Across the Wentzville School District’s three high schools, 39 students met the criteria (a 5 scoring or Intermediate-Mid on both the sociocultural competency project and STAMPS4 exam) to earn the Seal of Biliteracy and five students earned the Distinguished Seal of Biliteracy, where students must earn an Advanced-Low or a 7 scoring on both the sociocultural competency project and STAMPS4 exam.

Seniors Devin Eckardt, Chasteanne Salvosa, Ian Beardslee, Luke Carter, Ryley Pickering, Greta Rompel, Mitchell Sanderson, Jenna Woodside, Paityn Schlosser and Sylvia Young all successfully earned a seal.  But what is the Seal of Biliteracy?

“The Seal of Biliteracy is a stamp on your diploma that basically says to the state that I’m officially bilingual. Since none of us are native speakers, this is our proof,” senior Devin Eckardt said, who was one of two students in the district to earn Dual Seals of Biliteracy in Spanish and French.

In order to earn this seal, students must score proficient or advanced on the English II EOC, score intermediate mid or higher in all four domains (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) on the STAMP4S assessment and complete a sociocultural competence project.

“It’s hard to study for reading since there’s a lot of vocabulary that’s topic specific. You have to learn skills that’ll help you figure it out during the test or go around what’s confusing you,” senior Ryley Pickering said, who was awarded a seal in German.

This is the first year the test has been offered at Wentzville schools as it was just approved in January, so many students felt like they were ill-prepared.

Aside from bragging rights, some colleges offer credit for obtaining the seal.

“I want to go into environmental studies, and a lot of technology and machinery they use comes from Germany. There are a lot of discoveries made by German scientists, so having the ability to communicate with them kind of gives me a step up,” said senior Paityn Schlosser, who also earned a seal for German.