WORCESTER – Friday, May 24, 2024 – Worcester Public Schools (WPS) honored 210 Massachusetts state-recognized bilingual and biliterate students on Thursday evening at Worcester Technical High School during its annual State Seal of Biliteracy celebration ceremony.
The State Seal of Biliteracy is an award provided by state-approved districts that recognizes high school seniors who attain high functional and academic levels of proficiency in English and another language.
The ceremony also honored 52 scholars who qualified for the Biliteracy Pathway, which recognizes students in the district who have reached an intermediate to mid-level of proficiency in English and another language.
“The Seal of Biliteracy is not just a stamp of approval that you can speak more than one language. It’s so much more than that,” said Superintendent Rachel H. Monárrez, Ph.D. “It’s proof that you’re a scholar who can achieve at high levels academically and in the world beyond the classroom.”
This year’s celebration ceremony showed the continued growth of the Seal of Biliteracy program since it began in Worcester in 2018-19. In 2022, 74 students were awarded the Seal of Biliteracy with another 124 achieving the honor in 2023. With 210 scholars receiving the Seal of Biliteracy on Thursday, there has been an over 185% increase in State Seal of Biliteracy representatives in the district over the last three years.
Worcester Technical High School had the highest number of Seal of Biliteracy medals with 47 scholars earning the state-wide distinction. South High Community School honored 41 scholars while North High School and Doherty Memorial High School each had 35 recipients.
Burncoat High School and Claremont Academy added 23 and 20 scholars respectively while University Park Campus School (7) and The Gerald Creamer Center (2) rounded out the city’s State Seal of Biliteracy recipients.
Scholars names and languages are listed by school below: