Several years ago the University of Oregon Center for Applied Second Language Studies developed the ?Oregon Roadmap to Language Excellence: Striving to Create the Conditions that Will Allow Every Oregon Graduate to be Proficient in English and Functionally Proficient in Another Language by 2025? (here). Among it recommendations (#5, p. 9, here) was the following:
Enhanced Diplomas
At both the K-12 and postsecondary levels, certification of language ability on diplomas will?reward individual performance and create demand for effective programs. More important than the certificates themselves are the rewards that can be attached to them. Universities may wish to earmark scholarship support for students with language certificates, and businesses could recruit and offer pay incentives to graduates of either the K-12 or higher education system. In addition, proficiency-based scholarships would reward heritage speakers for their special language and cultural abilities and promote diversity of campuses and treating bilingualism as an asset rather than a liability. These scholarships should be based on demonstrated proficiency and be contingent on continued language learning throughout the college years.
Neither K-12 education in Oregon, nor, to my knowledge, any school district in Oregon, enhances its diplomas with certificates or seals of foreign language ability. California statewide, however, now does. From the Ed Source article ?Over 10,000 students awarded ?seal of biliteracy?? (here):
For the first time, graduating seniors from around California ??more than?10,000 ? have been?awarded a state ?seal? indicating their proficiency in two languages.
The award, which consists of a gold seal affixed to a student?s high school diploma, is the result of legislation?(AB 815) authored by Assembly member Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) and??signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last year.
Some 59 districts around the state were already awarding their own seal of biliteracy, but this is the first time that it has been done statewide.
Not surprisingly, the vast majority ? 70 percent ? of those earning the seal demonstrated proficiency in Spanish, followed by French (10 percent) and Mandarin (7 percent).??Some 2 percent of students were proficient in Japanese, with a similar percentage in Cantonese and German. Altogether, students with proficiency in 40 different languages, including American sign language, were awarded the seal.
The California Department of Education could not provide a breakdown as to what proportion of those receiving the seal were native English speakers.....
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