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Q:  What is the North Dakota Seal of Biliteracy?
A:  The North Dakota Seal of Biliteracy (NDSB) is an award presented to graduating students who have demonstrated proficiency in a language in addition to English. North Dakota offers two seals; silver and gold. Each seal has specific criteria a student must meet to receive the award. The requirements are available in the NDSB Guidance.

Q:  Why implement a Seal of Biliteracy?
A:  The NDSB encourages students to develop mastery in multiple languages, encourages students to pursue biliteracy, honors the skills our students attain, and can be evidence of skills that are attractive to future employers and college admissions offices. The NDSB sets a standard of the value in learning world languages, as well as maintaining native and heritage languages and cultures in our schools, homes, and communities.

Q:  What are the benefits of earning a North Dakota Seal of Biliteracy?
A:  The NDSB recognizes students and provides an identifier of this accomplishment on the student’s eTranscript for employers and post-secondary institutions.

Q:  What are the requirements for a North Dakota Seal of Biliteracy?
A:  To be eligible for an NDSB award, each student shall demonstrate a minimum proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening in English and an additional language. Students must also demonstrate sociocultural competency as determined by each district. The assessments and required proficiency levels are as follows:

One of the following assessment options is required to demonstrate proficiency in English:

EXAMSILVERGOLD
ACT (ELA Composite)ELA 16ELA 19
ND English Language Proficiency Assessment (ACCESS for ELLs)

3.5 in each domain

AND

4.0 Composite

3.5 in each domain

AND

5.0 Composite

SATERW 460ERW 480
ND State Assessment in grades 9 - 12Proficient in ELAAdvanced in ELA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the following assessment options is required to demonstrate proficiency in a world language:

EXAMSILVERGOLD
ACTFL (OPI, WPT, RPT, LTP)ILIH
AAPPL Form BI-1I-5
ALIRAI-1I-4
STAMP 4S46
ASLPI2+3+
DELE/DELFA2B1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


*Districts may submit a request to the NDDPI for alternative assessment requirements.

Q:  Can a student be awarded for multiple languages?
A:  Yes, if a student meets the requirements for more than one language in addition to English, the student will be awarded one seal for each applicable language.

Q:  How can schools/districts obtain state seals and certificates?
A:  The district must submit the NDSB Application Form with the district contact information, applicable assessment information and assurances of student eligibility and sociocultural competence to the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (NDDPI). The application must be signed by the district Superintendent or designee. If the district has multiple students applying for the awards, please submit the Multiple Student Application Addendum with the NDSB Application Form.

Q:  Which states have adopted or offer the Seal of Biliteracy?
A:  Information and other state programs are available at the Seal of Biliteracy website.

Q:  Where/when/how can students take the demonstration of knowledge in World Language exams?
A:  Much of the information regarding test options is available from the creator or vendor of each test. The following are some resources available:

Q:  What is the minimum grade students need to be in to qualify?
A:  Students need to be in at least grade 9 to meet the assessment requirements but must meet graduation requirements to be eligible for an NDSB.

Q:  What is required for test administer training for the world language assessments?

A:  Some tests do not require a local test administrator but may require a proctor. Information regarding specific test administrator training is available from the test vendors listed in FAQs above. The following provide the scoring methods for each assessment.

  • ACTFL – Testing Certification Programs – only OPIc is administered and scored online
  • AAPPL – Test is administered and scored online
  • ALIRA – Test is administered and scored online
  • STAMP – Test is administered online and scored by certified raters
  • ASLPI – Site Proctor is Required – evaluation is conducted by an ASLPI Evaluator

Q:  What languages can be assessed?
A:  The following assessments are available to test the corresponding languages:

  • ACCESS – English for identified English learners
  • ACTFL (OPI, OPIc, LPT, RPT, WPT) -
    • OPI: Afrikaans, Akan-Twi, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cambodian, Cantonese, Cebuano, Chavacano, Czech, Dari, Dutch, Egyptian, English, French, Georgian, German, Greek (Modern), Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong/Mong, Hungarian, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Iraqi, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kazakh, Kashmiri, Korean, Kurdish, Lao, Levantine, Malay, Malayalam, Mandarin, Marshallese, Nepali, Norwegian, Pashto, Persian Farsi, Polish, Portuguese Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian Croatian, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Slovak, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tajik, Tamil, Tausug, Telugu, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Wolof, Wu and Yoruba.
    • OPIc: Arabic, Bengali, English, French, German, Indonesian, Korean, Mandarin, Pashto, Persian Farsi, Russian, Spanish and Tagalog
    • LPT: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish
    • RPT: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish
    • WPT: Albanian (Booklet form only), Arabic, Cantonese Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, English, French, German, Greek (Modern), Haitian Creole (Booklet form only) , Hebrew (Booklet form only), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian Farsi, Polish, European Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese
  • AAPPL – Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Thai.
  • ALIRA – Latin
  • STAMP – Avant STAMP 4S (grades 7-adult) is available in Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified & Traditional), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Spanish Monolingual, Swahili (3 skill), and Yoruba (3 skill)
  • ASLPI – American Sign Language
  • DELE – Spanish
  • DELF - French

Q:  What is the cost of the world language exams?
A:  The cost associated with the assessments vary greatly. Please work with the test vendors to receive exact costs. Contact information can be found on each website. 

Q:  What is the best way to cover the cost of these tests?
A:  There are several options to cover the cost of the tests, here are a few:

  • Districts could cover the cost as part of their World Language course curriculum.
  • Title III funds could be used for the non-English assessments for English learners if the district does not use local/state funds to pay for non-EL student tests. 
  • Some schools have had the students pay out of pocket for the language test. We do suggest schools offer a "scholarship" to those students who feel they cannot afford the test.
  • Booster Clubs have covered the cost in some schools.

Q:  Does NDDPI help with covering the cost of these tests?
A:  The NDDPI does pay for the ACCESS testing, ACT, and ND State Assessment, but not for other language proficiency assessments.

Q:  Can students take the CLEP exam for the demonstration of knowledge in world language exam?
A:  It appears the CLEP language exams only include listening and reading domains. Also, there doesn’t appear to be alignment available to the ACTFL standards or proficiency levels. Therefore, at this time CLEP will not be an acceptable assessment for the NDSB.

Q:  What score do we report on the application form since students receive scores for four domain assessments?
A:  Districts only need to report the lowest score the student received because you are verifying each of the student’s domain scores are higher than the minimum requirement for the applicable seal.

Q:  What is the last day to submit the application?
A:  Applications for the 2023 seals must be submitted by April 14, 2023 to receive them by graduation for student diplomas. The last day to submit an application for the 2023 school year is July 28, 2023. 

Q:  What is the State I.D.?
A:  This is the student’s unique state identification number in the STARS reporting system. The I.D. number helps the NDDPI connect the seal to the correct student’s eTranscript.

Q:  Are any of these tests something we can offer to our students at school?
A:  Yes, the AAPPL and the ALIRA are taken at the school and there is no need to go to a testing center. These tests are through the LTI (Language Testing International) which offers the ACTFL (OPI, WPT, RPT, LTP), AAPPL, and ALIRA.