SFUSD takes a progressive stance on language education, graduating hundreds of bilingual and biliterate students annually. Approximately 20% of graduating seniors earn the California State Seal of Biliteracy each year. School counselors and administrators play a critical role in advising students and making world language opportunities available.  The purpose of this memo is to provide guidance around World Language Placement for Native Speaker and Advanced Level World Language Classes. Please review world language placement recommendations for incoming 9th graders which are included on this Illuminate Report: Assigned Incoming 6th & 9th grader report

Background 

Together with San Francisco’s cultural and linguistic history and resulting advocacy for the expansion of bilingual programs, an ever-increasing number of students enter our high school World Language classrooms with a wealth of linguistic and cultural resources.  Approximately 30% of ninth graders may have been formally instructed in Cantonese, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese or Korean. In addition, the SFUSD student population includes newcomers who arrive from many different countries after Kindergarten and speakers of languages other than English who do not enroll in dual language pathways. Lastly, there are many students who attend private language school. 

Recommended Native Speaker Course Sequence:

For information about CCSF Concurrent enrollment in Chinese and Spanish classes, please reach out to Gwen Lin, ling1@sfusd.edu

Spanish for Native Speakers Courses

We are excited to adopt the program En Voz Alta for our Native Spanish classes. This marks the first time SFUSD has adopted an official textbook to help support our students and teachers in Native Spanish courses.

Many thanks to educators Marco Mendoza, Claire Merced, and Antonio Tunzi-Gutierrez for evaluating the resources in their Native Spanish classes this year. To learn more about the textbook, please visit their website here. 

Please note, that only native speakers (including dual language immersion students) should take these native speakers courses.  Do NOT include students who have progressed from Spanish/Chinese 1 into Native speakers courses that have a different focus than courses with adolescents who are learning a completely new language.  Native speakers have significant linguistic (and cultural) resources, including strong oral fluency, and require intensive formal instruction in writing at advanced levels. 

World Language Placement Tests/Levels

For many years, the Multilingual Pathways Department (MPD) has been assessing 8th graders to determine their Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese proficiency to inform students’ placement into 9th grade world language.  This year, we have recommendations for 1050 rising 9th graders. Revisions were made to the assessment of students with Chinese proficiency to improve placement recommendations. In addition, students who took Spanish 1a and 1b in middle school, should be placed into Spanish 2. Please see column T of this report: Assigned Incoming 6th & 9th grader report. (Report viewable to those with whole school access) Lastly, Students can advocate for a different placement and schools re-assess and make other determinations.

Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or if you want to consult about your schedule or placements, Amy Gottesfeld, gottesfelda@sfusd.edu.