Port Chester students earn multicultural seal of approval

Seal of Biliteracy diploma enhancement sees record number of recipients
June 27, 2024 at 1:44 a.m.
Port Chester High School Assistant Principal Juan Sanchez (left) smiles widely as he bestows John Delcid with a medal for earning his Seal of Biliteracy during the awards ceremony at the Board of Education meeting on June 13. The diploma enhancement is awarded to students who have shown proficiency in English and one other language.
Port Chester High School Assistant Principal Juan Sanchez (left) smiles widely as he bestows John Delcid with a medal for earning his Seal of Biliteracy during the awards ceremony at the Board of Education meeting on June 13. The diploma enhancement is awarded to students who have shown proficiency in English and one other language. (David Tapia/Westmore News)

By DAVID TAPIA | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment
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There’s been a shift in focus towards the Port Chester School District’s language programming in recent years.

Since the 2021 increase in Foundation Aid started offering more flexibility, the World Language department has been growing to become a more sustained pathway towards bilingualism.

That journey, which could span a student’s entire academic career in the district, from kindergarten to their senior year in high school, leads to the Seal of Biliteracy.

The diploma enhancement was established by the New York State Legislature in 2012 and is a marker for students to show they demonstrate proficiency in English and at least one other language.

It’s a distinction that asserts bilingual abilities to potential employers or college admission officers. In addition to an improved resume, students are provided with a certificate and medal to wear over their gowns when they graduate.

And this year, an historic number of Port Chester students brandished the award as they triumphantly walked across the high school football field on Thursday, June 28.

A largely multilingual community, Port Chester saw some students take advantage of the program for years.

“Historically, Port Chester (High School) usually had anywhere between 30 and 40 students receive it,” said Valerie Lakestream, the director of English Language Learner (ELL) and bilingual studies.

When Lakestream took her position at the start of the 2022-23 school year, one of her main goals was to expand the Port Chester School District’s Seal of Biliteracy program—an effort that has been seeing results.

At the June 13 Board of Education meeting, 87 graduating seniors were awarded their accolades.

Seventy of them received it for their proficiency in Spanish, 16 in Italian and one in Polish, a first for the district.

According to Lakestream, the growth was made possible through efforts to increase the number of resources students had available to them to prove their fluency.

The deal with the seal

Students vying for the seal must demonstrate fluency in English and at least one other language. According to Lakestream, they’re given a variety of pathways to earn it.

The program requires six points earned from a list of specific requirements set by the New York State Education Department. They could be obtained by reaching a score threshold on the Regents, AP or IB exams, taking accredited World Language assessments and other avenues.

While most of the criteria would give students one point in a language, the opportunity to earn two points at once is possible by presenting a Culminating Project to a panel of reviewers who are proficient in the specific language, but until recently, Port Chester High School hadn’t offered that option to students.

“We were not taking advantage of this panel presentation,” Lakestream said. “Once we instituted that, it helped us reach students who are truly bilingual and helped them get those points that they were eligible for.”

Students are allowed to do the presentation twice, once in English and the other in their secondary language, allowing them to score three-quarters of the points required to earn the Seal.

Presently, the district teaches three languages: Spanish, Italian and French. But the Seal of Biliteracy is available in over 100 languages, including American Sign Language.

To accommodate students who have a native tongue not taught in the schools, Lakestream said the district obtains qualifying assessments for them.

    Board of Education member Chrissie Onofrio congratulates Bryan Valdovinos for earning his Seal of Biliteracy in Italian.
 By David Tapia 
 
 

“The Avant exam is what we use for students who pursue the seal in the home language when we don’t have coursework,” she said. “It’s a language acquisition exam that tests the four modalities of a language: listening, speaking, reading and writing.”

Though the combination of the Culminating Project and the Avant exam make the Seal of Biliteracy more attainable, High School Principal Luke Sotherden was quick to add that it still requires a great deal of work from both students and staff.

