Neues Curriculum

By Kevin S. Amidon and Kris T. Vander Lugt

While anecdotal evidence has accumulated that high school German programs have suffered over the past twenty years and that this has had an impact on post-secondary German programs, little substantive qualitative or quantitative data supports these claims. The authors, who teach at Iowa State University, therefore designed and carried out a survey of their first-, second-, and third-year students to explore high school articulation with their program. Results suggest that strong high school German programs remain important as feeders for their program, but that it is possible to motivate students who have not had high school German to take on a major or minor in German. German is also primarily a secondary credential for their students, who generally have professional primary fields (especially Engineering and Business). Conclusions for recruitment, retention and outreach are further drawn.

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By Virginia Steinhagen

The University of Minnesota’s College in the Schools (CIS) German program is a concurrent program currently in its nineteenth year. The CIS program is accredited through the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships. CIS offers high school teachers the opportunity to teach the U of M’s second year German curriculum in their high schools. It has grown from two schools in 1989 to 28 schools and more than 400 students in 2008.
The design of the program, with shared curriculum, on-campus workshops, and classroom observations helps to ensure consistency in teaching between the high school classes and the on-campus classes. The high school teachers’ willingness to share ideas, to mentor new colleagues and to help plan on-campus field days, helps strengthen the program and the connections between the University of Minnesota German program and Minnesota high school German programs.

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