Heather Dravick, head teacher of the World Language Department, and Robbie Lyon, German teacher at Carlisle High School, presented a revised German curriculum to the committee and said the proposal replaces material that in part dated to 2006 and aligns instruction with American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) guidelines.

Dravick said the updated approach is proficiency-based and grounded in current best practices: "This curriculum is based on the most recent best practice of teaching, which is proficiency based," she said, adding that the work also draws on Stephen Krashen's comprehensible-input theory. Lyon outlined the grade-by-grade progression: German 2 introduces past tense and survival language, German 3 is an honors-level focus with literature and additional tenses, and honors German 4 begins AP-style thematic work.

Lyon reported enrollment growth in the higher-level courses. "When I started with the program, level 3 was averaging around 28. This year was around 35," he said. He said Honors German 4 "has doubled in the last 2 years" and reported 22 students enrolled this year in that course; he estimated retention from German 4 to German 5 has been about 50 percent. Lyon added that the district expects to return to offering a formal AP German option and related College Board resources after a period when German 4 and 5 had been combined because of enrollment.

Board members asked about memory and retention strategies and about AP exam participation and results. Lyon said most students who take the senior-level course pursue the AP exam; last year seven students took the exam and results included scores of 2, 3, 4 and 5. Dravick and Lyon said the curriculum emphasizes recurring structures and high-frequency vocabulary to support communicative competence and retention.

The committee voted to forward the curriculum package to the full board for final approval at the next meeting.