1. NYS Seal of Biliteracy Program
March 5, 2016

2. What is the Seal of Biliteracy?
An award given by a school, district or county office of education in recognition of students who have studied and attained proficiency in two or more languages (one of which is English) by high school graduation
Takes the form of a gold seal that appears on the transcript or diploma of the graduating senior
Can also be accompanied by a medal, certificate or other regalia at the discretion of the school

3. History of the Seal of Biliteracy
California initiated the first State Seal of Biliteracy in 2008.
In 2012, New York State enacted legislation modeled after California to create the NYS Seal of Biliteracy.
East Irondequoit was selected as one of 12 schools to pilot this program in the school year.
The State Education Department have gathered information on how pilot schools have planned for and implemented their school-based Seal of Biliteracy programs and will use this information to develop statewide guidelines for the following year ( ).

4. Status of the Seal across the US

5. Our Seal of Biliteracy Committee
A committee of 10 included LOTE teachers from every level (K-12), an ESL teacher, two English teachers from the high school level, the head of Counseling, the Director of Secondary Education and the Asst. Superintendent for Instruction.
The committee has met quarterly since June of 2012 to put together a plan to implement this seal including:
Reviewing documentation from NYSED
Completing the pilot school application
Determining a timeline of objectives
Establishing eligibility requirements
Identifying eligible students

6. Our process – determining who is eligible for the Seal of Biliteracy
Any student who can demonstrate proficiency in two languages (one of which is English) including students who are enrolled in (1) 11th & 12th grade English and LOTE courses or (2) in 11th & 12th grade English and are speakers of a home language other than English.
Criteria
Overall GPA of 2.5 in all academic classes for junior and senior years
Overall GPA of 3.0 in English and LOTE classes for junior and senior years (speakers of other languages will demonstrate proficiency in their home language)
Submission of a portfolio documenting proficiency in two languages (one of which is English) in all four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing)

7. Our process
January: Eligible students received a letter home informing them of their eligibility for the Seal and inviting them to attend an informational meeting.
January – April: Eligible students met regularly with their classroom teachers (English & LOTE teachers) and their home language mentors to select items completed in class to include in the student’s Biliteracy Portfolio (writing tasks, audio/video recordings).
May: The Biliteracy committee met to review all portfolios and to select those students who have successfully met the criteria for the Seal.
June: Successful candidates will receive a school-based Seal of Biliteracy notation on their official transcript, a certificate documenting the earning of the Seal, and will have a special notation in the graduation program.

8. The certificate

9. The ceremony
In this pilot year, we will present the certificates to students at our “LOTE graduation ceremony” held during school (all 12th graders have LOTE at the same time).
In future years (when the state seal is official), we will present the certificates at a formal ceremony such as a Board of Education meeting or a Scholar dinner.
We are also considering adding a special graduation honor code or pin denoting the seal.

10. Our results in the pilot year
We started with the following seniors:
14 students who speak a language other than English at home
35 students enrolled in the highest level of LOTE offered at our school
We then applied the eligibility criteria and narrowed the field to :
2 students who speak a language other than English at home (Polish, Turkish) – only 14% of our “home language” students met the criteria because of their overall GPA.
19 students enrolled in the highest level of LOTE offered at our school

