Ryan Wertz and Kathy Shelton, World Language Consultants
Ohio Department of Education

As the 2018-2019 academic year ends, we at the Ohio Department of Education would like to express our sincere gratitude for a job well done. Ohio continues to be a leader in the implementation of standards- and proficiency-based communicative language teaching and learning. World language educators around the Buckeye State are embracing and implementing core practices that have been proven to move language learners along the proficiency continuum towards greater intercultural competency. To everyone who ramped up their game this year and tried something new – thank you!!! It takes courage to step outside your comfort zone to innovate a new activity, incorporate a new authentic resource, or implement a new type of assessment. Your courage and innovation translate into better opportunities for Ohio’s K-12 language learners. Indeed, your willingness to improve your practices means more of your learners can attain a level of language proficiency that will allow them to flourish as members of a globalized society. We appreciate your efforts greatly!!

World Language Learning Standards Update: Prepare to give your feedback!

Ohio’s revised Learning Standards for K-12 World Languages are just about ready for you to view and provide your feedback. Our advisory and working committees have been very busy these past several months creating the latest version of our state’s world language learning standards. The feedback you provided last winter on the 2012 learning standards has prompted some innovative changes to the document, which will allow our standards to more fully align to the various ACTFL proficiency levels. At the end of the summer we will once again ask all of our stakeholders for feedback on the revised draft learning standards to ensure they meet your full satisfaction. Keep an eye out for announcements later this summer requesting public comments, and please make a concerted effort to view the document and provide us with your honest feedback. The new standards will only be as useful as your feedback allows them to be!

The timeline for the remainder of the revisionary process is as follows:

July – Sept. 2019 Seek public feedback on draft revised learning standards

Sept. – Oct. 2019 Final revision of draft learning standards

Fall 2019 Initiate process for State Board approval of the refreshed standards

Jan. – Feb. 2020 Tentative adoption of revised learning standards by the State Board

Seal of Biliteracy Update

The Ohio Department of Education is pleased to announce that the preliminary Ohio Seal of Biliteracy data for the pilot Class of 2018 was recently released. By law, the Department can only collect information from the public and community school sectors. These numbers do not reflect the additional Seals of Biliteracy that were conferred by Ohio’s non-public schools.

Number of Public Districts Conferring Seals of Biliteracy: 44

Total Number of Public-School Seals of Biliteracy Conferred: 535

Number of World Languages for Which Seals Were Conferred: 10

Number of English Language Learners Earning Seals of Biliteracy: 5

As could be expected, the number of Ohio Seals of Biliteracy conferred by language closely mirrors the state’s K-12 language enrollment trends. Here is the breakdown of the seals earned by language:

Spanish 395 Hebrew 2

French 84 Russian 2

German 23 Albanian 1

Latin 19 Arabic 1

Chinese 7 Italian 1

Based on anecdotal information that we have received, we are certain that the number of districts that have participated in the program this year as well as the number of Seals of Biliteracy that will be conferred to members of the Class of 2019 will be significantly higher.

Important: For publicly bestowed Ohio Seals of Biliteracy to be recognized, district EMIS coordinators must enter the Seal of Biliteracy Program Code(s) corresponding to the world language(s) in which the Seal of Biliteracy was earned into those students’ Graduate Course Records. Typically, the deadline for completing the entry of EMIS data falls in the month of October immediately following the conclusion of the school year.

We encourage you to check out the informational resources on the Department’s Seal of Biliteracy webpage and advocate for local participation with the help of your parents and students. Be sure to contact us directly if you or your administrators have any questions!