CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Fifty-six Charlottesville High School graduates walked across the stage this year with a Seal of Biliteracy on their diplomas, thanks in large part to Charlottesville City Schools recently adding more pathways for students to receive the seal.

The seal, which has been available in Virginia since 2015, is given to graduates who attain proficiency on an approved state test in English and a world language.

This past year, CCS allowed students for the first time to test in Dari, Pashto, Arabic, and Swahili, languages CHS doesn’t offer classes for, but many students already speak. The change was the latest CCS has made in an effort to expand pathways for students to receive the seal.

“We want our students to have access to earn the seal,” CCS Coordinator of Social Studies and World Languages Dr. Alicen Brown told Cville Right Now. “And we want to really celebrate the rich language diversity in Charlottesville.”

This most recent change helped expand access to the seal for those who already speak another language. Jeannie Pfautz, CCS’s Specialist for English Learners, told Cville Right Now that of the about 4,000 total students in the division, around 700 are in the language development program, which is intended for K-12 students who are still developing their English language skills.

But Pfautz added that if you factor in the number of students who speak another language besides English but don’t need language development services anymore, that number is closer to around 950, nearly a quarter of the division’s students.

Pfautz also said about half of CCS’s bilingual students speak Spanish, while the other half represents the 40 other languages spoken in the division, with Dari, Pashto, Arabic and Swahili at the top of the list.

Prior to last year, CCS had already expanded the pathways to the seal twice. The first expansion came in the 2022-23 school year, when the division switched from using the Advanced Placement test to test its world language students, allowing for students studying languages below the AP level to have a chance at receiving the seal.

CCS now uses the STAMP Language Proficiency Test and the English SOL as its Virginia Department of Education-approved assessments for the seal. The division initially offered the seal in the five languages taught in-person at CHS — Spanish, French, Mandarin, Latin and German.

The following year, CHS added a Spanish for Heritage Speakers course, specifically designed for students whose first language is Spanish, and began testing for the seal in those classes. The course saw 25 students earn the seal this past year.

Each expansion has met with increased interest from students, Brown said, and that in turn has led to more students receiving the Seal, opening more doors for them as they pursue jobs and higher education.

“This gives them the opportunity to showcase those skills,” Brown said. “And it celebrates their rich language funds of knowledge, and I think that’s a really powerful thing for a student to know that they do have the language skills that are needed. That they are capable of doing wonderful things with those language skills.”

Pfautz echoed Brown’s sentiment, adding that she hopes the seal helps give a confidence boost to her students who earned it this year.

“I think for them, it was a reminder of how much of an asset their language is,” she said. “And I think sometimes, unfortunately in public education, we’re trying to get everyone to pass these big tests and to build their language skills and we don’t think about all of the skills kids come with. And so, I’m hoping that it was really a boost to their self-esteems, as well.”