Much sooner than it expected, the Andover Coalition for Education has announced that it is ready to give Andover High School a new foreign language lab, the group's most ambitious funding project to date.
It is expected that the new lab will replace its current, antiquated counterpart during the February school vacation, according to a release from ACE. "Once language teachers have been trained, over 1,400 students will begin reaping the benefits of this state-of-the-art digital equipment," according to the group.
Andover High School students will now have the opportunity to work by themselves, with their teacher, or as a group. With the teacher at a central station, students will have more time to practice speaking the language and even engage in real-time conversations with students from around the world.
ACE plans to host a public language lab open house with Andover High School Principal Jonathan Harris, and the High School PAC sometime in early spring.
ACE was able to fund the lab through the support of Andover citizens. To encourage that support, ACE's most recent annual appeal featured a matching gift opportunity: every donor's contribution was doubled. In addition, the project was supported by a donation from the High School PAC and a significant grant from the Horne Family Foundation, it reported.
"The people of Andover continue to demonstrate that our schools are a priority, that quality education does matter, and that even in bleak economic times, we need to and can find ways to improve curriculum and to help our students prepare for the 21st century," said ACE President Tina Girdwood in a release.
According to a recent article in "Education Week" about high-tech language labs compatibility with the system's current software and teacher training on the new equipment are paramount to success.
For more information about ACE, log on to www.aceanodver.org.
