STARTALK’s role in empowering teachers of critical languages and in nurturing leadership skills and advocacy for the teaching profession.
• 57 student program directors (61.9%) reported a wide variety of impacts, including
generating interest in the language in the community, even in rural areas, and helping host institutions sustain the language programs they already have. STARTALK also helped student participants build a close relationship with others and feel pride in themselves.
INTRODUCTION
In 2019, STARTALK marked its thirteenth year providing critical language learning programs for students and professional development programs for language teachers. Since 2007, STARTALK has been dedicated to the mission of increasing the number of US citizens learning, speaking, and teaching critical-need foreign languages. Over the period of 13 years, over 48,400 student participants across 50 states and the District of Columbia have participated in STARTALK programs, which make an effort not only to increase students’ foreign language proficiency in critical languages but also to educate them about the cultures of the people who speak these languages.
In addition, 10,000 teachers have benefited from STARTALK teacher training programs, where educators from around the United States can find professional development support and guidance for planning lessons and designing curriculum that implement the STARTALK
principles for effective teaching and learning. Teacher program participants comprise a diverse population of native and heritage speakers as well as highly proficient second-language
speakers of the target language. As the demand for world language education increases around the country and as more and more students are interested in learning a critical language, access to expertly trained teachers is key to transforming an idea into an implementable world
language program. STARTALK makes it a priority to assist current language teachers by providing opportunities for professional growth, from young professionals who are just
entering the teaching field to already accomplished career-changers transitioning into teaching. In 2019, STARTALK supported 39 teacher programs and 99 student programs. Annual surveys were sent to directors of student and teacher programs in February 2020 to evaluate the impact of these programs. Program directors gathered information during and after their summer programs through surveys, interviews, or communication with students, parents, instructors, and other community members.
In May 2020, survey responses had been received from nearly all the 2019 programs (with the exception of three teacher programs and four student programs).1 The number of respondents
and the number of total programs do not precisely align because, in some instances, one program director was responsible for two programs and reported information on behalf of both. The student program survey was completed by 92 respondents, three of whom took the survey on behalf of two programs each. The teacher program survey was completed by 36 programs. Even though most respondents answered all questions, not all questions had the same number of responses.
Over the years since STARTALK began asking about it on this survey, program directors have reported a combined number of 622 critical language programs that were started as a result of
1 In past years, STARTALK Central has pursued program directors until we reach a 100% response rate on the survey. This year, due to
COVID-19, we allowed program directors additional time to respond and still recognized that it would not be realistic to expect responses from every program.
the STARTALK initiative (Figure 1). More than half of the reported new programs are in Chinese (54.8%); Arabic programs accounts for the second-largest percentage (19%), and Hindi is third (5.1%). These top three languages make up over 75% of all new language programs.
Figure 1. Location and number of programs reported to have started as a result of STARTALK
This year, we asked program directors for the first time about the year they first hosted their STARTALK program, and for how many years they have run their programs. The trend was different for teacher and student programs. Of the 2019 STARTALK teacher programs, over half (20, 55.6%) have been in existence for a period of 10 or more years. The strongest
representation in the veteran programs are those started in 2007 (7, 19.4%) and 2008 (8, 22.2%), which points to the demand for such programs in their areas as well as to the commitment of STARTALK program leaders to the teaching profession. The continued
sustainability of these veteran programs is also reflected in the number of years the programs have been offered, which mirrors the year-of-origination data: 15 teacher programs (41.7%) reported that they offered STARTALK programs 10 or more years since their inception. Compared to the age of the teacher programs, the 2019 STARTALK student programs were relatively young. The year that program directors hosted their first STARTALK program ranged from 2007 to 2019. Almost 40% of program directors reported that they first hosted their program during the period of 2017–2019. Slightly fewer than 20% of program directors reported that their program was first hosted more than 10 years ago. These data mirror the
number of years program directors reported that their programs were offered. More than 40% of program directors reported that they offered their programs for less than four years.
Differences between the year program directors first hosted their STARTALK program and the length of programs offered can be attributed to the fact that some programs were not offered continuously on a yearly basis.
Figure 2. Year teacher programs first hosted STARTALK teacher programs (left) and number of years offered (right)
Figure 3. Year student programs first hosted STARTALK student programs (left) and number of years offered (right)
7 8 2 3 2 1 1 1 2 0 4 4 1 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 1 4 5 0 1 1 2 2 4 2 2 7 4 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 5 5 7 8 2 3 6 4 6 9 12 12 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 12 13 13 6 7 4 5 6 3 8 6 5 3 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
QUESTIONS ASKED IN THE SURVEY FOR DIRECTORS OF
2019 STARTALK TEACHER PROGRAMS
Identifying information
1. Please type your name.2. Please enter your email address. (This is so that we can send you an automatic confirmation of your response to this survey.)
3. If your program has another director, please enter their email address so that we can send them a copy of the email confirmation.
4. Identify your teacher program(s) and director name(s) from the list below. If you were a program director for more than one teacher program, please select all of your programs.
