Seal of Biliteracy Portfolio (Alternative Assessments)
Video sources: Massachusetts State Seal of Biliteracy Guidance, January 3, 2023 and Global Seal of Biliteracy, sealofbiliteracy.org
The Seal of Biliteracy is an award given by a school or district in recognition of students who have attained proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in two or more languages by high school graduation.
How does it work?
Idioma Education & Consulting LLC., provides a convenient, accessible, and uniform option for students to submit their language portfolios for reading, writing, speaking and listening evaluation in languages that are not available through standard assessments.
I had a wonderful and positive experience working with Idioma Education and Consulting this year. Their customer service was excellent. My school worked with them to schedule testing for Bulgarian for students participating in the Seal of Biliteracy program at our high school. I would definitely work with them in the future as they were attentive to all questions and they were prompt in their responses to my inquiries during the pre and post testing phases. I highly recommend Idioma Education and Consulting for Seal of Biliteracy testing!
-Renee, Burlington High School
Why is it valuable?
Districts and students are no longer required to recruit and vet a portfolio rater which creates a more equitable rating for all students. Idioma Education has provided evidence that our raters are:
- Highly proficient in the languages we rate;
- Knowledgeable of proficiency levels and the portfolio guidelines;
- Trained to provide scores that are free of cultural, racial, and linguistic bias; and
- Charge a fair rate for their services
This assessment validates that a student shows proficiency at an Intermediate High level or above in four areas of communication:
- Interpretive Listening and Viewing
- Interpretive Reading
- Interpersonal Listening/Speaking or Signing
- Presentational Writing
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Intermediate High students can minimally perform these indicators most of the time. (Earns Seal of Biliteracy)
- Advanced Low students can minimally perform these indicators all the time. (Earns Seal of Biliteracy with Distinction)
Assessment Languages
Our portfolio assessments are currently available on an as needed basis. Contact us for more information about the language portfolio assessments we offer. Here are some of the languages we have offered in previous years.
| Slovak | Greek | Luganda | Hungarian |
| Bahasa Indonesian | Bulgarian | Bosnian | Serbian |
| Croatian | Nepali | Thai | Punjabi |
| Kmer | Darija Moroccan Arabic |
Pricing
The district fee covers access to portfolio assessments and individual student results for all languages we offer. There is an additional fee for each student portfolio submission.
Learn more
Districts interested in providing proof of proficiency for their students through the Portfolio (Alternative Assessment) Option should contact Idioma Education 3-6 months prior to graduation.
Students will access and submit their portfolio packet through Idioma's LMS where trained portfolio raters will evaluate and submit scores and feedback.