How well are our schools preparing students to become global citizens who can communicate in languages other than English? To answer this question, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 5,000 U.S. public and private elementary and secondary schools. Results identify current patterns and shifts over time in five key areas of K–12 foreign language education: amount of language instruction; languages and program types offered; curriculum and instruction; teacher certification, professional development, and teacher shortages; and the effects of education reform. Results reveal that despite some positive developments, overall foreign language instruction has decreased over the past decade and the achievement gap has widened. The article concludes with recommendations on how to progress toward achieving foreign language proficiency for all students.

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La importancia del español en las escuelas de los Estados Unidos es indiscutible. Sin embargo, no parecen adecuados ni el número de programas de lenguas que se ofrecen ni las posibilidades de alcanzar un buen nivel de dominio del español o de otras lenguas.

The role of Spanish in U.S. Schools is undisputed. However the numbers of programs, as well as the opportunities for students to reach high levels of proficiency in Spanish or other languages, are inadequate.Key words: Spanish Language, Foreign Languages, Teaching, School, Survey I. BackgroundThe position of the Spanish language in the world today remains strong. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language around the world, after Chinese (Lewis, Simons & Fennig, 2013 the most common language, spoken by approximately 38 million people (United States Census Bureau, 2012). Not surprisingly, Spanish is also the foreign/world language most often taught in public and private schools in the U.S. Although the selection of languages to be taught in schools sometimes appears to be politically motivated -schools change the languages they offer according to major world events and sociopolitical contexts -Spanish has been the most widely offered foreign/second language in U.S. schools, kindergarten through twelfth grade, for many decades (Draper, 1991). By the 1970s, it became the most frequently studied foreign/second language in U.S. colleges and universities, when Spanish overtook French (Modern Language Association, 2013).The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of Spanish teaching in elementary and secondary schools in the United States, showing trends in languages taught across three time points -1987, 1997, and 2008 -and providing comparisons with other languages. The information is based on the most recent data collected for a national survey of foreign language teaching in elementary and secondary schools conducted every decade by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) (Rhodes & Pufahl, 2010). The report includes an overview of the survey methodology and details on the teaching of all languages in schools; how Spanish teaching compares with other languages over time; types of language classes at elementary and secondary school levels; details of a standardized Spanish curriculum and assessment program -the Spanish Advanced Placement (AP) program; and Spanish classes offered outside of regular school programs, including heritage/community language programs and private language school programs. The conclusion offers recommendations to invigorate language teaching in the U.S., with Spanish leading the way as the most commonly taught language. Similarly, foreign language instruction decreased in middle schools, from more than 70% of all middle schools in 1987 and 1997, to fewer than 60% in 2008. At the high school level, however, foreign language instruction remained steady with more than 90% of all high schools offering foreign languages at each time point. Whether schools offered foreign languages varied according to their location, size, the socioeconomic status (SES) of the students, and the geographic region.Overall, urban and suburban schools, larger middle and high schools, and elementary and middle schools with a higher SES were more likely to offer foreign (Table 1).In ...