By Khalida Sarwari
Twenty-three Sherman Oaks sixth-graders became the first elementary school students in the Santa Clara County to receive awards for demonstrating bi-literacy.
For the first time this year, the county office of education is recognizing younger students who can speak, read and write in two or more languages. Sherman Oaks, a dual immersion community charter school where students take half English and half Spanish classes, had a group of students who were eligible for the award.
“I’m very proud of them and I believe that this is the beginning of the doors of opportunity opening for them for the rest of their lives,” said Sherman Oaks principal Donna Tonry. “The motivation this award is going to give the students will continue to drive them to the next levels of education, and they’ll take these skills to the world with them long after they’re finished with school.”
To qualify for the award, the students had to meet a rigorous set of criteria, said Tonry. They had to have scored proficient or advanced on the STAR test and the APRENDA, another standardized test that measures in Spanish the same skills that are measured on the STAR test.
The students also had to complete two portfolio requirements, one of which entailed a five- to 10-minute oral presentation in front of a panel of judges describing at least five careers in which an individual could benefit from being bilingual. The second portfolio requirement involved two written essays, one in English and the other in Spanish, about what being bilingual means to them and how they would use those skills in the future.
The award is one of two “pathway” awards toward the Seal of Bi-literacy on the high school diploma, instituted by the state and awarded to graduating seniors who demonstrate proficiency in two or more languages. The other award is given at the end of middle school.
At the school’s sixth-grade promotion ceremony on June 6, the winners of the bi-literacy award received a certificate and ribbon from the county office of education and a plaque from Sherman Oaks.
Sherman Oaks was the first fully operating charter school in Santa Clara County and one of a few dual immersion Spanish-English programs in the county.
Students demonstrate bi-literacy and have the awards to prove it
