Avant Assessment

Please join us in welcoming Shellene Swamy to the Avant Language team!

Shellene joins as an Account Manager, bringing more than 25 years of experience in Higher Education and K-12 sales account management. She has worked with administrators and educators across the U.S. and U.K., helping align institutional goals with data-driven solutions and long-term partnership support.

Bilingual in English and Spanish, Shellene brings a thoughtful, relationship-centered approach to her work, along with a strong understanding of how technology and personalized engagement can support meaningful outcomes.

Outside of work, Shellene enjoys exploring new places with her husband and their dogs, Duckie and Snow. She is passionate about wildlife, especially elephants, dogs, the environment, and books.

We’re excited to have you on the team, Shellene!

Please join us in welcoming Mara Cobe to the Avant Language team!

Mara brings more than 33 years of K–12 world language education experience to Avant, with a career spanning classroom teaching, instructional coaching, district-level leadership, and program support.

“I chose to work with Avant because of their dedication to authentic language assessment, especially for less commonly taught languages.”

In her new role, Mara will primarily work with Avant’s expanding network of collaboration partners, supporting educators and learners as they strengthen language instruction, proficiency-based assessment, and meaningful recognition of students’ language abilities.

Her leadership in world language education has earned national and regional recognition, including the 2025 NADSFL Supervisor of the Year Award, the 2020 SCOLT Leadership Award, and the 2014 FLANC Honorary Life Member Award.

We’re excited to welcome Mara and grateful for the expertise, care, and deep commitment she brings to language education.

The Call for Proposals is now open for the 10th International Conference on Immersion & Dual Language Education, taking place March 16-19, 2027, in Reston, Virginia.

We invite educators, researchers, school and district leaders, advocates, and community partners to submit a proposal. Share your work, ideas, and experiences in immersion and dual language education.

This year’s theme, Bridging Multilingual Worlds: From Many Voices to a Shared Future, invites us to consider how multilingual education can expand opportunity, strengthen teaching, sustain programs, and shape what comes next for multilingual learners.

Submit your proposal by Friday, September 11, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Review the topic strands, session types, guiding questions, and submission details: https://bit.ly/3RSYH9E

What a wonderful evening at MATSOL 2026!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Mira Mixer at Malones Irish Pub & Social. It was a great night of conversation, connection, and community with language education leaders who share a commitment to supporting multilingual learners.

We’re grateful for the opportunity to connect with educators, hear what they’re working on, and share more about Mira powered by Avant.

A special thank you to Jed Dudley and Shellene Swamy, M.Ed. Multicultural Education/ESL/Spanish for helping make the evening memorable.

Avant is proud to be a Gold Sponsor of ATDLE’s 34th Annual TWBI Conference, Bilingual Brilliance: Empowering Students, Strengthening Communities, happening June 17–19, 2026, in San Diego.

We’re excited to support educators advancing two-way and dual language education through proficiency solutions that help students build, measure, and celebrate real-world language skills.

See you in San Diego!

Congratulations to the Redwood City School District Mandarin Immersion students who earned top finishes at the 50th Chinese Language Teachers Association of California speech contest! Go 🎉

Their success is a powerful reminder of what happens when students have the opportunity to build real-world language proficiency, practice communication with confidence, and demonstrate what they can do with language.

At Avant, we believe proficiency is more than a test score. It is the foundation for meaningful learning, student growth, cultural connection, and real outcomes that students can carry forward.

We’re proud to support educators and programs working every day to help students develop, measure, and celebrate language proficiency.

Congratulations to the students at Southeast Polk and Andover High School who were recognized for their multilingual achievement through Seal of Biliteracy honors! :earth_africa::tada: Go 🎉

From Southeast Polk’s Senior Honors Assembly to Andover High School’s record number of Seal of Biliteracy recipients, these students are showing the real value of language learning and the power of being able to communicate across cultures.

We’re proud to support schools and students as they measure real-world language proficiency with Avant STAMP and celebrate multilingual growth.