Dive Brief:

• School districts across the country are having trouble filling open positions for foreign language instructors, and some are turning to electronic alternatives, like Rosetta Stone, to fill the gaps.
• Quartz reports Madison Area Memorial High School in Maine couldn’t find a French teacher to hire for this school year and has instead offered classes using online software and an “education technician,” who supervises students and troubleshoots tech problems.
• While the school principal, Jessica Ward, said online learning gives students more flexibility to choose new languages to study and move at their own pace, she expects to repost job openings next year for Spanish and French teachers.

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Dive Insight:

More families in the United States are recognizing the value of bilingualism when it comes to travel and career opportunities. This has driven demand for bilingual education programs at the K-12 level, and even in homogenous, white, English-speaking communities, students are learning in languages including Spanish, French, Mandarin, German and Japanese starting in kindergarten. The goal of these programs is to give students academic proficiency in two languages by middle school.

When native English speakers learn in two languages, the programs are generally referred to as dual language or immersion programs. Similar programs designed for native Spanish speakers, for example, are often called “bilingual” education, which has a more negative connotation. California voters banned bilingual education in 1998, followed by Arizona voters in 2000 and Massachusetts voters in 2002, but California may be the first state to return flexibility to teachers of English learners with a new referendum in Tuesday’s election.