For the first time, the school district will administer the “Certificate of Multilingual Proficiency” assessment. Students will be given the chance to demonstrate their skills in the language they know best.
This nationwide test was designed by foreign language educators to test their ability to write, read, speak and listen to a second language.
“This a pilot year to test it out and see how it goes,” French teacher Dahnya Chop said. “Currently, we have one French student who is interested in doing it, several Spanish students and Sheri Dimos has English as a Second Language (ENL) students who speak a variety of languages.”
If the student reaches the highest score, he or she will gain six class credits worth three years of language, a cord for graduation and it will say on the brochure of graduation that the student is bilingual, proficient in more than one language, according to Chop.
This test gears towards seniors since the test assumes a high level of knowledge. However, some ENL students can take it earlier if they desire.
“For ENL students, they can do it earlier because they are more fluent in their language but for our students we don’t recommend them doing it until their senior year because they will be tested [and will need a certain] level to get the diploma so we don’t want them to waste their time and money,” Chop said.
To qualify, the test taker must have eight semesters of English and pass their sophomore ISTEP test. Register with your language instructor by Feb. 23 with a payment of $20. The official test will take place on April 18 on the computer.
