Languages to remove level 4 pathway
LEARNING LANGUAGES — Palo Alto High School Japanese teacher Teruko Kamikihara teaches Kanji to her students. While some world language staff say that the removal of the level 4 language lane won’t disrupt student readiness, sophomore Rohan Bhatia said he believes that he may not be ready for AP Japanese having taken Japanese 3 this year. “If I was planning to continue, Level 3 to AP seems like a giant jump, and Level 4 to AP seems much more attainable,” Bhatia said. Photo: Cate Graney
In an effort to further align with curriculum across the district, Palo Alto High School’s World Language Department will remove levels 4 and 4 Honors from French, Japanese and Spanish, effective next school year.
Students who are currently enrolled in level 3 or 3H of those languages may take the Advanced Placement class for each language next year if they choose to continue learning a language at Paly.
“It gives an opportunity for students to actually reach the AP class if they start [a language] at high school,” Paly’s World Language Department leader Carla Guerard said. “[We’re] opening it up to more open access for students.”
According to Guerard, the department will continue to offer Chinese 4 at Paly, although that may change in the future.
Sophomore Isabelle Carlsen, a current French 3H student, said the change in pathways seems daunting.
“I feel like it’s hard and a bit demotivating,” Carlsen said. “If you love the language but it’s hard to pick up the material, it’s unfair for someone to have to automatically go to AP.”
The change in pathways may affect Carlsen’s plans to continue learning French at Paly.
“At the beginning of this year, I was confident that I was gonna go to French [4],” Carlsen said. “Now I’m a bit more hesitant just because of what it [AP French] would entail.”
It just offers a different path for students in looking at their schedules and being able to balance them out. If you don’t want an AP class your junior year, but you still want to have something that’s a little challenging, you could pick the … Civilization and Culture [course].
— Carla Guerard, World Language Department leader
Despite student concerns, Guerard said the removal of levels 4 and 4H will have little impact on the World Language curricula.
“I would think [student readiness] is about the same,” Guerard said. “It just offers a different path for students in looking at their schedules and being able to balance them out. If you don’t want an AP class your junior year, but you still want to have something that’s a little challenging, you could pick the … Civilization and Culture [course].”
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