Students who embrace the journey of studying one or several languages have the exciting opportunity to make their high school diplomas stand out with the State Seal of Biliteracy—an award given to those who have demonstrated proficiency in English and a world language.
To earn the Seal, students must be in their junior or senior year and meet two additional requirements. They must have demonstrated proficiency in English, scoring 472 points or higher on the English Language Arts (ELA) section of the tenth-grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam. In addition, they must demonstrate practical language skills on the Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency (STAMP) test, a foreign language exam administered by a company called Avant Assessment taken at Lexington High School. The STAMP examination assesses language students on their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The test ranges from one and a half to three hours long, and assumes a computer-adaptive format.
Anjeli Garlapati, a senior at LHS, took the State Seal of Biliteracy test in October, testing in German.
“My mom and grandparents are from Germany. I started learning German in kindergarten at the German Saturday School, and I speak German at home. It’s a second language that I’ve grown up learning. For me, the Seal was a way to certify my academic ability to speak a second language, which can be helpful for any part of life,” Garlapati said.
LHS first registered for testing in the 2024-2025 school year, and during its testing, 50 juniors and 31 seniors registered to be certified. Mandarin was the most popular language tested with 16 test-takers, followed by nine students testing in French and seven in Spanish.
For the 2025-2026 school year, LHS students took greater advantage of the opportunity. Juniors registered for 15 different languages, while seniors registered for ten. Most students who tested in the French or Spanish exams developed their proficiency primarily through language learning opportunities at LHS. Conversely, many of the LHS students who took the State Seal of Biliteracy test in Mandarin seemed to be heritage speakers. Some heritage speakers found the test less daunting due to their prior experience with their language.
“[The test] was really long. But given that I already knew German, it wasn’t difficult … I feel like if it’s your language, it’s not that stressful. You know what you know,” Garlapti said.
The State Seal of Billiteracy awards students for their hard work in language comprehension, opening doors for career opportunities and future college endeavors. Several private and public institutions of higher learning in Massachusetts currently offer credits or advanced course placement for students who have earned the Seal.
“The seal gives you recognition of being bilingual and shows your cultural knowledge, which can be helpful for many parts of life, such as jobs, because employers can see that you are able to communicate in multiple languages,” Garlapati said.
