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Is Tennessee about to stop requiring high school students to earn foreign language credits before they graduate?
Not quite.
When Tennessee State Board of Education Chairman Bob Eby mentioned at a May board meeting that he wanted to launch a study of the state’s language graduation requirement, he kicked off a firestorm of public response.
A petition calling for the state board to maintain the two-year language requirement has garnered more than 3,200 signatures. Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Democrat from Nashville, released a lengthy statement on the benefits of language education and said removing the requirement would lower education standards.
At a rulemaking hearing in late July that had nothing to do with the world language issue, students and educators signed up to speak in support of the requirement and urged board members not to change it.
But an official proposal to remove or modify the language requirement hasn’t even been introduced. Eby hoped his May comments would get the ball rolling on a study committee, and he held a listening session with college and business leaders in late July to better understand the issues at play.
For a change to take effect for the 2026 school year, a proposal would need support from other board members to move forward and would be subject to months of rulemaking process.
“What can we do to provide the students with the greatest opportunity? That includes world language opportunities, but also includes other other opportunities,” Eby said. “A lot of people seem to think that I want to yank world languages out of schools. I do not want to do that.”
Tennessee students are currently required to earn 22 credits to graduate, including the two world language credits, one in computer science, and three in electives. Last year, the state board amended the state’s four-credit math requirement, allowing students to complete required classes before the ninth grade as long as they are enrolled in a math class three out of the four years of high school.
Eby said the discussion around the math credit change sparked a personal review of the other credits as he thought about how students could choose the best courses for their goals.
Eby, appointed to the board in 2018 by then Gov. Bill Haslam, worked for decades in nuclear engineering and business that took him overseas. His grandchildren are being raised in a bilingual household. Eby said he respects the importance of language education and the cultural exchange that comes with it and thinks world language instruction should begin much earlier than high school.
But he also argued students shouldn’t be boxed in.
“I’m not advocating that we do away with world languages, but I also think that there are opportunities in courses like computer coding,” Eby said. “Tennessee is probably one of the biggest songwriting states in the country. I think if you ask a songwriter, is music theory a language? It is, you know, and it teaches critical thinking skills, too. So why restrict a student?”
Matthew Harrison, a Spanish teacher in Kingsport, believes walking back the language requirement would have broad consequences.
“This change would have devastating consequences for our world language programs, staffing, and most importantly, our students’ global readiness and overall intellectual development,” Harrison told the board at its July rulemaking hearing. “The suggestion of removing this requirement could dismantle years of progress and set Tennessee students at a disadvantage to their peers nationwide.”
At the July listening session, one participant cautioned Eby to consider the staffing disparities between well-resourced, large school districts and smaller, perhaps rural districts. Without a language requirement, language classes and teachers might be cut altogether.
If Tennessee were to amend its language requirement, it would not be an outlier, as a majority of states have less stringent graduation requirements. In California, students need one credit of language arts or career technical education. In Alabama, language is one option among a range of elective courses.
Harrison and others have also pointed to foreign language admission requirements at colleges and universities.
“Removing this requirement would also disadvantage students pursuing higher education,” Campbell, the Nashville representative, warned. “Most colleges and universities — including Tennessee institutions — maintain foreign language requirements for admission or graduation. Students without this preparation will be at a disadvantage, and higher education institutions will face additional burdens to provide remedial instruction.”
The University of Memphis lists two credits of language as a “minimum” entrance requirement, though the university’s website also states students may still be considered for admission without it. Other colleges will accept high school language credits among several options to fulfill a language requirement. The University of Tennessee Knoxville, for example, “strongly” encourages two language credits but does not require it.
Eby said he does not want to disadvantage students seeking higher education, and he’s open to flexible options such as reducing the language requirement to a single credit to help maintain language programs in schools.
Are you a world language teacher in Tennessee with thoughts or concerns about potential changes to the state’s language requirement?
Please reach out to Chalkbeat Tennessee bureau chief Melissa Brown at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.
