Frisco ISD has joined forces with Avant Assessments to provide students the chance to receive four years of credit for Languages Other than English through one assessment. Since May, 1,000 credits have been awarded to Frisco ISD students through this assessment.     

“Frisco ISD’s utilization of Avant language assessments is strategically aligned with our commitment to student opportunity and choice,” district chief academic officer Katie Kordel said in a news release on Friscoisd.org. “Providing additional paths for our students to earn world language credit is another exciting way we are working to meet their diverse needs.”

Testing out of a language can allow students to take more challenging courses that they enjoy rather than learning subjects they are already familiar with.

“Chinese is my first language so I don’t think it’s necessary to take the first three levels, so I just took AP Chinese 4,” sophomore Amber Chang said. “Since 1 and 2 are both on-level classes, they will lower your GPA so I think it’s better if you can take other classes you like instead of spending a class learning something you already know.”

While testing out of a language can have many benefits, Spanish teacher Ninfa Loera believes that taking on another language provides many advantages that can help students in the futures.

“I think if you’re already fluent in the language, then you can,” Loera said. “However, I think it’s better to go ahead and take another language that you’re not fluent in because it actually improves your brain activity when you can speak more than one language, so if you already speak two, speaking another one only helps your brain and additionally makes you more marketable for jobs or internships or anything that comes along.”

The registration deadline for the January 2019 test is Nov. 30.