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April 13, 2010


Middlebury to Develop Online Language Venture
By TAMAR LEWIN
Middlebury College, a small Vermont college known for its rigorous foreign-language programs, is forming a venture with a commercial entity to develop online language programs for pre-college students. The college plans to invest $4 million for a 40 percent stake in what will become Middlebury Interactive Languages.
The partnership, with the technology-based education company K12 Inc., will allow Middlebury to achieve two goals, said Ronald D. Liebowitz, the president of the college: It will help more American students learn foreign languages, an area in which they lag far behind Europeans; and it will give Middlebury another source of revenue.
�We wanted to do something about the fact that not enough American students are learning other languages, and it�s harder for students if they don�t learn language until college,� Mr. Liebowitz said. �It is also my belief, and I think our board�s belief, that finding potential new sources of revenue is not a bad thing. By doing what we�re doing with this venture, we hope to take some stress off our three traditional sources of revenue � fees, endowment and donations.�
Middlebury, a 2,400-student liberal-arts college with an endowment of more than $800 million, has offered summer immersion language classes for almost a century, and now teaches 10 languages in those programs at its campus and, as of last year, some at Mills College in Oakland, Calif.
Partnerships between universities and commercial entities have become increasingly common in recent years, but the Middlebury venture is unusual in that it ties the college�s academic reputation in foreign languages to a third-party vendor. Moving into such an uncharted area carries risks, education experts said.
�These partnerships are starting as ways for colleges, which may feel themselves cash-strapped, to make some bucks,� said Philip G. Altbach, the Monan professor of higher education at Boston College. �I have problems with the whole thing, particularly for a place like Middlebury, which has a reputation as one of the best liberal-arts colleges in the country, and for doing a very good job with languages. They should protect that brand. They are not known for online programs, and to jump in to the deep end of the swimming pool, with a for-profit, is in my view dangerous.�
Mr. Liebowitz said that although the move carried risks, so, too, does inaction. �The way I see it, to retain our leadership in the teaching of foreign language, we have to evolve with the times,� he said. �And where things are going, in terms of access and education, is online.�
In 2008, Middlebury joined with the Monterey Institute of International Studies, a California graduate school, to start the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy, an intensive language-immersion summer program for students in grades 8 through 12. That program, which will expand to new sites in the new venture, offers four-week residential sessions at Green Mountain College in Vermont, Oberlin College in Ohio, Pomona College in California, and Bard College at Simon�s Rock in Massachusetts.
Middlebury has also expanded its academic-year study-abroad sites, the C. V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad, to 35 cities across 14 countries. Almost half the students at those sites now come from other colleges.
A hallmark of Middlebury�s language schools has been a formal pledge to speak only the language of study during the session.
Of course, online programs cannot replicate the immersion experience.
The online expertise for the venture will come from K12, a publicly traded company based in Herndon, Va. In partnership with charter schools and school districts, K12 operates online public-school programs in 25 states and Washington. K12 also operates the K12 International Academy, an accredited, diploma-granting online private school serving students in more than 40 countries.
�We plan to make the courses available to individual kids, home-school kids, charter virtual schools, and teachers who might want them as supplements� Mr. Liebowitz said. �I think the price point will be somewhere in the vicinity of $100.