The efforts of all involved

When Bryan Valdovinos heard about the Seal of Biliteracy at the end of his junior year, he expressed some interest, but was preoccupied with enjoying his summer vacation.

“My senior year just felt a lot further away than it actually was,” he laughed.

When the school year started in September 2023, he decided to pursue the seal to challenge himself.

“I wanted to give myself a tougher schedule,” he said. “It looked like a lot of work to get it, but it was something I wanted to try.”

The 17-year-old likes a good challenge. When he was given the choice of which language class to pick up in the sixth grade, he chose Italian—even though he already spoke two languages.

“I had to pick between Spanish and Italian,” he recalled. “I already speak Spanish because my family is from Mexico, so I decided I wanted to try something completely new. But I didn’t think I’d stick with it for this long.”

Six years later, he’s now a Port Chester High School graduate who earned his Seal of Biliteracy.

Valdovinos, who will be attending SUNY Herkimer in the fall, said the Culminating Project presentation enabled him to earn the accolade, but it was also the source of the most stress for him.

“It was a lot more work than you would think,” he said. He had to speak before the panel twice, as he used the opportunity to earn points in both English and Italian.

“I was pretty nervous about doing it,” he recalled. “I was just focusing on not repeating myself.”

Ultimately, his Italian studies paid off and he joined the 16 other students who proved their proficiency in Italian and English.

“I feel great about it because it ended up being so much work,” Valdovinos said. “And I’m really proud I was able to make this happen.”

Angelica Przyslak, a fellow receiver of the seal, had similar fulfillment.

“I feel very proud of myself that I went for it and actually got it,” she said. Przyslak holds the distinction of being the first in the district to earn the seal for her fluency in Polish.

It’s the language that she’s been studying since she was a child, as it’s how she communicates with her family.

“Polish is my second language,” the 17-year-old said. “All my family is in Poland, so it was very important for me to learn how to speak it.”

She felt confident in her Polish skills, as she had been taking weekly classes at Poska Szkola, a school that meets at the Don Bosco Community Center.

When she heard about the Seal of Biliteracy through a friend at the start of 2023-24 school year, she wanted to know if she could earn one in Polish. She was happy to learn it was possible.

For her presentation, she spoke on a subject close to home—pierogis. “Every year, when I go to Poland, I make pierogis with my grandma,” Przyslak said.

As Port Chester doesn’t have a Polish curriculum, the district provided her with an exam to take. Pryzslak admitted it was stressful, but it made her think of the language from a new perspective.

Both Valdovinos and Przyslak said earning their Seals of Biliteracy was a high point in their academic careers, and it energized their interest in language. Valdovinos expressed interest in learning French in college, while Przyslak wants to pick up Swedish in her free time.

Sotherden said that while many focus on the World Language aspect of the Seal, there are also students who consider English a foreign tongue.

“There are kids who immigrate from other countries and have to enter an ENL (English as a New Language) program,” he said. “So it was just as difficult for them, and we’re really proud of them. This program really helps those kids shine.”

Sotherden said the joint work between the English and World Language departments has been difficult to coordinate, but meaningful.

“It’s not easy,” he said of the work staff has put into the program. “There’s a tremendous amount of work not just from Valerie (Lakestream), but the counselors and English teachers.”

To keep track of each student’s progress towards earning the seal, Sotherden explained that educators created their own internal document system.

“It really speaks to the dedication of our staff,” he said. “They really cherish helping give our kids these opportunities.”

Their zeal is a part of a concentrated effort to ensure more students earn their enhanced diplomas. Lakestream added the district is striving to garner student interest in the Seal of Biliteracy as early as possible.

“We have our middle school teachers talking about it with students. Even down in some of our elementary school classrooms as well,” she said. “We want to make it a part of the vernacular in our district.”

Sotherden believes the Seal will make Port Chester High School graduates standout applicants once they enter the workforce—particularly for those looking to enter education.

“The need for bilingual teachers is growing by the second, not just by the minute,” he said. Though he added it’s a trait that would serve graduates well in any industry.

“Bilingualism is just so valuable,” he said.



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