First semester: September 2024 – December 2024
Second semester: January 2025-May 2025
Class Schedule: Saturdays 9am-11am PST (class schedule may very based on number of students in each group).
Full annual payment - one payment of $1,595 ($159 x 10 months, no taxes)
Semi-annual payment - $853 per semester
NOTE: An additional fee of $40 is mandatory with the PayPal payment option
Where: Bulgarian School of Seattle
Date of testing: TBA
Who can take the test? Middle & High School students & interested adults from Washington State, including all neighboring states -Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, etc.
The Global Seal of Biliteracy Certificate will be immediately issued to the successful candidates.
Description of Test Types
ALTA Writing Proficiency : The test consists of five requests for a written response in the target language. The written test requires the candidate to demonstrate what he or she can do with the language in its written form through the performance of various tasks (writing a letter, giving an opinion, describing a rule of procedure), as well as how well he or she uses and controls the language (ex: grammatical structures, spelling/character selection). The candidate simply writes his or her response to each question in the space provided. At the end of the test, it is collected and sent back to the Bulgarian School of Seattle for scoring. The evaluator (aka ALTA Testing Services) scores the writing based on expression, understanding of the given topics, grammar, vocabulary and spelling, and an overall score is assigned. This score along with comments is sent to the district officials within two business days.
The cost of the test is $98.
ALTA Speaking and Listening (IVR): ALTA delivers this assessment via an automated, interactive voice response (IVR) system. The IVR system of assessments allows the Bulgarian School of Seattle to register the students through and generates access codes for the candidates to enter when calling for the test. By entering this access code, candidates are able to access test content, which is delivered automatically. One question is selected at random from a pool of similar questions, focusing on a particular linguistic task (e.g. narrating in the past tense), and the recorded question is played for the candidate. The candidate is given a specific period of time to respond to the question posed, and the response is digitally recorded. This sequence continues for the remainder of the test, or until all questions have been delivered to the candidate. The candidate is instructed to hang up the phone, at which point the file containing the questions and the responses is sent to a human evaluator for scoring. The evaluator scores the candidate’s performance according to the ILR performance scale. The results are returned to the district the following business day. The cost of the test is $98.