The broadcast highlights the implementation of the Seal of Biliteracy in Oregon. Executive Director, Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, talks about the development and importance of The Seal of Biliteracy.
Here’s Shelly…
The effort started in California, spearheaded by a statewide coalition called Californians Together, and is now spreading to states like Illinois, New York and Florida. Along with Spanish, there are bilingual diploma seals offered for Mandarin, Vietnamese and other languages
“What we … have been about, really, was to try and change people’s perspectives as well as their feelings about bilingualism,” says Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, executive director of Californians Together.
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Spiegel-Coleman says the United States faces real risks if it continues to be a monolingual culture.
“There are issues of national security,” she says. “You’ve heard from the Department of Defense over and over again that they are lacking professionals who can deal and communicate and negotiate in countries across the world in the language of that country. Going through an interpreter, you lose something.”
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-12-10/enter-school-s-raising-bar-bilingual-ed