American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
The American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) is a national organization of language educators with its headquarters offices in the Landmark Center at 2100 1st Avenue North in downtown Birmingham.
The organization was founded in New York City on December 29, 1917 as the American Association of Teachers of Spanish, reflecting a renewed interest in that language as German instruction fell out of favor during World War I. Lawrence A. Wilkins, then director of foreign languages for New York Public Schools, led its creation. The group adopted its present name by adding Portuguese in 1944.
Sheri Spaine Long, former executive director of the Alabama World Languages Association, became executive director of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese in 2018 and oversaw the relocation of headquarters offices to Birmingham that year.
AATSP is the primary provider of National Spanish Examinations (NSE) services and was a founding member of the Washington D.C.-based Joint National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Language and International Studies. The group hosts an annual conference and also publishes an annual scholarly journal entitled Hispania. It is affiliated with the "Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica" for high school students and with the "Sociedad Hispánica de Amistad" for elementary and middle school students. It promotes the "Seal of Biliteracy / El Sello de Bilingüismo" recognizing graduating high school students for mastering a second language.