11. Keeping track of student progress
In addition to having to maintain a certain GPA in English, LOTE, and overall, students at our school must submit a portfolio of artifacts attesting to their biliteracy. There is one entry for speaking & listening for each language and another for reading & writing. We also require an “on-demand” writing sample. Students consult their current teachers when selecting work to be included in the portfolio.
Grades are kept track of in a spreadsheet each quarter via an automatic query set up in our grade management system.
Gender
Grade
LOTE Course ( )
LOTE Q1 (14-15)
LOTE Q2 (14-15)
LOTE Q3 (14-15)
English Q1 (14-15)
English Q2 (14-15)
English Q3 (14-15)
LOTE Q1 (13-14)
LOTE Q2 (13-14)
LOTE Q3 (13-14)
LOTE Q4 (13-14)
English Q1 (13-14)
English Q2 (13-14)
English Q3 (13-14)
English Q4 (13-14)
Cumulative GPA (High School)
Cumulative LOTE GPA
Cumulative English GPA
Currently eligible to pursue the Seal?
Portfolio Submissions
English - Reading & Writing
English - Speaking & Listening
English - On-Demand Writing
LOTE - Reading & Writing
LOTE - Speaking & Listening
LOTE - On-Demand Writing
% COMPLETE F 12
TUR 84 76 87 90 88 92 89 No Y N
50% M
POL 96 97 91 98 94
Spanish 5 93 99
100
Yes
100%
IB Spanish 12
101 80 79 95 85 86
IB Italian 12 82 83 81
IB French 12

12. Final results for LOTE
Of the 19 students initially eligible to pursue the seal under our criteria, 100% successfully met all of the requirements including a quality portfolio.
Since students regularly complete such portfolio entries as part of their normal English & LOTE courses, teachers and students reported that the portfolio was not a difficult task.
We used the official IB assessments in both English and LOTE (vast majority of eligible students).
For those not in IB courses, we applied the IB rubrics to evaluate the student tasks.
Students submitted electronic versions of their portfolio entries and teachers submitted recordings of the orals to put in a district folder so that all committee members had access.

13. Our major challenge – home languages
While we only had a small number of “home language” students, we have experienced significant difficulty in finding an adult not related to the students who is qualified to evaluate both spoken and written work. (Many of our heritage community speak the language but do not read or write it at an academic level.)
We reached out to our district interpreters (BOCES), local community centers and local colleges, but are still attempting to find home language mentors. We anticipate paying them a small fee for the service of evaluating the student’s work.

14. How will we alter the process for next year?
Instead of just focusing on current 12th graders, we will identify LOTE and home language students that are within a reasonable range of the “eligibility” criteria in:
10th grade – before students choose their courses for the following year, teachers will give presentations in classes about the benefits of continued LOTE study which will include a section on the Seal.
11th grade – Teachers of ALL students in 11th grade LOTE and those who are within a reasonable range of eligibility for home language will discuss the Seal in class and encourage all to participate in this two-year process.

15. The Future of the Seal of Biliteracy
We hope that the NY State Education Department will publish formal guidelines for all NYS schools wishing to offer the Seal of Biliteracy starting with the class of 2016.
We hope that the State Ed dept. will develop an official seal which participating schools will be eligible to affix to students’ transcripts beginning in June 2016.
Additional pathway awards will be developed to encourage students throughout their educational careers to develop biliteracy (for instance, recognizing student achievement at 2nd, 5th, and 8th grades).

16. Update from State Ed – May ’15/Jan ‘16
New LOTE Associate in Albany at State Ed is Mr. Ricardo Constantino
The 12 pilot schools participated in a conference call last week to report on their implementation of the seal.
While we anticipate a matrix of pathways to achieve the Seal, most pilot schools agreed on combinations of the following:
Minimum GPAs in English/LOTE/Overall of a 3.0 / “B”
Predicted or actual grades in English & LOTE of 3 or better for AP or 4 or better for IB
Portfolios of student work documenting biliteracy (using the ACTFL Intermediate Mid-to-High range)

17. Recommendations
Get administrative / board support for this program (cost is minimal = a certificate/cord for each student)
Form a committee.
From that membership, create subcommittees for LOTE and ENL.
Identify the eligible population and sollicit teacher participation (as advisors in English & LOTE).
Identify community members that could potentially act as advisors for lesser-taught languages.
Use guidance from the State to figure out the process that will work for YOUR school/students.

18. Recommendations if you need help
Visit
Candace Black, Eastridge HS
Ricardo Constantino, NYSED

19. Questions?