Relationship between foreign language courses and school location

Relationship Between Foreign Language Courses and School LocationsAU VO

MESHARI ALSAWAT

CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY, CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA

Agenda1. Introduction2. Study questions3. Findings4. Study guidelines

Introduction-America is a multicultural country

-The curriculum should reflect the diversity of the community

-To prepare for the future, high school students are encouraged and required to take foreign language courses

-Are the language courses offered in the community reflect the community composition?

Study questions1. How many types of world languages are being offered in each

Orange County school district?

2. How many courses per each language?

3. Is there a relationship between the number of language courses and the population residing in the associated district?

Orange County Facts 3 million inhabitants (2012 estimate)

People Quick FactsOrange County California

White alone, percent, 2012 74.5% 73.7%

Black or African American alone, percent, 2012 2.0% 6.6%

American Indian and Alaska Native alone, percent, 2012 1.1% 1.7%

Asian alone, percent, 2012 18.9% 13.9%

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, percent, 2012

0.4% 0.5%

Two or More Races, percent, 2012 3.2% 3.6%

Hispanic or Latino, percent, 2012 34.1% 38.2%

White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, percent, 2012 43.1% 39.4%

Top 10 Languages spoken at home. (100+)1.English only (1,542,700)2.Spanish (665,070)3.Vietnamese (124,540)4.Korean (50,365)5.Chinese (33,040)6.Tagalog (32,180)7.Persian (23,880)8.Japanese (15,650)9.Arabic (13,800)10.German (12,960)

Orange County School Districts

Finding 1: 8 Languages offered

Finding 2: Total language courses offered in Orange County

Spanish

French

Japanese

Chinese

German

Latin

Vietnamese

Korean

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Finding: Spanish

TustinSanta Ana

SaddlebackPlacentia-Yorba Linda

OrangeNewport-Mesa

Los AlamitosLaguna Beach

IrvineHuntington Beach

Garden GroveFullerton Joint

CapistranoBrea Olinda

Anaheim

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Finding: French

TustinSanta Ana

SaddlebackPlacentia-Yorba Linda

OrangeNewport-Mesa

Los AlamitosLaguna Beach

IrvineHuntington Beach

Garden GroveFullerton Joint

CapistranoBrea Olinda

Anaheim

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Finding: Japanese

TustinSanta Ana

SaddlebackPlacentia-Yorba Linda

OrangeNewport-Mesa

Los AlamitosLaguna Beach

IrvineHuntington Beach

Garden GroveFullerton Joint

CapistranoBrea Olinda

Anaheim

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Finding: Chinese

TustinSanta Ana

SaddlebackPlacentia-Yorba Linda

OrangeNewport-Mesa

Los AlamitosLaguna Beach

IrvineHuntington Beach

Garden GroveFullerton Joint

CapistranoBrea Olinda

Anaheim

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Finding: German

TustinSanta Ana

SaddlebackPlacentia-Yorba Linda

OrangeNewport-Mesa

Los AlamitosLaguna Beach

IrvineHuntington Beach

Garden GroveFullerton Joint

CapistranoBrea Olinda

Anaheim

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Finding: Latin

TustinSanta Ana

SaddlebackPlacentia-Yorba Linda

OrangeNewport-Mesa

Los AlamitosLaguna Beach

IrvineHuntington Beach

Garden GroveFullerton Joint

CapistranoBrea Olinda

Anaheim

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Finding: Vietnamese

TustinSanta Ana

SaddlebackPlacentia-Yorba Linda

OrangeNewport-Mesa

Los AlamitosLaguna Beach

IrvineHuntington Beach

Garden GroveFullerton Joint

CapistranoBrea Olinda

Anaheim

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Finding: Korean

TustinSanta Ana

SaddlebackPlacentia-Yorba Linda

OrangeNewport-Mesa

Los AlamitosLaguna Beach

IrvineHuntington Beach

Garden GroveFullerton Joint

CapistranoBrea Olinda

Anaheim

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Implications -Data for languages are disparate

-Weak correlation between language and the surrounding community

-Districts should offer more related language courses to match with the community

Next step -Expand the study into other districts

-Expand the study into other institution types

-Explore the reasons behind the association between language courses offered and the surrounding community.

Study guidelines Data Collection Data Processing Display results

Data Collection 15 High School Districts in Orange County

95 High Schools in Orange County

8 Languages offered◦ School’s curriculum guide◦ 2013-2014 Schedule of classes◦ Teacher’s school webpages◦ Communication with curriculum Principal

Census Tract data – languages speaking at home

Census Tract shapefile

School district shapefile

Data Processing Aggregate language courses per school district

Join census tract data with its shapefile

Spatial join school district spatial data with the census tract join

Display results Filter by each language 5 classification breaks on language speakers 8 maps with 8 results

Thank you

Acknowledgement Dr. Brian Hilton, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA