World Language Credit Testing

World Language Assessment for Students Who Acquired Language Proficiency Outside of the Classroom

Seattle Public Schools offers World Language Credit Testing in-person at our middle and high school sites on dates the schools decide as well as some remote testing opportunities. Contact your schools World Language team for in-person testing dates and times.

Our district team also provides several remote testing opportunities as well. Your testing date and time will be confirmed through your students’ Seattle Schools email two weeks prior to testing. Student must use their Seattle Schools assigned laptop and have the language keyboard installed before the assessment begins.

In order to create as many testing opportunities as possible for students you will be asked to confirm by email in order to secure your testing spot. Please check your student’s SPS email and respond to confirm prior to testing. Again, in-person testing is offered through out the year at our middle and high schools. If you would like to test in-person please check with your school for dates and times, these often take place during the school day.

Test Registration / Sign-up Information

Before registering, please note the following:

Students must be able to read, write and speak in the language in order to earn credit.
Students can only earn world language credit for either the test credit or taking a class in the same language, not both.
Students who are taking Dual Language Japanese, Spanish or Mandarin Language Arts in middle school will automatically receive High school world language credit. This is the same for students taking World Language, or high school math courses in middle school as well. Families who wish to have the credit and grades removed may opt to have the courses removed from their transcript and have until the end of Junior year to decide. Once removed courses cannot be re-added.
To earn the Seal of Biliteracy, students must meet all graduation requirements in addition to earning 4 years of World Language credit, or with qualifying exam scores. The Seal is noted on the students transcript after the student graduates.
By registering for and taking the World Language credit test, you are agreeing that qualifying credits with a grade of P for passing will be added to your students transcript if they have not already earned credit in the same language. If you have questions about how colleges or universities might treat these courses and grades please contact the Admissions team of the colleges your student is interested in attending.

High schools and middle schools also offer testing in-person during the school day, after school and occasionally on weekends.

Test Dates for 2026-2027

November 7, 2026
January 23, 2027
March 13, 2027

If you wish to register for remote testing please complete the registration link here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/qWC9UhignB

Results

Remote testing results may take 8 to 10 weeks for processing.

What languages can a student test in?

STAMP Assessment:
Arabic, Cantonese, English, French, Danish, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified & Traditional), Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, more languages being added soon.

WORLDSPEAK Assessment:
Amharic, ASL, Armenian, Chin (Hakha), Chuukese, Czech, English, Filipino (Tagalog), French, Haitian-Creole, Hmong, Ilocano, Korean, Marathi, Marshallese, Samoan, Somali Maay Maay, Somali Maxaa, Swahili, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yoruba, Yup’ik, and Zomi.

ALTA Assessment:
Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cambodian, Chuukese, Croatian, Czech, Dari, Dutch, Ewe, Farsi, Finnish, Fulani, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Jamaican Patois, Kannada, Karenni, Kurdish, Latvian, Lao, Macedonian, Malay, Mongolian, Navajo, Nepali, Norwegian, Oromo, Pashto, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Samoan, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Tibetan, Tigrinya Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Wolof.

We also offer ASL testing and you can register for that by completing the same registration above.

Do you speak a language that is not listed above?
Please register. Custom testing is available for many languages not listed above such as Soninke and many more. Please sign up today!

Take a moment to think about your current language skills in the language that you want to test in (not English). If you can answer “Yes, I can do this fairly easily” to some of the statements, then you will likely earn at least 1-2 credits when you take the language test. If you can answer “Yes, I can do this very easily” to all of the statements, then you may be able to earn 3-4 credits when you get tested. You have to complete reading, writing, speaking and listening parts of the test to qualify for credits.

I can understand ideas on familiar topics expressed through phrases, short sentences, and frequently used expressions. [Listening]
I can understand the main idea and some details in simple texts that contain familiar vocabulary. [Reading]
I can exchange information with another person about familiar tasks, topics and activities. [Person-to-Person Communication]
I can use a series of phrases and sentences to provide basic information about familiar topics. [Spoken Production]
I can write simple descriptions and short messages and request or provide information on familiar topics. [Writing]

If you feel like you need practice in your language, here are some example tasks for practicing your writing or speaking in your language. (These specific tasks will not be on the test.)

Different languages use different tests. Find your language, then you’ll see which test(s) you need to sign up for. (On the website you’ll find a drop-down menu listing almost all of the languages and which tests they use.)

Visit OSPI World Language Competency Based Credits (WLCbC)

Learn more about the tests:

Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency (STAMP) offered through Avant Assessment. (Try out the Sample Tests.) The STAMP test typically takes about 1 1/2 hours to 3 hours. It is not timed.
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Writing Proficiency Test (WPT), Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), OPI computer-based (OPIc), and ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency (AAPPL) offered through Language Testing International (LTI).
WorldSpeak offered through Avant Assessment. The format is similar to STAMP but just tests Writing and Speaking in Somali (Maay Maay and Maxaa), Tagalog, Vietnamese and several other languages.
ALTA Writing Skills Assessment and Speaking and Listening Assessment offered through ALTA Language Services.
Custom tests in Writing and Speaking for other languages not available through Avant, LTI, or ALTA offered through the Washington Association for Language Teaching ( WAFLT Custom Testing).
SLPI: Sign Language Proficiency Interview for American Sign Language (ASL) offered through North Carolina ASLTA.

Once you know which test(s) you need to take, then find a date and location that will work for you.

After you complete the test(s) for your language, Seattle Schools should receive your test results within a few weeks. The Seattle Schools Office of ML and International Programs will provide an email to your students’ SPS email address indicating proficiency levels attained in the tested language and high school credit equivalencies based on the recommendations in the state’s Model Procedure for competency-based credits. School registrars and the school world language credit testing contact will have access to scores.

Credit will be granted if students meet the following levels of proficiency across the language skills tested for each language:

Novice Mid earns 1 credit
Novice High earns 2 credits
Intermediate Low earns 3 credits
Intermediate Mid earns 4 credits

Note: If you qualify for 4 competency-based credits, that means you are considered “Proficient” in your language and you meet the language criterion for earning the Seal of Biliteracy. Your transcript will be updated to reflect that fact after your testing is complete. When you graduate, your transcript will be updated to show that the Seal of Biliteracy was “Earned” for your language.