Wilmington Seal of Biliteracy Memo - School Year 2022-2023

Dear Wilmington Families:

One of the most important goals of the World Languages Department has been to help our students gain proficiency in a second language. To celebrate their efforts, we offer students an opportunity to earn The Seal of Biliteracy - a national and state academic honor to recognize graduates who speak, listen, read and write proficiently in another language in addition to English at high school graduation. This memo explains what the Seal of Biliteracy is, how we administer testing for it, and some background about the Seal in our program. 

Earning the Seal of Biliteracy 

In order to earn the Seal of Biliteracy, students must demonstrate proficiency in English and an additional language.  MCAS scores are used to demonstrate English proficiency.  An additional second language assessment documents proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the second language. In Wilmington we administer the STAMP as the second language assessment at no cost to the student. 

Avant STAMP Testing

Each year we administer the Avant STAMP 4S (STAndards-based Measurement of Proficiency) to our upperclassmen to assess and qualify them to earn the Massachusetts Department of Education Seal of Biliteracy. This year we are again offering our seniors taking a world language course (usually a Level 5 or a Virtual High School language course), or students who are juniors and seniors who speak another language at home the opportunity to earn the Seal via the STAMP test. If the STAMP test is not available for the language the learner speaks at home, we will reference the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s guidelines for a comparable assessment. The exam is administered during the school day, in most cases during midyear exams and should take no more than two class periods to complete. If students fall short in 1 or 2 areas of assessment they may retake each part once at no cost to them. 

The Seal of Biliteracy in Wilmington

Massachusetts Seal of Biliteracy legislation was signed by Governor Baker on November 22, 2017, as part of the comprehensive LOOK Bill to support and develop multilingualism. In 2015, Wilmington Public Schools was one of the first eight districts in the state to become a part of the Seal of Biliteracy Pilot. We worked with a number of schools, districts, and universities, along with the Language Opportunity Coalition to develop the toolkit that advocated for the LOOK Bill as well as the DESE guidance for earning the Seal of Biliteracy in the state. Since then Wilmington High School has awarded over 80 Seals.

By offering the Seal of Biliteracy to our students, we hope to honor the multilingual community at Wilmington High and encourage more students to pursue world language proficiency.  Bilingualism is a critical 21st century skill that recipients of the Seal of Biliteracy can highlight in both college and job applications. It encourages students to pursue long-term language as native, heritage, or world language secondary language learners. It also encourages the development of higher levels of proficiency as well as documenting achievement in biliteracy, and producing a biliterate, multicultural workforce. If you have any questions about the Seal of Biliteracy, or you want to  inquire about being tested in a language not offered at the high school, please reach out directly to me. 

Thank you for your time and support of the Wilmington Public Schools World Languages program. I welcome you to visit our website as well for more information and see all of our past award winners! 

Wilmington World Languages Department Website