Article Review: French Spanish and Computers.

Summary:
This article is about a No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon school in Philadelphia where students learn French and Spanish in elementary school with the use of computers. The school is predominately African-American and most of the students are of a lower SES. Principal June Brown starts in the article the program and students learn Spanish or French from kindergarten through the eighth grade.”One of our main goals was to strengthen the basic skills of these students, which would give them the confidence. To know that they had the ability to achieve,” says Brown. The use of technology in urban areas is often a problem because of funding cuts and students are left with dated computers that do not prepare them for the workforce. The school is known for producing advanced students. The Lab School has been within the top 10 percent of schools in Pennsylvania, and many of its graduating eighth-graders have been recruited by top private schools. The lab school’s efforts seem to have worked well.
On the 2002-03 and 2003-04 state tests, all of the school’s fifth- and eighth graders achieved proficient scores in math, with 97 percent and 85 percent, respectively, scoring at the advanced level on the2003-04 test. The following school year, both classes achieved 100 percent proficiency rates, with 92 percent of fifth-graders and 95 percent of eighth graders scoring at the advanced level. Part of the reason for the success of the school according to Brown is the required involvement of parents. In order for students to be accepted into this free charter school, parents must sign a pledge saying that they will uphold the academic standards in the home. The school works with an intercurricular base and students incorporate knowledge from each subject into other subjects.
Analysis:
Teachers have long held the belief that parental involvement in their children’s education is a key factor to success and this school seems to prove that axiom. The school also holds students to extremely high standards and students are given an excellent education with all of the resources that their richer neighbors take for granted. One thing that must be emphasized is how Mrs. Brown, parents, and teachers alike took an issue like No Child Left Behind and instead of struggling with failing schools, started a new one. Charter schools are often a subject of debate because students without active parents are left behind in decaying schools with few resources; it hardly seems fair or equal. That said the blue ribbon school in Philadelphia has earned high marks for the past seven years.
Another issue that needs to be addressed is the source of the information as it could very well be biased. The magazine The Achiever is written specifically to push the ideals of NCLB and therefore the author and editor may not be completely unbiased. The magazine is essentially a propaganda tool for the Bush era program and the article was written in. The idea of giving all students the opportunity to succeed through the use of high standards, parental involvement, integrated curriculum and the use of current technology seems like a solid idea that all public schools could use.
Resources:
Robertson, D., & Department of Education, W. (2005). French Spanish and Computers. The Achiever. Volume 4, Number 3. US Department of Education, Retrieved from ERIC database.
Foreign Language and Technology Broaden
Horizons for Philadelphia Urban School