[February 8, 2011]
Updated April 8, 2011 - Arabic Grant Update: Amended grant proposal rejected; district program discontinued
The US Department of Education has rejected Mansfield ISD's revised Arabic FLAP grant proposal. As a result, Mansfield ISD has ended all Arabic FLAP grant-related activities and will no longer accept funds related to this grant. Read more...
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Mansfield ISD was recently awarded a Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant focused on the Arabic language from the Department of Education. The District applied for this grant because the Arabic language is listed by the federal government as a critical language. This means that our country has a shortage of Arabic speakers and there is a need for people who are not only proficient in the Arabic language, but also possess knowledge about its cultures and traditions.
Recent concerns have been raised by parents concerning plans for the curriculum. We are working with parents and staff for the language curriculum development.
 See the timeline for the Arabic FLAP grant implementation.- Mansfield ISD has slowed the process of implementation to get parent input for curriculum creation.
- There are no “mandatory Arabic classes” as being falsely reported in the media.
- As part of language acquisition and development, the early grades would have elements of Arabic language within the framework of the state-mandated curriculum.
- In the K-6 grades (Davis Elementary and Cross Timbers Intermediate), the curriculum-writing process has stopped.
- In grades 7-12 (T.A. Howard Middle and Summit High School), Arabic language will be offered as elective courses to meet foreign language requirement.
- This project is federally funded for $1.3 million dollars over a 5 year period.
The FLAP grant was created to establish programs to address national shortages in languages including Arabic, Chinese and Russian. Mansfield ISD was one of five school districts in the country selected to receive the Arabic grant. Programs related to the FLAP Arabic grant were scheduled to begin this semester at Cross Timbers Intermediate School and Kenneth Davis Elementary School. Optional Arabic foreign language classes were scheduled to begin next year at T.A. Howard Middle School.
Some have raised questions and concerns about the district’s implementation of the grant. Therefore, Mansfield ISD is slowing the implementation process and will be seeking input from parents in a variety of ways.
Parents will have full access to the written curriculum and will have opportunities for input prior to the district moving forward with this program.
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February 10, 2011 Update - E-mails have been circulating citing quotes allegedly attributed to Abby Cloud, our PR Specialist, related to the Arabic language grant and feedback. References to her saying “thanks, but no thanks” to the grant and that we were “sold a bill of goods,” are inaccurate and misleading. |
