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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