Ryan Wertz and Kathy Shelton, Education Program Specialists for World Languages and Cultures, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce

Ohio’s Learning Standards for World Languages and Cultures as the basis for establishing an effective pathway to the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy

Engaging district decision-makers in strategic conversations around world language education as it relates to building learners’ capacity to qualify for an Ohio Seal of Biliteracy can be challenging for many teachers. Often, administrators and school counselors do not have a world language teaching background themselves and lack knowledge about the demands of second language acquisition. This can create challenges for them in terms of making informed decisions about language programs or providing students with solid recommendations about course scheduling and how best to leverage their world language skills after high school. 

World language educators, on the other hand, are typically quite familiar with Ohio’s Learning Standards for World Languages and Cultures and the proficiency demands they place on learners. As such, they are uniquely qualified to offer their colleagues sound information on which to base their decision-making and counseling efforts. This article aims to provide world language teachers with some evidence-based talking points that can be used to help build non-world language colleagues’ understanding of the demands of Ohio’s proficiency-based learning standards and the time and intensity of study required by average language learners to attain an Ohio Seal of Biliteracy.

To understand the world language standards and the demands they place on learners, colleagues with administrative and counseling roles would benefit from three things:

1. A crash course on language proficiency
2. Basic understanding of how languages vary in difficulty and the time required to become proficient in them
3. Reassurance that other schools and districts in the state that have successfully implemented longer sequences of language learning are contributing to a significant increase in Ohio Seal of Biliteracy recipients.

Language Proficiency. A key resource in Ohio’s Model Curriculum for World Languages and Cultures is a web page titled Proficiency Targets, which begins with a standard definition of language proficiency: Proficiency is…the ability of an individual to use culturally appropriate language to communicate spontaneously in non-rehearsed contexts. It refers to the degree of skill with which a person can use a language to understand, speak or sign, read, and write in real-life situations. 

In terms of understanding language proficiency, non-world language colleagues need to know how it develops and how long that process takes. To these ends, it might be very helpful to share ACTFL’s inverted pyramid proficiency graphic, which can help them visualize how language proficiency begins from practically nothing and then grows and amplifies with time through levels/sublevels of proficiency. Over time, as students’ proficiency develops, their communication and intercultural skills become enhanced, the contexts in which they can communicate become more involved and complicated, and their ability to utilize different language functions becomes more sophisticated.​ World language educators should share with their colleagues that Ohio’s Learning Standards for World Languages and Cultures are designed to provide language teachers with a roadmap that allows them to guide their students towards a higher and higher level of proficiency.

In terms of helping colleagues understand what learners know and can do with the language they are learning, two ACTFL resources might be particularly helpful: the Oral Proficiency Levels in the Workplace and the Writing Proficiency Levels in the Workplace charts. These charts are great tools to help non-world language colleagues understand what can be done with language at each sublevel of proficiency in terms of being able to communicate in the workplace, both orally and in written form.

Language Difficulty and Time Requirements. With regard to the time that’s necessary to move up the proficiency continuum, non-world language colleagues need to understand up front that there is an important caveat: all languages are not equal in terms of how difficult they are and how much time it takes learners to become proficient in them. Here, some of the resources in Ohio’s Model Curriculum for World Languages and Cultures become very helpful. The Language Difficulty Chart in the Proficiency Targets section of the model curriculum provides an easy-to-understand categorization of many different languages in terms of their difficulty to learn. When we inform our colleagues that students must obtain the Intermediate High level of proficiency on the ACTFL proficiency pyramid to earn an Ohio Seal of Biliteracy and share with them the evidence-based Proficiency Level Target Charts located further down this same page, understanding the amount of time required for learners to move from one sublevel of proficiency to the next quickly comes into focus.

At this point, when non-world language colleagues comprehend the time and intensity demands of learning another language, they realize that the sequence of language learning as it is typically laid out in most districts beginning in 9^th grade will not provide learners with the requisite time and intensity of learning that is needed to sufficiently develop their proficiency to qualify for an Ohio Seal of Biliteracy by graduation time. This understanding brings into focus an equity issue that should prompt district decision-makers to pause and consider the current entry point and duration of their local world language programs. When they realize that learners of less difficult languages (such as French, German, Latin, Italian, and Spanish) generally require at least five years to attain the required Intermediate High level of proficiency while learners of more difficult languages (like Arabic, ASL, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian) require significantly more time than that to hit that benchmark, district leaders will become more amenable to the idea of backing their world language programs down into the middle grades, or lower if necessary, to ensure that their world language students have a fair chance of eventually earning an Ohio Seal of Biliteracy.

Data-based Reassurances. Ohio Seal of Biliteracy data collected by the Department supports the need for Ohio’s schools and districts to reconsider the traditional course sequence beginning in high school that has been typical over the years. These data, extending from 2018 when the first Ohio Seals of Biliteracy were awarded to the most recently released data for the Class of 2023, indicate a positive growth trend as more and more schools and districts establish viable language learning pathways for their students:

• The number of seals of biliteracy awarded annually over this period have doubled.
• Districts and community schools awarding biliteracy seals annually have also doubled.
• The number of world languages for which seals have been awarded has tripled over the period.
• The number of English Learners receiving seals of biliteracy annually has increased one hundredfold. 

View the full data set in the online resource titled Overview: Annual Recipient Data – Ohio Seal of Biliteracy which can be found on the Department’s Ohio Seal of Biliteracy Resources webpage. If world language teachers feel empowered to share the information contained in this article with their school counselors and district leaders, strategic conversations at the local level could result in a significant increase in the number of schools and districts statewide offering longer world language learning sequences and granting Ohio Seals of Biliteracy to their graduating seniors.

Would you like to learn more?

Information shared via this article was summarized from the first of three professional learning sessions designed by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to build the capacity of school and district leaders, school counselors, and language teaching faculty around the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy Program. A second session coming up on February 26 will provide participants with information and tools to advocate for and implement a local seal of biliteracy program. A final session on March 26 will provide information to help participants optimize the results of their existing seal of biliteracy programs. If you are interested in attending either session, please send a message to the World Languages mailbox for more information or visit the Department’s Virtual Meetups for World Languages webpage for the links.