Administration has decided to add a ‘Seal of Biliteracy’ to the transcripts of select students.

The students must have shown to their language teachers proficiency in another language besides English, learned either through in-school language classes or from outside experiences.

Spanish and French teacher Christelle Hutin-Lee presented the idea to the language department at the beginning of the school year as a way of acknowledging and celebrating those who have mastered two languages.

Hutin-Lee first heard of the seal from a Latino Culture graduate class she is taking.

“I thought that it would be really nice to recognize…and reward people who are bi-literate,” Hutin-Lee said.

Spanish teacher Virginia Leskowski said she believes that the seal will serve both as a source of praise for select students and as a boost for college admissions.

Senior Nikitha Kosaraju, who is fluent in Telugu, said she thinks the new bi-literacy seal would be great for college applications.

“I think it’s a good idea because it gives colleges more information about who you are as a person. I don’t know if colleges will necessarily like it but it will give them another perspective on the applicant,” Kosaraju said.

Senior Maya Tellez, a Portuguese speaker, also said she agrees that the seal will be helpful in college applications.
“On certain applications they often ask you that already, but a ‘Seal of Biliteracy’ sounds a lot cooler than just checking a box,” Tellez said.

Candidates for the seal have to show proficiency both in English through the CST test and in another language by getting a GPA of 3.0 or higher after four years of language classes, SAT II score of 600 or higher, or at least a 3 on the AP test, Hutin-Lee said.

The seal had to be approved by both the Board of Education and Assistant Superintendent Randall Booker, and could go into affect next year.