Beginning in Fall 2023, Coastal Carolina University will accept test scores, determine placement, and assign foreign language credit for incoming students who have successfully taken the South Carolina Seal of Biliteracy assessment. CCU is the second university in the state to recognize these assessment scores for placement and credit.

The S.C. Seal of Biliteracy program allows students who have taken foreign language courses in high school, or who are native or heritage speakers of a foreign language, to take the assessment and earn a bronze, silver, or gold seal. Each seal translates to a different level of language proficiency and provides standardized documentation of a student’s fluency in a given language. According to the S.C. Department of Education’s “South Carolina Seal of Biliteracy Overview and Guidelines,” the program “advances the state’s commitment to preparing every learner for college and career readiness in an increasingly international community.” South Carolina joins 49 other states and Washington, D.C., in having established state seals of biliteracy as nationally recognized credentials of student language proficiency.

Anna Oldfield, chair and associate professor in CCU’s Department of Languages and Culture, said incoming students who have taken the test will be placed in courses according to their seal and will receive retroactive credits for their achieved proficiency.

Oldfield provided an example: “A student coming in with the silver seal would place into a 300-level advanced language class and would receive 11 free retroactive credits for the lower-level language classes.”

Rocío Zalba, education associate for world languages with the S.C. Department of Education, said the S.C. Seal of Biliteracy assessment is similar to an Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) subject test, yet it is both more accessible and of broader use for students.

“The State Seal, AP, and IB tests give higher education institutions similar information,” said Zalba. “The difference is that many high schools don’t have the opportunity of offering AP courses or tests in the languages that they offer. For example, a student might reach Spanish 4, but their school doesn’t offer the AP class. They can take the State Seal of Biliteracy assessment.”

The S.C. Seal of Biliteracy also provides important documentation for heritage or multilingual learners, as they can take the assessment in any of more than 100 languages, regardless of whether their high school offers classes in that language.

“If you have a student who is fluent in Russian, the student can take the State Seal of Biliteracy assessment and receive that recognition and credential,” said Zalba. She noted that in the past year, 21 languages were recognized statewide, including Turkish, Urdu, and Swahili, “which does speak to the diversity of our state.”

Zalba said the S.C. Seal of Biliteracy offers students not only college recognition and a potential career boost, but also, for native English speakers, motivation to continue studying language and, for multilingual learners, encouragement to maintain their home language.

“Within high schools, studies have found that when students have the Seal of Biliteracy as their final proficiency assessment, it tends to motivate them to continue on with their language studies,” said Zalba. “For multilingual students, the seal gives them an opportunity to assess in their home language and be recognized for the linguistic resource they possess. They feel a sense of pride in their language and their culture when it is recognized by their teachers, school, district, and state.”

Norman McQueen, principal of the Scholars Academy, an Horry County Schools high school for gifted students located on CCU’s campus, said the State Seal of Biliteracy sends a solid message to both higher education institutions and employers that a student has not only taken courses in a language, but has achieved fluency.

“The biliteracy seal really gives those classes an exclamation point because it says not only that the student made a good grade, but that they can apply that learning at a certain level,” said McQueen. “So, for employability skills or college admission, students have documentation to prove their proficiency.”

Both McQueen and Zalba believe CCU’s acceptance of the program is a beneficial move for all parties involved.

“I’m really excited that CCU is going to be participating, because it really does build that connection between K-12 and higher education,” said Zalba. “When we talk about language learning, we need to think K-16, because language learning is a journey. We are delighted that CCU is on board.”