NEWBURYPORT — Though Rosetta Stone was considered a possible means of bringing back some foreign language learning to the middle school, an investigation of how the program is being used in other school districts has proved to Nock Principal Barry Hopping that the self-directed program might not be better than nothing.
While Hopping was originally excited to explore the program after Mayor Donna Holaday expressed a commitment to purchasing it for the school, Hopping came before the School Committee last night to say he's not so sure it can deliver on the promise of providing a meaningful foundation of foreign language knowledge.
"Nothing I've learned to this point puts me in a place where I feel comfortable making a recommendation for Rosetta Stone," Hopping said.
Of the dozen or so districts Hopping contacted and queried about their use of the technology-based learning program, Hopping found that only St. Theresa's School in Roxbury was using Rosetta Stone as its primary source for foreign language education. The vast majority of the users were using the program as an adjunct to their existing, full-course foreign language offerings.
And in Roxbury's case, the school was using the program as its primary curriculum source not because it chose to, but because the district's Spanish teacher resigned midyear and there wasn't money in the budget for a replacement.
"Six other school districts have had great success using it as a supplement to their foreign language," Hopping said. "The vast majority are using it to supplement what they currently have in place."
Nock Middle School currently has nothing in place, after severe budget cuts in 2007 forced the district to cut the program. From the day it was cut, administrators, parents, students and School Committee members have sought to measure its impact on the competitiveness of Newburyport schools, with many questioning the schools' ability to ready local children for the global society that awaits them without providing them with the early foundation in foreign language.
It was based on this concern that Holaday proposed purchasing Rosetta Stone for Nock, and while Hopping and curriculum director Angela Bik thanked her for wanting to do something about the loss of the program, neither felt Rosetta Stone was the answer.
When Hopping contacted the schools currently using Rosetta Stone in their curriculum, he asked how the program worked in their respective schedules, and many reported problems when the program required use of their existing computer labs, which is what Nock would seek to do.
"There was a real scheduling issue for those schools that relied solely on the computer lab," Hopping said. "It takes the computer lab offline completely."
To the question of who monitors the children's work, schools with existing programs had a qualified foreign language teacher looking over the program. In the places where no program was in place, Rosetta Stone students were being overseen by a technology specialist and a volunteer parent, with no real confidence in assessing what students had learned, Hopping said.
"It's a variety of different issues I'm weighing heavily," Hopping said. "I'm still looking for the ideal. There has to be something out there we can get our head around that is more what our kids deserve."
To Bik, Newburyport has invested a lot of time and energy in ensuring best practices are being implemented when it comes to teaching students, and this program isn't in keeping with the district's standards for quality teaching.
"Whatever we're going to do, we need to do it with the same level of integrity with which we approach the rest of our curriculum," Bik said.
Interim Superintendent Deidre Farrell noted she had discussions with Marc Kerble, who will become superintendent on July 1, and they have discussed the possibility of back building pieces of the foreign language program over a four-year period, she said.
"I think that we know the community is frustrated with the loss of foreign language," Farrell said. "We know the kids are frustrated with the loss of foreign language."
Committee member Nick deKan- ter is frustrated, and as other members have expressed at one time or another, deKanter urged the committee to show leadership and bring back the program that once thrived at the school.
"We all know what it takes to teach kids foreign language effectively by the time they graduate from our school district," deKan-ter said. "It's the same way they learn their mother tongue. They need to learn it early, and they need to build on it consistently and effectively. Most people that I know didn't learn their mother tongue by a computer."
Hopping and the committee agreed to keep studying the issue and perhaps form a committee to look at various alternatives once Kerble takes office.
"We'll get there," Hopping said.
"We will," agreed Holaday. "We will."
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