One reason why many students are pushed to take a language in school is that it is a great way to become fluent in two or more languages—something that is valuable in the working world and just for communicating in general. However, to become fully certified as bi-literate, you have to take a test: something Wilsonville High School offers for its students.

This test is called the STAMP (Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency), and it is an analysis of a student’s proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Many students at Wilsonville High School will be taking the test this year in Spanish.

Junior Lily Wright is a native Spanish speaker, yet she hasn’t been recognized to be literate in Spanish. Wright expects the STAMP test to be challenging, but she believes the easiest part will be the speaking analysis since she speaks Spanish constantly at home. “I’m used to speaking a lot more than I am grammar and interpreting,” Wright reflects, “and I also have some issues with reading.” Wright has taken the test before and was just shy of passing, and this year she expects to excel.

Similar to Wright, senior Melody Garcia-Gonzalez is also a native Spanish speaker and passed the STAMP during the last school year. Her advice to everyone taking the test this year is to slow down and practice what they need to work on in advance so that they feel prepared and in-the-zone for the test when they take it. “The test went well when I took it because there wasn’t really a time constraint,” Gonzalez explains. The length of the test typically varies from person to person, since it may take some longer than others to complete certain tasks.

Lastly, junior Kevin Celis (also a native speaker who has passed the STAMP), recommends that students should be confident in their abilities going into the test. “It’s not necessarily a hard thing,” Celis broadcasts, “just don’t stress about it.”

The STAMP test will be happening this Wednesday, the early-release day, at 8:30 am during school. Good luck to everyone taking the STAMP test, in whichever language you’ll be taking it in!