The Mansfield, Texas, Independent School District announced late Wednesday that it has "slowed the process of implementation" of a program to teach Arabic to its' students pending a review of the curriculum.
The District says in a press release that Arabic has been listed as a "critical language" due to a shortage of Arabic speakers, and a need for people who better understand the Arabic culture and traditions.
Mansfield ISD also clarified that the classes are not mandatory, as has been previously reported. The original CBS News article said the classes were "mandatory", but all references to the mandatory nature of the program have been removed from the edited version of the article.
Because of concerns raised by parents, the district is working with both parents and staff and the curriculum writing process has stopped in the K-6 grades (Davis Elementary and Cross Timbers Intermediate).
According to the Feb 8 press release:
- 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.