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What is the Seal of Biliteracy?

The Seal of Biliteracy is an award granted by a school, district, organization, or state in the US to recognize individuals who have studied and gained proficiency in another language before their high school graduation.

How can it be earned?

Most high schools will have different requirements on how they award the Seal of Biliteracy. One example would be to take both the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and the Writing Proficiency Test (WPT).

OPI

The OPI is a standardized assessment designed to test one’s functional speaking ability. Through the form of a conversation between the test-taker and the tester, the test-taker will measure how well a person can speak in the target language. The questions asked or scenarios presented usually increase in difficulty as the interview goes on.

WPT

The WPT is a standardized writing test designed to measure how well a person can spontaneously write in the target language. It consists of varying writing prompts increasing in length and difficulty that serve to test one’s proficiency in terms of their ability to write effectively and appropriately for real-life writing purposes.

Grading

Both the OPI and WPT are graded on a scale: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior, and Distinguished. The first 3 levels each have sub-levels: Low, Mid, and High.