Last school year, St. Francis High School launched the Minnesota Bilingual Seals Program. On September 26, the school celebrated 10 amazing students who met the requirements to earn either a Bilingual Seal or a World Language Proficiency Certificate, both of which come with college credit.
What is the Bilingual Seals Program?: The Minnesota Bilingual Seals Program is an award given to high school graduates who demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English through tests presented in 10th, 11th and 12th grade.
Abby Pemberton, the district’s Multicultural liaison, kicked off the program at SFHS and organized a Spanish test for the students. Altogether, the students earned an impressive 23 semesters of college credit.
Eligibility: To earn a Bilingual Seal, students must demonstrate proficiency in all four modalities of communication (listening, reading, speaking and writing). They must also demonstrate mastery of Minnesota's English Language proficiency standards to complete all required English language arts credits.
The celebration event: Families were invited to the Sept. 26 event to celebrate the students’ success. In addition to building and district leaders attending and speaking at the event, Ayumi Stockman, the World Languages Education Specialist from the Minnesota Department of Education, also joined the celebration, adding to the significance of the occasion. View photos from the event
Hear from the students: Angeline Flores-Zapata, junior, - “I think the test really gathered enough information to know if you have strong Spanish skills and it was also enjoyable. I think being bilingual, taking the test and having the certificate can open up a lot of opportunities for jobs to help people, especially if they don’t know how to speak English. It feels nice to know I’m getting college credit and it will help me in my career.”
Eli Castelan, junior - “I enjoyed the test, but it was also challenging. I took the test because I wanted to get college credits and I also wanted to practice my Spanish. I’m proud of my language and the college credits are going to help open doors in the future.”
Awards: The Bilingual Seal award is noted on student transcripts and the level of proficiency determines how much college credit they receive. The seals come in three levels:
Platinum Seal: ACTFL Advanced Low - 4 semesters of college credit.
Gold Seal: ACTFL Intermediate High - 3 semesters of college credit
World Language Proficiency Certificate: ACTFL Intermediate Low - 2 semesters of college credit.
Future offerings: The Minnesota Bilingual Seals Program offers assessments in many languages for ALL language learners and speakers regardless of how they are learning the language. This program is for multilingual learners including English Language Learners, Heritage Language Learners, World Languages Learners, and Dual Language Immersion Learners. For more information please contact Abby Pemberton at abby.pemberton@isd15.org.