For 2019 Portuguese and Swahili STARTALK programs
5. In 2020, or in a later year, are you planning to offer a Portuguese or Swahili summer program? How do you plan to do so, and what challenges do you face?2
Impact on critical language programs
6. Please refer to Appendix A and Appendix B (attached to the email this survey was sent in) to review the new language offerings in your community that your program has reported in past years. Other than those reported in the appendices, has your STARTALK program influenced the start of any language classes or programs in PreK–12 schools in your community, or postsecondary language classes or programs in your community? 7. Please provide the following information about the school or institution with a new
language program. You will have the opportunity to report additional programs on the next page.
8. What type of language program did this institution add?
9. Please tell us when and how the program was established and the role your STARTALK program played in the establishment of the new program.
10. If you would like to report any additional language programs in your community whose starts were influenced by your STARTALK program, please list them here.
[If respondents indicated that they had additional programs to report, Questions 7–10 were repeated up to three times, forming Questions 11–22.]
23. Please describe how your STARTALK program influenced language programs in your community other than starting new language programs.
Institutional impact
24. Does the institution that hosted your STARTALK teacher training program have its own teacher training program?
25. Has academic-year enrollment in your institution’s teacher training program(s) increased in the 2019–2020 academic year as a result of your STARTALK program?
26. By approximately how many students (teacher trainees) has enrollment increased in the 2019–2020 academic year?
27. Please describe any impact of STARTALK on your institution other than teacher trainee enrollment.
Impact on teacher participants
28. In 2019, did you hire any past STARTALK teacher development program participants to work in your STARTALK program?
29. Check any of the following roles that past STARTALK teacher program participants performed in your program in 2019. (Please select all that apply.)
30. In the 2019–2020 academic year, did you hire any past STARTALK teacher development program participants to work in your academic-year program or courses?
31. Check any of the following roles that past STARTALK teacher program participants have performed in your academic-year program or courses in the 2019–2020 academic year. (Please select all that apply.)
Impact on the field
32. In November 2019, did you or your program’s staff members give a presentation related to STARTALK at ACTFL?
33. In the 2019 calendar year, did you or your program’s staff members make any other conference presentations related to STARTALK?
34. Have you or your program’s staff members been accepted to give a conference presentation related to STARTALK in the 2020 calendar year?
35. In the 2019 calendar year, did you or your program’s staff members publish any articles related to STARTALK?
36. Are there any researchers in your institution who are conducting research about STARTALK or using STARTALK data in their research?
37. In 2019, did your program receive any local, national, or international publicity; for example, newspaper or magazine articles, web articles, or TV coverage?
38. Please enter any notable stories or testimonials you have from teacher participants about their STARTALK experiences.
39. What other STARTALK impacts have you witnessed in the 2019–2020 academic year?
About your program
40. What year did your institution host its first STARTALK program? 41. How many years has that program been offered?
42. What can STARTALK do now to help your program become more sustainable in the future should federal funding become unavailable? 3
43. Is there anything else you would like to share about the impact of your STARTALK program on its participants or the community? Please describe these impact(s) here.
QUESTIONS ASKED IN THE SURVEY FOR DIRECTORS OF
2019 STARTALK STUDENT PROGRAMS
Identifying information
1. Please type your name.2. Please enter your email address. (This is so that we can send you an automatic confirmation of your response to this survey.)
3. If your program has another director, please enter their email address so that we can send them a copy of the email confirmation.
4. Identify your student program(s) and director name(s) from the list below. If you were a program director for more than one student program, please select all of your programs.
For 2019 Portuguese and Swahili STARTALK programs
5. In 2020, or in a later year, are you planning to offer a Portuguese or Swahili summer program? How do you plan to do so, and what challenges do you face?4
Impact on critical language programs
6. Please refer to Appendix A and Appendix B (attached to the email this survey was sent in) to review the new language offerings in your community that your program has reported in past years. Other than those reported in the appendices, has your STARTALK program influenced the start of any language classes or programs in PreK–12 schools in your community, or postsecondary language classes or programs in your community? 7. Please provide the following information about the school or institution with a new
language program. You will have the opportunity to report additional programs on the next page.
8. What type of language program did this institution add?
9. Please tell us when and how the program was established and the role your STARTALK program played in the establishment of the new program.
Institutional impact
10. Did your STARTALK program influence an increase in academic-year enrollment in your institution’s world language program in the 2019–2020 academic year?
11. By approximately how many students has enrollment increased in the 2019–2020 academic year?
12. Did your STARTALK program influence the addition of any courses in your institution’s world language program in the 2019–2020 academic year (for example, new levels of courses, courses in new languages, or additional sections of an existing course)?
13. What was added to your institution’s world language program in the 2019–2020 academic year? Please select all that apply.
14. Please tell us how the courses were added and the role your STARTALK program, or program personnel, played in the addition of these courses.
15. What other impacts has your STARTALK program had on the continuation or success of existing world language programs in the 2019–2020 academic year? Please select all that apply.
Impact on students’ education
16. Did you have any students who had never studied their STARTALK language in a classroom setting before attending your program?
17. Have any of these students (who were new to formal study of the STARTALK language) enrolled in a language course because of interest generated during your STARTALK program?
18. In 2019, did your program offer any opportunities for students to explore language-related education or career opportunities? If you made students aware of any of these
opportunities, please explain how.
