Dr. Catherine Ritz, BU Wheelock clinical assistant professor of Modern Foreign Language Education, has published “Leading Your World Language Program: Strategies for Design and Supervision Even if You Don’t Speak the Language!” (Routledge).

The book offers a practical guide for leading K–12 World Language programs, including essential topics and concepts, program and curriculum design, assessments and evaluations, and strategic planning. It is aimed at educators with a variety of experience levels, such as department chairs, classroom teachers, and school administrators. It includes templates for program and unit planning, observation protocols, and program models for different age ranges.

“Schools with strong content-area leadership see a direct correlation with strong student learning outcomes, but few school administrators have a background in world language education,” says Ritz, who is a former public school world language department head. “I hope this book will help equip school leaders with the tools they need to develop and guide effective and equitable world language programs at all levels and for all students.”

Dr. Ritz is a clinical assistant professor and the program director for Modern Foreign Language Education and Curriculum & Teaching at BU Wheelock. Her areas of interest include developing proficiency-based thematic curricula and performance assessments, effective world language methods and pedagogy, and world language teacher development.