The school board recently received results from an evaluation of world language and social studies programs in the Carmel Clay school district conducted by teachers in the district. According to school board president Layla Spanenberg, all areas of curricula in the district go through a six-year cycle for evaluations. This most recent program evaluation yielded many recommendations for changes in world language and social studies programs which the district will look to address.

According to Spanenberg, the evaluation committee suggested that middle school student should take a world language course throughout the whole year in eighth grade rather than every other quarter throughout all three years of middle school as they do currently. In addition, sixth graders would participate in a program to explore various world languages rather than a particular one. Spanenberg said “it was not surprising” that the committee made these suggestions because the evaluators found students had difficulty retaining information when they didn’t have world language courses on a regular basis.

“Basic research tells us that regular exposure to a foreign language is far more superior in language acquisition than an every-other-quarter process” Spanenberg said. “I’m glad to see (these suggestions) come out.”

With regards to the social studies programs, Spanenberg mentioned that the committee stressed that history is “not just learning facts.” In order to provide more of an analysis of historical topics, the committee suggested incorporating Socratic seminars into classroom activities. Spanenberg said she believes implementing such measures will better prepare students for AP courses and collegiate-level courses.

Matthew Simons, AP European History student and sophomore, said he likes the idea of having Socratic seminars in social studies classes.

“The value with AP European History is that there’s much more analysis and it’s not just regurgitating information like AP World (History). There’s a thought process behind it where you have to think about situations and connect them together and relate them with other events,” Simons said. “I think Socratic seminars can be really good in that there’s a lot of discussion and you can actually brainstorm new ideas.”