My Wildcats are about to tackle the STAMP test again! Up for grabs:

IL State Commendation toward Biliteracy at Intermediate Low (4 on the STAMP 4s)

Global Seal of Biliteracy Functional Fluency at Intermediate Mid (5 on the STAMP 4s)

IL State Seal of Biliteracy at Intermediate High (6 on the STAMP 4s)

Global Seal of Biliteracy Working Fluency at Advanced Low (7 on the STAMP 4s)

Avant’s STAMP data is available on their site. I’ll tell you about the Spanish results but you can check the site for results in your own language. In Spanish, for a student who has completed 3 years, the averages are Listening: 4.42 (IL) Reading: 4.94 (IM) Writing: 4.03 (IL) Speaking: 3.42 (NH). For a student completing 4 years, the averages are Listening: 5.50 (IM/almost IH) Reading: 5.84 (IH) Writing: 4.95 (IM) Speaking: 4.48 (IL/almost IM). It is important to reinforce these numbers with your students (especially when your state seal may be at Intermediate High in all 4 modes of communication) so that they understand Intermediate Low is really the average for speaking even into level 4.

(If you want to learn a little more about ratings and proficiency levels, Avant offers courses like Avant ADVANCE to help you calibrate how you’re grading for proficiency. I’m currently enrolled in advance and loving it!)

So… I test my level 3 and 4 students. I have juniors and seniors in Spanish 3. For them, this is the only shot at getting the seal! The perk of doing it that way is that I can head into testing season by showing off all of my last year’s award winners who are now seniors! It’s a great motivator for Spanish 3 getting ready to take the test for the first time.

I have paid for the testing several different ways. First, I gave ACTFL’s AAPPL exam for several years. That test can be purchased by individual component, so my Spanish club would do a fundraiser and pay $5 for the listening and reading and have the kids pay $15 to finish the test. It worked ok but there were a lot of students who would have had amazing scores that didn’t complete the test because it was optional/because of the cost.

Then I started having Spanish club do a larger fundraiser to pay for the whole cost of the test. Once I was able to do that, I changed from AAPPL to STAMP for two reasons. First, the scoring reliability has been so much better for me with STAMP (based on scoring from 2015-2022). Second, STAMP is intuitive. Student performance on listening and reading determines their prompts for writing and speaking. On AAPPL, the test gives everyone the same prompts (based on my experiences from 2015-2022). Rather than getting three targeted listening and speaking prompts, they have to work their way through 7 different prompts from Novice Low to Advanced Low. By the time they get to the most important ones, they’re exhausted! We are entering our fourth STAMP year and I’m really happy with this test.

Last year, after seeing our data and the growth these awards bring to our program, my superintendent helped work it into the budget so we do not have to pay, every kid tests and every kid can earn awards.

Our testing will take place the last week of February. We go to the lab 5 consecutive days and it is enough time for everyone to test. Sometimes I have kids who miss a day or two and we have to schedule make ups, but most kids can get done in the 5 day spread.

Once scores come in (Reading and Listening are instant), we will schedule retesting. Students who score low in one domain can retake it once and still qualify for the Global Seal with their new score. I have students pay the $10 retesting fee if they choose to give it a second shot. Not only is speaking the most common because the scores are lower… also their affective filters are high on the first day because they’re taking it in a room with 25+ other test takers. On retake day, they can do it in a lab with 5-10 so there’s lots more room to spread out.

I will give out their awards at senior awards night, so those you see on the wall from last year have not yet received their certificates and medals. I test in February to make sure even retake scores have come in before awards night!

Any questions I can answer? I feel like this is all of the information to help leading up to testing! I’ll share more when we hit the lab and start seeing scores come back.