OSU students with Seals of Biliteracy are now able to enroll in advanced language courses without taking OSU placement tests, and high school teachers in all of the Central States can now access CAAP assessments.

Tatiana Friedman, The Ohio State University 
Rebecca Bias, The Ohio State University

The Ohio State University’s Center for Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (CLLC) has been working diligently on two major initiatives supporting high school students learning world languages. The first of these involved years of work and layers of approvals: ensuring OSU recognizes the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy to waive the elementary language series requirement (levels 1-3). Initiated in California in 2011 and now adopted by all 50 states, the Seal of Biliteracy recognizes high school students in the U.S. who achieve proficiency in both English and another language. The Ohio Department of Education adopted the Seal in 2017, setting rigorous criteria for the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy. 

Prior to this initiative at OSU, students with the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy whose program of study included a foreign language requirement would need to undergo additional testing to prove proficiency in a non-English language; additionally, students with the Ohio Seal interested in pursuing further study in their seal language would still need to take OSU’s placement test in that language. Now, students with the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy will be considered as having completed the introductory world language series. For Spanish, this will place them in the fifth level; for all other languages, they will be placed into the fourth level if it is offered at OSU. Students with a Seal of Biliteracy awarded in another state may have the same opportunity: as long as the Seal in the state in question has requirements that are as or more rigorous than Ohio’s, these students will also earn the waiver of the elementary language series. 

Other universities in Ohio and across the U.S. are also recognizing the Seal, with some offering credit or advanced placement, and the initiative has received support from many OSU departments and student government. Concerns about reduced language course enrollment have been addressed with evidence suggesting increased enrollment in higher-level courses. By recognizing the Seal of Biliteracy, the CLLC hopes to reduce redundancy in testing for students, make it easier for students to pursue a minor or major in a foreign language, and allow them more time and energy to focus on the advanced language learning opportunities most relevant to their personal and professional growth.  

The second initiative is also managed by OSU’s CLLC, but under a specific project: the Collaborative Articulation and Assessment Project (CAAP). Starting in 1992, CAAP has grown from just 25 Columbus area high schools to more than 190 schools in Ohio and the Central States, including urban, suburban, and rural areas. The program was originally funded by The Ohio Board of Regents, which is now defunct, yet the board was absorbed into the Ohio Department of Education over two decades ago. While this project originally provided early assessment for Ohio high school students in just Spanish, French, and German, Chinese was added more than ten years ago. Early CAAP exams were on paper, but have been fully online the last several years, allowing years of tests to be available to teachers on-demand, rather than just one a year. 

The new online structure has also allowed an important update: CAAP has recently expanded to include all states in the Central States organization. While schools in the Central States are not eligible to take the Spring Exams—the higher stakes testing for which OSU provides Writing and Speaking grades and calibration in all four skills with OSU student achievement—they are able to take advantage of more than 150 practice exams available on the CAAP website. Practice exams are offered online for listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, and the listening and reading exams are automatically graded. 

While most teachers use our practice tests as assessments for third year students, we encourage teachers to use them however they are most useful, whether as prompts for student presentations, group dialogue prompts, or just ungraded extra practice. Our colleagues at the Department of Education have expressed their support for the use of CAAP practice tests for High Quality Student Data, and many CAAP teachers are doing so. If you are interested in taking advantage of resources provided by CAAP, or just learning more about us, please email caap@osu.edu.