Should all high schools teach Spanish and other languages at Regents level?
The New York City public school system boasts an impressive array of foreign languages students can learn, from Urdu to Japanese, along with more traditional offerings like French and Italian. But in many city schools, students have just one choice: Spanish. That’s the only language outside of English offered in more than 180 high schools, according to the city’s high school directory. That represents nearly half of all city high schools. The Department of Education says schools decide which languages to offer in response to students’ interest. But the teaching of Spanish as the only foreign language in many schools presents a question for educators: What to do with the tens of thousands of New York kids who already know it?The answer the city has settled on is to teach Spanish speakers higher-level courses, often emphasizing literature and advanced reading and writing. The DOE’s most recent tally shows some 270,000 students of all ages who reported coming from Spanish-speaking homes.