19. In 2019, did any student participants indicate that their educational and/or career plans were impacted by their STARTALK experience? If so, how?
20. Please enter any notable stories or testimonials you may have from participants about their STARTALK experiences.
Employment of STARTALK alumni
21. In 2019, did you employ any past STARTALK student program participants as paid or volunteer assistants, tutors, or teachers in your STARTALK program?
22. In 2019, did you employ any past STARTALK teacher program participants as paid or volunteer assistants, tutors, or teachers in your STARTALK program?
23. In the 2019–2020 academic year, did your institution employ any past STARTALK student program participants as paid or volunteer assistants, tutors, or teachers in its academic-year world language programs?
24. In the 2019–2020 academic year, did your institution employ any past STARTALK teacher program participants as paid or volunteer assistants, tutors, or teachers in its academic-year world language programs?
Impact on the field
25. In November 2019, did you or your program’s staff members give a presentation related to STARTALK at ACTFL?
26. In the 2019 calendar year, did you or your program’s staff members make any other conference presentations related to STARTALK?
27. Have you or your program’s staff members been accepted to give a conference presentation related to STARTALK in the 2020 calendar year?
28. In the 2019 calendar year, did you or your program’s staff members publish any articles related to STARTALK?
29. Are there any researchers in your institution who are conducting research about STARTALK or using STARTALK data in their research?
30. In 2019, did your program receive any local, national, or international publicity; for example, newspaper or magazine articles, web articles, or TV coverage?
Impact on the community
31. In 2019, what recruiting techniques or methods did you use that helped ensure you would recruit a diverse population of participants?
32. In 2019, were you able to recruit students from various socioeconomic groups? 33. In 2019, were you able to recruit students from various ethnic groups?
34. In 2019, were any of your students identified as needing special education support (due to a learning disability, for example)?
About your program
35. What year did your institution host its first STARTALK program? 36. How many years has that program been offered?
37. What can STARTALK do now to help your program become more sustainable in the future should federal funding become unavailable?5
38. What other STARTALK impacts have you witnessed in the 2019–2020 academic year that were not covered by this survey? Is there anything else you would like to share about the impact of your STARTALK program on its participants or the community?
SECTION ONE: IMPACT ON CRITICAL LANGUAGE
PROGRAMS
World language programs are being cut around the country, and less commonly taught language programs in particular have to overcome obstacles to be launched and to succeed. One important aspect of STARTALK’s mission is supporting instruction in less commonly taught languages beyond the summer. This section summarizes STARTALK’s impact on academic-year school-day programs and on after-school, community, heritage, or summer language programs. Table 1 shows the percentages of STARTALK programs that reported they had an impact on starting a new language program, reported historically from 2015 to 2019.
Table 1. New language programs started as a result of STARTALK, 2015–2019
New program type Reporting STARTALK program type 2019 2018 20176 2016 2015 Academic-year school-day program Teacher program (N=36) 5.6% (N=52) 9.6% (N=48) 18.8% (N=44) 16% (N=54) 15% Student program 17.4% (N=92) 11.7% (N=102) 19.4% (N=98) 18% (N=95) 23% (N=97) After-school, community, heritage, or summer language programs Teacher program 2.6% 3.8% 10.4% 16% 10% Student program 18.5% 8.8% 19.3% 28% 26%
Has your STARTALK program influenced the start of any language classes or programs in
PreK–12 schools in your community, or postsecondary language classes or programs in
your community?
Four teacher program directors (11.1%) and 38 student program directors (41.3%) indicated that their STARTALK programs influenced the start of new language programs in 2019. Some program directors reported more than one program. In total, four programs were reported by teacher program directors (three school-day and one extracurricular), and 41 were reported by student program directors (20 school-day and 21 extracurricular). Programs classified as
academic-year programs included “PreK–12 school-day language classes,” “PreK–12 school-day and after-school language classes,” and “College or university language classes”; extracurricular programs were considered those identified by program directors as “PreK–12 after-school
language classes,” “Community language classes,” “Language classes for heritage language learners,” “Summer language program (not supported by STARTALK),” and “Other types.”
What type of language program did this institution add?
Program directors were asked to identify what types of programs were added. Figure 4 shows the specific types of new programs. Most of the newly reported programs were PreK–12 school-day language classes (16 programs, 35.6%). The second-largest group was community language classes (nine programs, 20%), and PreK–12 after-school language classes were a close third with seven new programs (15.6%).
In total, 45 new student programs in nine languages (Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, and Urdu) were reported in 2019 (Figure 5). Several programs reported new student programs in multiple languages. The 2019 new programs are located in 17 states and were offered at a variety of grade levels.
Program directors were asked to provide further details about the programs: program name, city and state, and the number of students in the new program. Tables 2 and 3 summarize some of this information.
