Scottsdale Schools sees 137 graduating seniors earn Biliteracy Seals
Independent Newsmedia
Posted 5/26/20
When 137 members of the Scottsdale Unified School District class of 2020 put their high school diplomas on display, each diploma will bear an Arizona Department of Education Seal of Biliteracy.
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Scottsdale Schools sees 137 graduating seniors earn Biliteracy Seals
Posted
Independent Newsmedia
When 137 members of the Scottsdale Unified School District class of 2020 put their high school diplomas on display, each diploma will bear an Arizona Department of Education Seal of Biliteracy.
Established by the Arizona Legislature in 2016, the Seal of Biliteracy recognizes graduating high school students who are proficient in English and at least one other language, based on their performance on an Arizona State Board of Education-approved assessment. The achievement of language proficiency is also noted on student transcripts, according to a press release.
This year, graduating seniors from all five SUSD high schools earned the Biliteracy Seal. The breakdown includes 35 students from Arcadia; 15 from Chaparral; 15 from Coronado; 54 from Desert Mountain; and 18 from Saguaro,
Class of 2020 students earning the Seal of Biliteracy did so by demonstrating proficiency in English and either French, Japanese, Italian, Simplified Chinese or Spanish. The 137 total is 15 more than the previous graduating class.
SUSD students can start working toward the Biliteracy Seal as early as middle school, when formal world language studies are first offered. Their course of study culminates in high school with a comprehensive examination of their reading, writing, speaking and listening proficiency in the foreign language they have selected.
SUSD Assistant Superintendent for Education Services Dr. Kimberly Guerin is proud of the graduates’ accomplishment.
“We celebrate these seniors for their dedication to achieving proficiency in a second language,” she said in a prepared statement. “We also want to thank SUSD’s World Language teachers, who support our students along their journey to biliteracy.”
Biliteracy Seal recipients must also meet all state English Language Arts graduation requirements with an overall grade point average in those classes of 2.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale and pass end-of-course examinations.
If a student’s primary language is a language other than English, the student must also pass the ADE’s Arizona English Language Learner Assessment, a standards-based assessment that meets both state and federal requirements to measure English language proficiency.
