This year’s bi-literacy assessment has now come to a close for the juniors and seniors. As many as eighty-three RD students between the junior and senior class took the tests this year.
Students can take multiple languages and are allowed to test as many as they want each year and are scored on their writing, reading, listening and speaking which eventually gives a combined grade.
These languages consist of Spanish, French, Italian and many more. Some students at River Dell are even taking three languages this year!
You need an intermediate score of a three to pass the assessment.
Most students taking the Bi-Literacy assessment pass, but some do fail the test. Although, if you fail as a junior, you are able to retake it as a senior and even if you do pass as a junior, some students might want to retake to get a higher score allowing them to be eligible for the Global Seal of Biliteracy.
The scores for the students have not come back yet thought for the testing but some are not so hopeful. Senior Liam Hickey says, “I studied a little bit but probably should have studied more.”
Obviously everyone taking the test wanted to pass and do well but just like every other test, sometimes you need to study more and not everyone is going to do great. Many students probably felt similar to Hickey as the assessment was not looked at as easy for students and even Mrs. Correa said that some students would probably fail, showing the difficulty of the assessment and how much work the students have to put into it.
Some of these students previously knew the language they were taking from home and others were in high level classes like Spanish 4 or 5. All in all the, many students deem the test worth the trouble because if you get a high enough grade and get the New Jersey or Global Seal, it would look great on college applications.
