MHS students earn Arkansas Seal of Biliteracy

Students recognized for proficiency in Spanish

By ANDY WELD

MSD Communications

Two Marion High School seniors recently earned the prestigious Arkansas Seal of Biliteracy for demonstrating proficiency in English and one or more other languages by high school graduation.

Mercedes Cubides and Erick Paz Perez both earned the distinction for their proficiency in Spanish. They are among only 464 high school students in Arkansas to earn the seal this year.

Adopted first by California in 2011, the Seal of Biliteracy is now recognized in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. According to the official website, “The Seal of Biliteracy encourages students to pursue biliteracy, honors the skills our students attain, and can be evidence of skills that are attractive to future employers and college admissions offices.”

Since the 2017 pilot year in Arkansas, students from 108 high schools around the state have attained this certification across 32 languages other than English (American Sign Language, Arabic, Bengali, Cambodian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Filipino, French, German, Gujarati, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Hmong, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Marathi, Marshallese, Nepali, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese).

The Arkansas Seal of Biliteracy is awarded each spring and fall to students in grades 9 through 12 and is sponsored by the Arkansas Foreign Language Teachers Association (AFLTA) and the Arkansas Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ARKTESOL). The Arkansas Department of Education officially endorsed the Seal in June 2018.

Marion High School seniors Mercedes Cubides and Erick Paz Perez recently earned the Arkansas Seal of Biliteracy for demonstrating proficiency in Spanish. Pictured are (from left) MHS Principal James Scott, MHS school counselor Jonnet Gammill, Cubides, Perez, MHS school counselor Melissa Kohl, and Jamie Nichols, MSD ESOL coordinator.

Photo courtesy of MSD