New bilingual distinction to be on Kennewick, Pasco diplomas

Southridge High School was a bit of a scary place when Kahory Madrigal showed up halfway through her freshman year.

It was difficult to start over in a school vastly different from those she attended while growing up in Mexico. She also could not speak or understand English.

“It was bad,” she said of her first day.

More than three years later she’s graduating on time. But when she receives her diploma at the Toyota Center on June 4, it won’t just note she’s a Southridge High graduate, it will also note her fluency in the very language that made it hard for her communicate with students and teachers.

About 30 seniors at Kennewick’s high schools will graduate with the Seal of Biliteracy in June, district officials said, while another 30-some underclass students already have met requirements for the certification in Spanish but also Arabic, Burmese and Italian. At least 180 seniors from Pasco’s high schools also will graduate with the distinction.

Kennewick offers four language courses to high school students as well as a dual language program starting in kindergarten and the seal is a way to officially recognize bilingual students, officials said.

“The students just beam when they learn of this,” said Alyssa St. Hilaire, the district’s bilingual programs coordinator.

For students like Kahory, though, the certification demonstrates that struggling in school because of a language barrier doesn’t mean you can’t bring other skills to the table.

“It’s good if they do it. It can give them opportunities,” the senior said.

State lawmakers created the seal in 2012 to recognize students who acquired proficiency in a language other than English. It applies to those who grew up in a household where another language was spoken or students who gained fluency through coursework.

Students have to demonstrate their skill in the language when it comes to listening, speaking, reading and writing. Testing is done through either Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or competency-based exams. In Kennewick, the district covers the testing fee of $18 for the first attempt, with a student responsible for paying for any retakes.

Not all Washington school districts offer the certification to their students, which means a special emblem on a qualified senior’s diploma as well as a citation in their transcript.

Graduating seniors in Pasco will be able to earn the seal this year if they earn at least a score of 3 or higher on a 5-point scale on the AP Spanish exam, but that is the only language available in that district. District spokeswoman Leslee Caul said administrators are looking for ways to expand student options when it comes to qualifying for the distinction.

The Richland School District does not offer the seal, with district officials saying they weren’t aware of the program.

While the seal has only just become available, language teachers in Kennewick schools are already seeing an impact. Teresa Urrego, a Spanish teacher at Kennewick High School and chair of the district’s world language department, said she had several students move into fifth-year language courses this year with an eye on earning the seal.

“I know the kids are excited about it,” she said, adding that roughly 30 students showed up for an information session about the seal when it became an option.

St. Hilaire noted several native English-speaking Kennewick students recently tested in other languages for the certification.

The program can still be hard for some students to participate in. Students can’t count their native fluency in a second language as credits toward graduation, only courses they take in a language. That means those interested in earning the seal have to potentially squeeze language courses into their schedules to improve their fluency.

But for the district’s large number of Latino students and population of refugees from countries ranging from Somalia to Iran, the seal still has a lot of potential to encourage English language learners, St. Hilaire said.

Amber DeGraaf, a paraprofessional at Southridge, worked with Kahory after she arrived as a freshman and has seen how earning the seal for her Spanish fluency helped her confidence.

“She’s become a mentor to a lot of the students coming in,” she said.

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 5:35 PM with the headline "New bilingual distinction to be on Kennewick, Pasco diplomas."