2024 National Seal of Biliteracy Report for 2022-2023 Academic Year
2024 National Seal of Biliteracy Report for 2022-2023 Academic YearExecutive Summary
The 2024 National Seal of Biliteracy (SoBL) Report, which reflects the data of the School Year 2022-2023, is the fourth national report on the SoBL produced by SealofBiliteracy.org. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, reports were not published for School Years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
The Seal of Biliteracy started in California by Californians Together in 2008 as a grassroots movement to reverse the deficit view of English Learners (ELs) to instead honor and recognize them for their proficiency in English and another language, while preparing all students for global citizenship. As of January 30, 2024, all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. had established a State SoBL program. Each state establishes their own rules, including award criteria and data collection.
For the 2024 Report presented here, data on SoBL awards was collected from 44 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawai'i, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The data was submitted by each participating State Education Agency or their designee. The state of South Dakota had no data available for this report, as their SoBL was not under implementation in SY2022-2023. Six state agencies (Colorado, Mississippi, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington, D.C.) did not participate in this report.
There were 158,384 total SoBL awards reported for SY2022-2023, up from 147,937 in SY2021-2022. This year, the state with the most SoBL awards was California, with 59,782 awards. Florida had the second largest number of SoBL awards at 16,039, and New Jersey had the third largest with 8,784 awards.
The SoBL was awarded in 143 languages across the country in SY2022-2023, compared to 127 languages in SY2021-2022. Washington awarded the most languages, a total of 84. New York awarded 80 languages. Among those awarded, 11 represented Native American and Pacific Islander languages in U.S. states and territories: Keres, Navajo, 'Ōlelo Hawai'i, Samoan, Tewa, Tiwa, Yakima, Yugtun, Yup’ik, Yurok, and Zuni.
There was also an increase in the awards for American Sign Language (ASL). Equity for English Learners is an important focus for the SoBL movement. At the time of the first report in 2019, most states were not collecting data on their ELs or Former ELs. This year, however, 32 out of the 44 participating states reported SoBL award data on ELs. A total of 55,475 Ever ELs earned the SoBL in 2022-2023. For purposes of this report, the Ever EL count of SoBL awards is calculated by combining the EL and Former EL counts of each reporting state and may not reflect the actual total number of Ever ELs who received the award in each state in SY2022-2023.
California had the highest number of SoBL earners who were Ever ELs, with a total of 27,082 students. Additionally, by percentage of total awards, New Mexico excelled, as 66% of all of their awards were obtained by Ever ELs. It’s projected that the actual number of Ever ELs who received the SoBL award would have been higher if all states had been able to disaggregate their data by this population of students. States are encouraged to continue to expand and refine their data collection to include more information about students attaining the SoBL.
2024 National Seal of Biliteracy Report for 2022-2023 Academic YearAbout the Author:
