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The STARTALK 10th Anniversary Fall Conference took place on October 14th and 15th, 2016, in Atlanta, Georgia. 

The mission of the STARTALK program is to increase the number of U.S. citizens learning, speaking, and teaching critical need foreign languages. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) launched STARTALK in 2006 granting oversight of the program to the National Security Agency (NSA) who in turn contracted the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) at the University of Maryland (UMD) as subject matter experts in the implementation and administration of the STARTALK program. 

The STARTALK summer language programs use LinguaFolio Online in all their courses. The original version of LinguaFolio, developed by members of the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL) and based on the European Language Portfolio (ELP) and the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements, was produced on paper and is still being used extensively. In order to take advantage of the benefits of a digital space, NCSSFL, in collaboration with the CASLS, began development of the online version in 2009. LinguaFolio Online is an ePortfolio evaluation tool that allows students to collect evidence demonstrating their communicative abilities in a world language, according to the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements.

The fall conference affords STARTALK grantees time to reflect on the 2016 programs, attend sessions for teaching critical languages, learn about resources, and network with other colleagues. Dr. Julie Sykes, CASLS Director, and Stephanie Knight, CASLS Language Technology Specialist, presented a 60-minute session that highlighted the outcomes from the use of LinguaFolio Online in the 2016 STARTALK summer programs. Using these outcomes as a frame, they provided examples of best practices highlighting work done in current STARTALK programs. Emphasis was placed on ways to include real-time evidence collection without disrupting regular class sessions, providing exemplar activities that can be applied to STARTALK programs as well as language classrooms in other contexts.