Figure 4. Program types, new student programs
PreK–12 school-day language classes: 16 (35.6%) Community language classes: 9 (20.0%) PreK–12 after-school language classes: 7 (15.6%) College or university language classes: 6 (13.3%) Summer language program (not supported
by STARTALK): 3 (6.7%)
Other: 2 (4.4%)
PreK–12 school-day and after-school language classes: 1
(2.2%)
Language classes for heritage language
learners: 1 (2.2%)
Figure 5. Languages, new student programs
Table 2. Academic-year, school-day programs reported to have started in 2019
Program Location Language
Anne Arundel Community College Arnold, MD Russian
Bonny Eagle Middle School Buxton, ME Chinese
Buxton Center Elementary School Buxton, ME Chinese
Clark Johnsen Junior High Tooele, UT Portuguese
Diamond Valley Elementary St George, UT Chinese
Dixon Middle School Provo, UT Portuguese
Farley Elementary Hudson, MA Portuguese
Fisler School Fullerton, CA Korean
Floyd Magnet Middle School for Math and Science Montgomery, AL Korean
Greenbelt Middle School Greenbelt, MD Chinese
Jonesboro High School Jonesboro, GA Arabic
Lambert High School Suwanee, GA Chinese
Lanier Middle School Fairfax, VA Korean
LEAD Academy Montgomery, AL Korean
Pike Road Elementary School Pike Road, AL Korean
Pike Road Middle School Pike Road, AL Korean
Quinn Middle School Hudson, MA Portuguese
South Mesa Elementary St George, UT Portuguese, Russian
State University of New York at Oswego Oswego, NY Chinese
Tooele Junior High School Tooele, UT Portuguese
United States Naval Academy Annapolis, MD Russian
University of Central Florida Orlando, FL Russian
University of Central Florida Orlando, FL Arabic
Chinese: 11 (24.4%) Korean: 7 (15.6%) Portuguese: 6 (13.3%) Russian: 4 (8.9%) Arabic: 3 (6.7%) Hindi: 3 (6.7%) Spanish: 2 (4.4%) Urdu: 2 (4.4%) Swahili: 1 (2.2%) Multiple: 6 (13.3%)
Table 3. Programs other than academic-year, school-day programs reported to have started in 2019
Program Location Language
Ballard High School Seattle, WA Arabic, Chinese, Korean
Bridges Program Bloomington, IN Swahili
Chiles Elementary School Tampa, FL Spanish, Chinese
Elk Grove Charter School Elk Grove, CA Arabic
Forest Hills High School Forest Hills, NY Hindi
Georgian Forest Elementary School Silver Spring, MD Portuguese
Greater Islamic Association of St Louis St Louis, TX Urdu
Hindi Language Academy Hillsborough, NJ Hindi
Hindu Center Queens, NY Hindi
Howard Community College “Chinese Corner” Columbia, MD Chinese
Ingraham High School Seattle, WA Arabic, Chinese, Korean
Madison West High School Madison, WI Korean
Majestic Fields Elementary St George, UT Chinese, Portuguese,
Russian
Majestic Fields Elementary St George, UT Portuguese, Russian
Muslim Community Center of Dublin Dublin, TX Urdu
New Hope Learning Center West Windsor, NJ Chinese
Partnership with Children’s Board Family Resource Centers Tampa, FL Spanish
Ray Chinese School Lisle, IL Chinese
Seven Oaks Elementary School Wesley Chapel, FL Spanish
Union Chapel Elementary School Kansas City, MO Chinese
University of Central Florida Orlando, FL Russian
Yinghua International School Kingston, NJ Chinese
Please tell us when and how the program was established and the role your STARTALK
program played in the establishment of the new program.
Program directors described a wide variety of roles that their programs played in the
establishment of new programs. Several directors of teacher programs mentioned that their teacher participants played an important role in starting new language programs. Some student program directors mentioned that they helped new programs with staffing; for example, a program director mentioned that they helped a school district recruit teachers from China and train them. Two directors mentioned that their STARTALK teaching staff were hired as teachers for the new programs. STARTALK programs also kept students interested in the target language, which resulted in their asking local institutions to start a language program.
SECTION TWO: IMPACT ON THE INSTITUTION
In order to provide high-quality language training to meet the needs of the next generation’s workforce, the infrastructure of world language education must continue to expand both in-school language programs for students and training programs for language teachers. This section addresses STARTALK’s role in the growth of both types of programs in the 2019–2020 school year.
2.1. Teacher Programs
In 2019, STARTALK continued to support the growth of teacher training programs across the United States, particularly in institutions that host summer STARTALK programs. In addition to an increase in enrollment in these training programs spurred by STARTALK, program directors reported a variety of influences that STARTALK had on the strength of their academic-year teacher training programs. These impacts support STARTALK’s goal of increasing the number of highly effective critical-language teachers in the United States.
Does the institution that hosted your STARTALK teacher training program have its own
teacher training program?
According to the data collected by STARTALK over the last five years (2015–2019), between 45% and 61.5% of institutions hosting STARTALK teacher training programs also offer their own teacher training programs outside of STARTALK. In 2019, the percentage of such institutions (61.1%) remained in the range of the reported data and is comparable to the previous year’s indicator of 61.5%, the two highest percentages reported to date (Table 4).
