MADISON, Maine (AP) — A Maine high school unable to fill a vacant teacher position has turned to a foreign language computer program to educate students.
With money already earmarked for the job, The Morning Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/2cJzmJL ) Madison Area Memorial High School opted to purchase the Rosetta Stone program to serve as its full-time French and Spanish teacher.
Principal Jessica Ward says the situation isn’t perfect, but Rosetta Stone was the best option moving forward this year.
The school was forced to purchase the program, which is currently used in more than 4,000 schools nationwide, when no one applied.
Rosetta Stone officials say the program is ideally used in conjunction with a live teacher.
An education technician was hired to supervise the school’s students and administer the program.
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Information from: Morning Sentinel, http://www.onlinesentinel.com/
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YEAH Who needs teachers, anyway? When they demand a decent salary and health benefits and retirement pay??? / snark
I just looked up some facts about Madison Area Memorial High School: About 215 students attend grades 9-12
Economically Disadvantaged Students
These are the percentages of the school’s students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, based on data reported to the government.
Free Lunch program (% of total) 54% ?
Reduced-Price Lunch Program (% of total) 21% ?
Total Economically Disadvantaged (% of total) 75% ?
Data are based on the 2013-2014 school year.
Basically, this looks like a rather small high school in a poor rural area of Maine. However, the University of Maine at Farmington, Maine, as about 25 miles away by auto.