Describe the proposed concept. What makes the concept unique and different from business as usual?
Shakerag Elementary School’s concept is to provide world language instruction to students in PreK-5 through the
Rosetta Stone® World Language Program technology-based resources. We are requesting Seed Funds to purchase a
license fee for Rosetta Course® core language lessons and Rosetta World® solo activities and stories – independent,
online, individualized world language instruction tools, for 24 different languages.
The purchase of Rosetta Stone’s digital resources provides for four unique opportunities for our students:
1) World language instruction at an early age has been shown to have many benefits for students, including:
improved cognitive abilities, greater creativity, higher scores on standardized achievement tests, and improved
academic performance overall.
2) Rosetta Stone’s digital resources will allow us to add world language instruction to the entire school, without
adding a yearly expense for additional salaries.
3) Students who develop speaking, reading and listening skills in a second language in a self-paced environment
during their elementary years will be able to accelerate their learning in later years (e.g. taking AP language in 10th
grade).
4) No Fulton County elementary school currently offers any world language instruction, but many are interested.
Shakerag could become the model for the rest of Fulton County.
Describe the target population (grade, subgroup, etc.)
We will provide the Rosetta Stone resource to all students (currently 838 PK-5th grade students). The purchase of the
program provides 1,000 licenses, allowing staff and some parents access to all of the resources as well. Because many of
our students’ parents do not speak English as their first language, Rosetta Stone could help them learn English, enabling
them to communicate more effectively with the school regarding their child’s progress.
What is the need that this concept addresses? Describe how your concept meets this need.
The strategic goals for Fulton County, our Northeast Learning Community and Shakerag Elementary center on providing
challenging and engaging instruction to build college and career ready students. The district defined goals as having 85%
of students college-ready and 100% of students career-ready. Rosetta Stone’s digital resources align with these goals
and help to prepare students build critical language skills, enabling them to excel into middle school, high school, college
and eventually the workforce. Having a solid foundation from which to start is important.
In addition, the Shakerag Community identified world language learning as a necessity for our students on the
Environmental Assessment Survey in Spring 2013.
Explain how this concept will positively affect student achievement. Articulate the rationale for the likelihood of
success of the concept, and describe your plans for risk mitigation. State your definition of success and how you will
measure it.
The Rosetta Stone’s instructional strategy will engage students while improving cognitive abilities, creativity and
academic performance in other disciplines – regardless of their academic level. According to a study done by
Georgetown and Lancaster Universities, Rosetta Stone’s digital resources had a positive effect on student achievement
both in second language learning as well as other subject areas. The study was based on a pretest/posttest design that
assessed language learning outcomes for oral fluency, vocabulary and syntax and reading and listening on a range of
proficiency measures. Qualitative data was also taken to assess students’ perceptions, attitudes, willingness to
communicate, motivation, enjoyment and confidence. According to the report all quantitative data showed significant
gains from the pretest to the posttests, which associates to a positive impact on learners’ skills. Qualitatively, overall
learners’ responses suggested that Rosetta Stone is user-friendly and age appropriate. Students stated that the program
helped them learn a second language in a fun way. For more information regarding this study and it’s outcomes, see the
attached The learning outcomes of Rosetta Stone’s TOTALe with elementary school-aged children: Mandarin and
Spanish.
The use of a language learning tool such as Rosetta Stone in our elementary setting will aid the acceleration of students’
learning when they get to middle school. When students enter middle school, they are placed in a level-one world
language class. With Rosetta Stone in place in elementary school, the middle school can assess their experience and
advance them to the appropriate level where they will be further challenged. Students could potentially earn high
school credit while in middle school, freeing up time in high school to take AP language or other elective courses, or to
learn a third language – all of which only helps our students be college and career ready.
This concept will be successful with careful preparation, technical support and monitoring. Pre- and post-tests will be
crucial when determining whether the program has helped students in world language acquisition. In addition,
achievement data from the CRCT will be analyzed to determine if the program has helped increase achievement in other
disciplines. Success will be measured in terms of implementation of the resource for all students and maintaining this
strategy over time.
Explain how this concept aligns with your strategic plan. Please attach the relevant Initiative Action Plan(s).
Shakerag’s Strategic Plan identifies three Focus Areas with numerous Objectives that will be met with school-wide world
language instruction through Rosetta Stone’s digital resource:
Focus Area #1: Instructional Rigor and Relevance: To engage students in higher order thinking and increase realworld application of knowledge.
Objective #1: Increase student communication skills.
Focus Area #2: To provide an engaging instruction environment that appropriately challenges all students.
Objective #1: Increase use of technology as a learning tool.
Focus Area #3: Student Relationships: To expand student ownership of learning, maximizing opportunities to
lead and serve.
Objective #1: Increase student accountability for learning.
And, even more specifically, Strategic Initiative #6 is to “Increase students’ Foreign Language exposure/instruction.”
As previously discussed, the Rosetta Stone resource has been shown to improve student achievement (see preceding
section). Providing this resource allows our students to begin acquiring a second (or third) language, improving their
communication skills in our global, multilingual environment. Given the individualized, self-paced nature of this
resource, students will be responsible for their progress. The resource is entirely online, allowing students to take full
advantage of technology.
Describe how you will implement the concept, including the numbers of individuals expected to be served, the array of
programs, activities, services that will comprise the implementation strategy, and the anticipated length of the
project.
Every student at Shakerag, PreK-5, will be served by Rosetta Stone program.
Our first step will be to communicate a clear purpose and vision for the resource to teachers, parents and students.
Then, in partnership with Rosetta Stone’s education experts, training for teachers on how to fit the resource into what
they are already doing (RTI/Enrichment time, ELA centers) will be essential.
This program will leverage our increasing access to technology through a fun, engaging and individualized learning
approach. Students will access language instruction three to five times per week, in literacy stations in their homeroom
classes. Because the resource is adaptive (it will gauge a student’s progress and adjust the lesson appropriately) each
students’ learning experience is tailored to meet their needs. Instruction is individualized and participant paced, giving
students appropriately challenging lessons each time they log in. In addition, students will have unlimited access to the
program before and after school, as it is web-based and available 24 hours a day/7 days a week. It also allows for
continuous year-round learning opportunities, as it will be available during summer break.
Explain your vision for how the concept will evolve in future years and how it will be funded.
The Rosetta Stone licenses will be in place for a number of years (Option A-3 years, Option B-5 years), and will carry over
year-to-year. This opportunity for continuous, sustained learning is great.
Shakerag, as well as Rosetta Stone, are committed to providing all classroom teachers with training and ongoing support
on the resource to ensure our goals are achieved. In addition, we will work with our feeder middle school (River Trail) to
design assessments for placing rising 6th grade students in advanced World Language classes.
After our Rosetta Stone license expires, we will engage parents, our Foundation, as well as the County to explore
funding options. There is the potential for lower per unit cost with a larger group license purchase, should the County
decide to proceed with a multi-site license.