Table 4. Percentage of responses reporting the presence of academic-year teacher training programs at their institutions and enrollment increases in those programs, 2015–2019
2019
(N=36) (N=52) 2018 (N=48) 2017 (N=44) 2016 (N=54) 2015
STARTALK program institutions that host their own
teacher training program 61.1% 61.5% 54.2% 45% 49%
STARTALK program host institutions reporting increase
Has academic-year enrollment in your institution’s teacher training program(s) increased in
the 2019–2020 academic year as a result of your STARTALK program?
Out of 22 programs that reported they have an academic-year teacher training program, 31.8% (seven programs) reported an increase in enrollment following their STARTALK program, while 18.2% reported no increase.
Note that the drop in the percentage compared with previous years is likely associated with changes in the survey’s answer options. In the 2015–2017 surveys, answer options for this question were limited to “Yes” and “No.” In the 2018 survey, a third option, “I don’t know,” was added; however, the percentage reporting an enrollment increase was calculated based on the Yes/No answers and excluded the “I don’t know” option. In 2019, the hard-to-interpret “I don’t know” option was replaced with “Other,” followed by an opportunity to provide an open-ended answer for clarification. The “Other” option accounted for 50% of responses, meaning that 81.8% of programs responded “Yes” or “Other” to this question. While this result reflects a fuller picture of the impact of STARTALK on various aspects of enrollment in academic-year programs, we opted to note the percentage actually responding “Yes” for consistency of reporting.
Figure 6. Percentage of programs reporting academic-year enrollment increases in 2019–2020 teacher programs Yes: 7 (31.8%) No: 4 (18.2%) Other: 11 (50.0%) 2 (33.3%) 4 (66.7%) 0 0 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 1-10 11-25 26-50 51-99 More than 99
By how many students has enrollment increased in the 2019–2020 academic year?
7The seven program directors who indicated an increase in enrollment were asked to provide their estimates of the number of students. Four programs reported an increase in the range of 11–25 students (M = 14.5), two programs reported an increase in the 1–10 student range (M = 4.5), and one program director did not report the number. Based on the data from the
programs that reported the number of students contributing to the increase in enrollment, the enrollment increase across multiple institutions totals 66 new students. Among the leading justifications for flat enrollment numbers offered by program directors were logistic hurdles:
“We accepted double the amount of teacher participants that were intended to be part of the pilot program given the high demand for it. Since then, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our program recruitment efforts have been halted.”
“Enrollment has remained consistent over the past two years. We were expecting an increase, but due to visa restrictions and other factors, there were several candidates that were unable to begin their program in the 2019-20 academic year.”
“[…] most of our [STARTALK] teacher participants come from far away, as such, enrolling at [our institution’s academic-year] teacher training program would not be an option.”
In addition to the programs that reported an increase in enrollment, 50% of programs reported other positive influences on their institution’s academic-year program beyond a direct impact on enrollment numbers. Several program directors mentioned starting professional
development workshops for experienced and newly certified teachers, as well as continuing to advocate for STARTALK principles and promote STARTALK resources:
“Our institution actually asked me to start a semester long teacher training program for all our School’s new graduate student teaching assistants of LCTLs [less commonly taught languages] and the program was based on STARTALK Principles. In 2019-2020 Fall semester, the semester long teacher training program included instructors of Bengali, Burmese, Swahili, Urdu, Japanese, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Indonesian, Thai, and Finish [sic]. All these graduate students commented that their LCTL language classes would have been a disaster if not for the opportunity they had to take this semester long teacher training program that opened their eyes to effective strategies for teaching LCTLs. These are all graduate students sponsored by the Department of States [sic], to come to the US, as Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, to teach their native languages that majority, if not all of them had never taught as foreign languages before. So, at [our institution], this course was created to prepare these students
to teach American Students in the US. Using STARTALK Principles and using STARTALK resources made the course a big success. Two of the students told me that when they go back to their country, they will tell their Education professors about this program so that they can change the way their languages are taught even in their own country. My point here is that STARTALK teaching Principles are not only impacting how we teach American students these LCTLs in the US, its impact is also going to be felt worldwide as some of these students who are exposed to these principles through their university programs return to their country to teach their LCTLs. The double impact of these is that, when our American students go on a study abroad programs in some of these countries, they will be taught by instructors who have been taught using STARTALK
principles. As a result, they will have a better Study Abroad Program experience.” “[Our institution] has become a leader in Project-based learning (PBL), in great part due to the expertise we has gained and the resources that have been developed with STARTALK. In the spring of 2019 we lead a lengthy workshop on PBL for the ESL program at [our institution]. This workshop not only sought to train ESL teachers on the practices of PBL, but also focused on building
connections between ESL teaching and HL teaching to build overall bilingual and biliteracy skills.”
“STARTALK Principles are evident now in all of our language programs and are frequent topics in our weekly language teacher professional development
sessions - these are facilitated by members of our World Language department.” “[Our teacher training] program is well known throughout the College of
Education for its effectiveness in teacher training, and has had an impact on language faculty who have attended some of our teacher training sessions and observed the student program as well.”
“[…] all of our participants attend workshops we provide […] based on STARTALK principles. Participants continue to request access to online programs based on STARTALK principles.”
