Roxbury High reports record 52 Seals of Biliteracy for class of 2025

A district presentation at the Roxbury Township Board of Education meeting described a record number of New Jersey Seals of Biliteracy awarded to Roxbury High School seniors.

"The Roxbury High School class of 2025 has achieved a record in seals of biliteracy attained. They have attained 52," said the district's world languages supervisor, who spoke to the board during the meeting. He said the number rose from 38 the prior year and noted the test assesses reading, writing, listening and speaking in English plus at least one other language.

The supervisor described the assessment as challenging and said Roxbury splits the roughly three-hour exam into multiple sessions to make it manageable for students. He noted the seal is issued by the New Jersey Department of Education and can carry tangible benefits for students, including eligibility for college credit or waivers of entry-level world language requirements at some institutions.

The presentation listed languages in which students had achieved the seal: Spanish, French, Italian and a number of other languages in which students have passed the exam in recent years (Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Filipino, Mandarin and German). The speaker also said some students had earned the seal in two languages.

He described a recent staff initiative to support employee language learning: after passing his own test in French, he and a colleague conducted an information session and said a staff cohort to begin language training would start the week following the board meeting.

The board received two podcasts the supervisor produced with students who earned seals; QR codes to those recordings were shown during the presentation.

Board members thanked the world languages department for the work that increased student attainment of the seal.