The 21st century perception of students and stakeholders (parents, teachers, administrators, and support staff, etc.) within the realm of world language study in a Midwestern, suburban school district varied sometime subtly and sometimes greatly. No particular study had been done to indicate what inspired students to enroll in world language,…

In the fall of 2004, Benedict College--a Historically Black College in Columbia, SC--began enforcing a new grading policy called Success Equals Effort (SE[squared]). Under this policy, students taking freshman and sophomore level courses were assigned grades that explicitly rewarded not only content learning ("knowledge" grade) but also…