Among the programs that either do not currently host their own academic-year program or did not report an increase in enrollment, several still credited STARTALK for facilitating students’ transition from language learning to the language teaching career track:
“Credits from [our institution] have been accepted for completion of some of the requirements for teacher preparation programs at universities in VA, NC, GA, and NY; 4 candidates are now enrolled in teacher preparation programs in GA as a result of the STARTALK program.”
“[STARTALK] created interest in and expanded applications to [our institution’s] online teacher training program.”
“One student started to double major in both Chinese and Education at
[institution]. Another trainee has started to work on her master’s degree study and licensure in teaching Chinese at [another institution].”
“One of the Participants from a Turkish Charter school system in [state] told me that, even though he was a trained computer science teacher and Turkish
teacher, he is planning to switch his professional interest into a Turkish language educator as a result of his STARTALK experience. He invited two other Turkish instructors to participate in our 2019 Teacher Program because of the
transformational experience that he said the STARTALK program had on him when he first attended it in 2014. He came back to our program as one of the Master Teachers in Training which was a part of our 2019 program.”
“Trainees [of our program] were qualified to teach Flagship college students after the summer program.”
“The program has raised interest in language education as a career on the part of [our institution’s] students.”
Several program directors specifically credited STARTALK for increasing the quality of their institutions’ academic-year teacher preparatory programs by providing the opportunity for an enhanced field teaching experience and access to STARTALK’s resources and expertise, which in turn led to an increase in the quality of the teacher preparation programs at their institutions:
“Our program has contributed to the depth and breadth of the field experiences and course content offered by our institution’s teacher prep program.”
“Thanks to the 2019 teacher program and the micro-teaching opportunities it gave, one of the participants who had not done any teaching before (he was a graduate student researching language textbooks) is […] now interviewing for different positions for teaching Arabic. He immensely improved his teaching style for the duration of the program, as testified by the program instructors.”
“Our Chinese language teachers, many of whom come from outside the U.S. and haven’t gone through U.S. K-12 education, have had many more opportunities to interact with K-12 students and spend time in K-12 settings. This has been crucial for the development of the knowledge, dispositions and skills necessary for success in a U.S. school. The teacher trainees who are in our program, who also attended the STARTALK summer intensive program, become stronger teachers as they have had more opportunities to deepen their knowledge and skills in
standards-based instruction, their understanding of U.S. education, and connect to professional development learning communities.”
“The involvement of higher education with the K-12 Chinese language educators and the implementation of standards-based FL teaching soon brought about
instructional changes in [our institution’s] Chinese Language Program (CLP). The [institution’s] CLP director transferred what she had learned from leading a STARTALK program to lead her college level program.”
Language programs in local school districts are also benefitting from the availability of more effective teachers available for employment due to the success of STARTALK teacher programs:
“Our [STARTALK] program contributed to the preparation of dual language educators who currently serve or will serve as teachers in dual language
classroom settings throughout California, but primarily in the greater Los Angeles area. Our county and district partners seek out our program and recognize its commitment to quality. We also recruit leads for our program from local districts to build capacity and contribute to the knowledge infrastructure of local dual language program leadership.”
“After three year of STARTALK at [schools], the two immersion school with a large number of underserved students, it has become part of the immersion program. Parents expect STARTALK every summer, and often inquire about it very early in the school year. STARTALK has been providing students the
opportunity to keep honing their language skills during the summer break. It also provides teachers the chance to expose to new ways of teaching and reflect on their teaching.”
In recognition of the institution’s expertise and commitment to educational leadership, one program was chosen to continue to promote inclusion and mutual understanding outside of the world language education domain:
“In Fall 2019, [STARTALK institution] launched its BRIGHT Teacher Training Program. As part of a new pilot grant program, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) selected five non-profits in 2018 to receive a grant to develop programs and trainings to build resilient communities and reduce the risks of violence and hate in communities across California. Through this program, [STARTALK institution] has developed a BRIGHT teacher training program designed to help teachers engage students in civil discourse, critical thinking, and the promotion of community values. BRIGHT represents the core values of Balance, Resilience, Integrity, Goodness, Harmony, and Tolerance. This project integrates experts from the National Humanities Center along with experts from [STARTALK institution] to deliver a professional online learning curriculum that promotes violence prevention through inclusiveness,
Please describe any impact of STARTALK on your institution other than teacher trainee
enrollment.
Thirty out of 36 program directors (83.3%) provided comments about the additional impact of the STARTALK teacher training programs on their professional and local communities. The open-ended responses were analyzed for content and grouped by theme. Each comment was tagged with a maximum of two themes. The resulting data set consists of 46 data points, grouped into 11 categories (
Figure 7). Almost 20% of all comments suggest that the impact of teacher training during the STARTALK teacher programs continues after the program has ended through special courses, professional development seminars, conferences, and public talks organized by the programs’ participants (see “Increase quality of professional development” in Figure 7). STARTALK
teachers become advocates for best practices in teaching less commonly taught languages and engage with the larger teaching community to advocate for more effective teaching methods, as outlined in the STARTALK principles. Other noteworthy impacts of STARTALK teacher programs are promoting the importance of language education and interest in learning
languages, fostering collaboration among teachers, and facilitating transition into the language teacher career from other career paths.
Figure 7. Areas of impact of STARTALK teacher programs
1 (2.2%) 1 (2.2%) 2 (4.3%) 3 (6.5%) 3 (6.5%) 3 (6.5%) 4 (8.7%) 5 (10.9%) 5 (10.9%) 5 (10.9%) 6 (13.0%) 8 (17.4%) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Promote cultural awareness Foster research Inspire innovation in education Foster community engagement Improve quality of teaching Increase support for WL programs in K-12 Improve quality of teacher prep Facilitate transition into WL teaching career Foster collaboration Increase interest in languages Language education advocacy Increase quality of professional development
2.2. Student Programs
STARTALK continues to help support the growth of existing programs in less commonly taught languages, especially at institutions hosting summer STARTALK programs, by cultivating student interest in continuing to pursue the study of their STARTALK language. Table 5 is a summary of responses relating to the impact of STARTALK on institutions hosting student programs, from 2015 to 2019. Across the years, between 55% and 74.6% of STARTALK programs reported that they influenced an increase in academic-year enrollment in their institutions’ world language programs in the academic year following their STARTALK programs. In addition, between 18% and 38.5% of student program directors across the years reported that their STARTALK programs influenced the addition of new courses, including advanced-level courses, in their institutions’ world language programs in the academic year following their STARTALK programs. In 2019, the highest percentages of program directors reported that their program influenced an increase in academic-year enrollment and an addition of courses. A detailed analysis of this year’s results is presented in the following sections.
Table 5. Percentage of responses demonstrating the impact on institutions hosting student programs, 2015–2019
Question (N=92) 2019 (N=101) 2018 (N=96) 2017 (N=92) 2016 (N=97) 2015
Increase in academic-year enrollment in
the 2019–2020 academic year8 74.6% 63.4% 56.3% 66% 55%
Inception of new courses in the institution’s world language program in the 2019–2020 academic year9
38.5% 33.3% 29% 19% 18%
Did your STARTALK program influence an increase in academic-year enrollment in your
institution’s world language program in the 2019–2020 academic year? By how many
students has enrollment increased in the 2019–2020 academic year?
In 2019, 74.6% of STARTALK programs reported that they influenced an increase in academic-year enrollment in their institutions’ world language programs in the academic academic-year following their STARTALK programs. This is an increase compared to the percentages in previous years, which ranged from 55% to 66%. The fact that nearly three-fourths of applicable respondents reported increases in academic-year enrollment in 2019 demonstrates STARTALK’s ongoing influence on demand for and enrollment in academic-year critical language programs.
8 The denominator used for calculating percentages in the table was the sum of the responses “Yes” and “No”; it did not include the number of
“I don’t know” or “Not applicable” answers.
9 Prior to 2018, this question was worded as follows: Did your STARTALK program influence the addition of any advanced-level courses in your
Fifty-one program directors provided the numbers of enrollment increases in their institutions’ world language programs in 2019–2020, which ranged from 2 to 710. Adding up all the
numbers that respondents reported, STARTALK programs influenced an enrollment increase of approximately 2,517 students in world language programs at STARTALK institutions in the 2019–2020 academic year. Figure 8 summarizes the reported enrollment increases by range.
Figure 8. Academic-year enrollment increase reported by student programs (left) and number of students increased (right)
Did your STARTALK program influence the addition of any courses in your institution’s
world language program in the 2019–2020 academic year? What was added to your
institution’s world language program in the 2019–2020 academic year?
This year a higher proportion of program directors also reported on their STARTALK programs’ influence on the addition of new language courses or sections of language courses. Of the respondents, 22 indicated that this question was not applicable to their institutions. Out of the remaining 70 responses, 22 (31.4%) indicated that their institutions added new courses,
including advanced-level courses, to their world language programs in 2019 as a result of STARTALK programs.
The 22 respondents identified the types of new courses. Most program directors (81.8%) said that they added a new level or levels of a language already taught, thus increasing their institution’s ability to support students’ development of higher levels of proficiency in the language. More than two-thirds of the program directors (68.2%) reported they added another section or sections of an existing course, showing robust demand for the language at their institution. Finally, 31.8% reported that they added a course or courses in a new language.
Yes: 50 (74.6%) No: 17 (25.4%) 27 (52.9%) 10 (19.6%) 8 (15.7%) 2 (3.9%) 4 (7.8%) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 1-10 11-25 26-50 51-99 More than 99
Figure 9. Increase in new world language courses at STARTALK institutions (left) and types of courses (right)
What other impacts has your STARTALK program had on the continuation or success of
existing world language programs in the 2019–2020 academic year?
In order to track other types of impact, student program directors were asked to select one or more options among eight impact options (Figure 10). All but two options were selected by more than half of all respondents. This indicates that STARTALK programs continue to support existing world language programs in a variety of ways. All of the reported areas of impact represent crucial factors in students’ ability to attain proficiency in critical languages and in the maintenance and expansion of critical language programs during the academic year.
