Since 2015, graduating high school seniors in Virginia who attain proficiency in a world language and English on an approved state test have had a Seal of Biliteracy added to their diplomas. 

It’s a prestigious honor, but at Charlottesville High School, students have only been able to earn the Seal in one of the five world languages taught at the school: Spanish, French, Mandarin, Latin, and German.

Until now. 

During the 2025-26 year, Charlottesville City Schools created a more equitable pathway for its bilingual students whose first language is not English to also earn the distinguished Seal on their diplomas. The Charlottesville High School Class of 2026 was the first to have the opportunity to take a test to show their bilingual proficiency skills in Dari, Pashto, Arabic, and Swahili, languages that CHS does not offer as courses but which many of its students speak. 

“We can celebrate our students and celebrate people who might not be in a world language class, but have a lot of language knowledge,” said Dr. Alicen Brown, CCS’s Coordinator for Social Studies and World Languages.

The test gives students the opportunity to formally demonstrate academic-level proficiency in their home or first language—not just conversational ability, but also the ability to read, write, and communicate effectively across contexts—and become eligible for a Seal of Biliteracy. 

“It affirms the value of the languages our students bring with them, recognizes their full academic strengths, and ensures more students can graduate with a credential that signals college, career, and global readiness,” CHS Principal Dr. Justin Malone wrote in his principal’s newsletter. “Such accomplishments remind me of the work that happens at CHS and the complicated challenges that so many of our students face to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. It also highlights the remarkable capacity our students possess and how the school's responsibility is to provide the pathways that help showcase and elevate our students' extensive talents and strengths.”

After initially offering the Seal of Biliteracy through the Advanced Placement (AP) test, CCS expanded the opportunity to earn the Seal to its World Language students in levels below AP during the 2022-23 school year. The school division offered the Seal of Biliteracy in the five world languages that are taught in-person at Charlottesville High School: Spanish, French, Mandarin, Latin, and German. 

The pathways to earn a Seal expanded again during the 2023-24 school year, when CHS created a Spanish for Heritage Speakers course and began testing for the Seal of Biliteracy in those classes for students whose first language is Spanish. This past school year, 25 CHS students from the Spanish for Heritage Speakers course earned the Seal of Biliteracy in Monolingual Spanish. 

Now that the pathway is also open to multilingual seniors, including those who speak Arabic, Dari, Pashto, and Swahili, the number of students earning the Seal of Biliteracy has continued to grow. 

“This is a great way to showcase all of the rich linguistic resources that our students are coming in with,” said Brown. “I think that it is really important that we are trying to celebrate our students' languages and their knowledge and command of those languages. I think that's one thing that's very unique about Charlottesville High School: the diversity of language.” 

To earn a Seal of Biliteracy at CHS, students must successfully complete two tests. The English Standard of Learning (SOL) test serves as the English proficiency measure, and the Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency (STAMP) test gauges a student’s ability to read, listen, write, and speak a world language. 

Students taking the STAMP test are assessed using eight different levels, with Level 1 being “Novice-Low” and Level 8 being “Advanced.” To be eligible for a Seal of Biliteracy, students must reach at least Level 5, which means a student can “participate in conversations on familiar topics using sentences and a series of sentences.” 

For Jeannie Pfautz, CCS’s Specialist for English Learners, watching her EL students be able to take the STAMP test in their first language was momentous. 

“I had tears in my eyes watching students write essays in their first languages,” Pfautz said. “Many of the students told me afterwards how easy the test was. It was such an incredible moment giving them a chance to show their multilingual strengths.”   

With the additional pathways, 55 Charlottesville High School students earned a Seal of Biliteracy on their diploma during the 2025-26 school year, and another graduate earned the Seal during the summer. Four students earned the Seal of Biliteracy in Dari, while two earned it in Arabic and one in Swahili. 

CCS hopes that number continues to grow in the future as it works to create more pathways to earning a Seal of Biliteracy for its multilingual students. 

“We are hopeful to continue to expand this,” Pfautz said, “so that all students who are bilingual have the opportunity to receive the Seal of Biliteracy on their high school diploma."