Graduating students in the Class of 2022, who were not able to take 10th Grade ELA MCAS due to the pandemic, now have the opportunity to earn the Massachusetts State Seal of Biliteracy. Legislation passed in December allows 2022 graduates who earn the modified competency determination in ELA to also satisfy the English language criteria for the award. Read more!
Category Archives: Language Opportunity Coalition
Support J-1 and H1-B Visas for High Need Teachers
Sign on to this letter to support language teachers!
We the Language Opportunity Coalition and Portuguese Educator Pipeline and Resources Group share urgent concerns about the Executive Order and suspension of J-1 and H1-B visas for high need teachers in our K-12 and Higher Education world language and bilingual programs.
We believe without an exemption for these educators who hold deep linguistic knowledge and skill in time of a teacher shortage, that this Executive Order will negatively impact our most vulnerable students, furthering inequities, and potentially non-compliance with Massachusetts General Law Part 1 Title XII, Chapter 71A.
We ask you to join us in signing your support, no later than Friday July 20, 2020 at 12 Noon at the link here. Individuals or organizations may sign on.
Please disseminate widely!
New Seal of Biliteracy website
The Language Opportunity Coalition has a launched a new website at www.SealOfBiliteracyMA.org with resources developed during the SoBL pilot project from 2014-18. The site includes:
- Criteria and certificates for the Language Opportunity Coalition (LOC) Biliteracy Pathway Awards, a compliment to the State Seal of Biliteracy that can be awarded to students at lower grade and language proficiency levels.
- Links to criteria and regulations for the MA State Seal of Biliteracy on the DESE website: http://www.doe.mass.edu/ell/biliteracy/
- Implementation resources that can be used for the state and/or LOC awards, including timelines, best practices and exemplars.
Visit the new site at www.SealofBiliteracyMA.org!
Report on Seal of Biliteracy Pilot Project
The Language Opportunity Coalition published a report on the third and final year of the Massachusetts Seal of Biliteracy Pilot Project. The pilot ended in June 2018 with approval of the official State Seal of Biliteracy, with implementation beginning in the 2018-19 school year.*
- 26 school districts made 1,339 awards in 2018.
- Languages included Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hebrew, Mandarin, French, Arabic, Marathi, Urdu, Haitian Creole, Polish, Latin, German, Italian, Tagalog, Urdu, Cantonese, Korean, Bengali, Arabic, Hausa, Thai, Russian, ASL, Hungarian, Dutch, and Luganda.
* We are awaiting the Commissioner’s decision on key aspects of the state award, as well as release of the guidance document by DESE.
MATSOL: Equity & Excellence for English Learners 