Yes: 22 (31.4%) No: 48 (68.6%) 7 (31.8%) 15 (68.2%) 18 (81.8%) 0 50 100
A course or courses in a new language
An additional section or sections of an existing course
A new level or levels of a language already taught
Figure 10. Other impacts that STARTALK programs had on existing world language programs
Seventeen program directors also wrote in other impacts they wanted to report. One program director reported that their summer plans were canceled due to COVID-19, but they had nonetheless made some progress on increasing enrollment in their language program.
“All summer program are cancelled because of COVID-19. But I have established meaningful contact with the district’s multilingual and multicultural office to future collaboration. The district is still interested in working with us.”
The results in this section demonstrate that STARTALK programs had an impact on demand for programming at host institutions. Teacher programs and student programs reported increases in enrollment in programs at their host institutions. Furthermore, more than one-third of student program directors reported the addition of new world language courses in their institutions during the academic year. This shows that STARTALK programs have an immediate impact on fostering interest in and opportunities for language education in STARTALK
languages. 22 (23.9%) 41 (44.6%) 48 (52.2%) 56 (60.9%) 58 (63%) 61 (66.3%) 65 (70.7%) 72 (78.3%) 80 (87%) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Facilitated study abroad opportunities for students
Enhanced institutional support for world language classes Ensured that students are well prepared to join their
school’s existing language program Promoted educational collaboration Increased community support for world language classes Provided STARTALK curricular materials, training, and/or
resources to world language classes
Increased parental support for world language classes Increased student motivation and participation in world
language programs
Improved the teaching practices of instructors in the program, who also teach in other programs
SECTION THREE: IMPACT ON TEACHER AND STUDENT
PARTICIPANTS
Of course, STARTALK programs do not only have an impact on educational institutions; one of the most important impacts is on the participants themselves. Changes in education plans and career plans are among the most frequently reported impacts of STARTALK on both student and teacher participants, while teacher participants also frequently report that STARTALK continues to support their professional development in a variety of ways. All of these areas of change help STARTALK achieve its goals of increasing the number of students enrolled in the study of critical languages and increasing the number of highly effective critical-language teachers in the United States. Programs also support these goals by offering opportunities to both student and teacher program alumni to serve as paid or volunteer teachers, tutors, and other staff members in STARTALK programs and academic-year programs. This section details the impact of STARTALK on the lives of both teachers and students, as reported by program directors.
3.1. Impact on Teacher Program Participants
Some of the main objectives of STARTALK teacher programs are promoting professional growth, increasing standards for teacher preparation, and facilitating entry into the teaching profession for language professionals in other career paths. This section reviews the ways in which STARTALK teaching programs have impacted participants’ career choices and
professional plans.
Please enter any notable stories or testimonials you have from teacher participants about
their STARTALK experiences.
Twenty-five teacher program directors (69.4%) gave examples of notable stories or testimonials they had received from participants about their STARTALK experiences, or reported additional value that their programs provide to their participants.
The majority of teachers expressed strong support for STARTALK’s role in serving as a
networking hub, providing platforms for teachers to share resources, ask questions, exchange job opportunities, and find help and guidance in overcoming professional challenges:
“Among our program director, lead teachers and staff, we have built incredibly strong professional relationships, which have allowed us to support each other for many reasons: with teaching challenges; curriculum development; job searches; visa issues; contract problems; health concerns; classroom management issues; etc.”
“We support our trainees and alumni via our virtual Hindi, virtual Urdu and Virtual Arabic sites -- where we collect resources and develop lesson plans. We have an active 340+ FB group where we announce new initiatives and training opportunities, as well as we all share new materials. Our teachers often ask questions and respond to inquiries among each other. Our community is online, since our trainees are from different states from community schools and colleges. It provided crucial assistance to the development and growth of existing
language programs at area schools, including continued teacher education and material support.”
“We […] have created a network for teacher needs teachers. We offer an
academic year Language Roundtable Network that supports teachers during the year to learn from colleagues and outside experts. Language programs in our community know they can look to us for professional development opportunities for their teachers.”
With a strong professional network in place, teachers recognize the need for continuity of professional growth, and they credit STARTALK for providing resources and the professional support to encourage it. Teacher participants continue to benefit from the friendships and collaborations fostered during the program, and from the STARTALK resources, which remain accessible to participants after the programs end, promoting professional transformation:
“Participants in our previous STARTALK programs have forever changed. They have been transformed into professionals who are committed to lifelong
learning. Many of them who were once part time/weekend teachers in parochial schools, have entered certification/credentialing programs and made language teaching their professional lives.”
“We encourage teacher candidates to network and join professional learning communities such as CLTA [state], [state]FLT and ACTFL for lifelong learning and support; we encourage those who are already members to step up to leadership positions in their schools and organization. For example, CLTA [state]’s elected leadership and board tend to be STARTALK alumni; most of the membership are STARTALK alumni; some give presentations at local and national organizations on teaching strategies and best practices, e.g. ACTFL 2019. Two have earned
principal/program manager credentials.”
In addition, program directors acknowledged the need and appreciation for STARTALK’s support for those seeking teacher certification in world language education:
“I want to let you know that I have been accepted by UNCC graduate teaching certification program yesterday. I look forward to getting my teaching licenses next year (2020). Thank you for all your teaching in our star talk program and guiding us on the pathway to teaching!”