• seal of biliteracy

    Arizona Department of Education Seal of Biliteracy Program

    SUSD is excited to offer the Seal of Biliteracy to eligible seniors beginning with the 2018 graduating class.  30 states to date have adopted the Seal of Biliteracy, a program designed to recognize high school students who achieve proficiency in English plus at least one additional language. The seal is placed on the student’s diploma, noted on the transcript, and students will be recognized at graduation.

    For SUSD World Language students to qualify for the Seal of Biliteracy they must meet the following requirements:

    English Language Arts requirements:

    • Student must take 4 years of ELA courses 
    • Students must have an overall 2.0 GPA in ELA classes on a 4.0 scale
    • Pass AZMerit at Proficient or above

    If student has a primary home language other than English,

    • The student shall obtain a score of proficiency on the AZELLA

    2 options to meet the World Language proficiency requirement:

    • Students must meet cut scores below on one of the State approved tests:
    Language & Category Test
    Spanish, French, and Russian 
    Category 1-3 Languages    		 STAMP4s PS, IL, PW, IR: Intermediate Mid (5) 
    AP: Attain a score of 3 or higher (Must be taken before Sr. year to be recognized at graduation.)
    IB: Attain a score of 4 or higher for HL and 5 or higher for SL (Must be taken before Sr. year to be recognized at graduation.)
    Mandarin Chinese and Japanese
    Category IV Language    		 STAMP4s PS, IL: Intermediate Mid (5)
    PW, IR: Intermediate Mid (4)
    AP: Attain a score of 3 or higher (Must be taken before Sr. year to be recognized at graduation.)
    IB: Attain a score of 4 or higher for HL and 5 or higher for SL
    (Must be taken before Sr. year to be recognized at graduation.)

     

    More information regarding Seal of Biliteracy

    We will be administering the STAMP4s to all World Language students in a Level III Honors, IV Honors, APV or IB HL / IB SL course to provide the opportunity to meet the language proficiency requirement to qualify for the Seal of Biliteracy.   This is an adaptive test that measures a student’s proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing.  Each section will take approximately 20 – 30 minutes and teachers will schedule their testing dates to best fit their schedule between now and March 2nd. 

    Every day, World Language students engage in listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities in the world language classroom so this assessment allows for us to not only qualify students for the Seal of Biliteracy, but it also provides an opportunity for students to see where they stand on their path to proficiency and to set personal growth goals, and finally, it gives the World Language Department concrete data to assess program successes and areas in need of refinement as we shift to the recently revised State Standards and proficiency to performance-based instruction.

    For additional information on the Arizona Seal of Biliteracy please visit https://www.azed.gov/sealofbiliteracy/