Lost in translation? Try state’s new multilingual document clearinghouse
Published: August 30, 2005
The California Department of Education is launching a new service to help local districts and county offices of education provide translated educational material to immigrant families and students who speak languages other than English at home.
The new Clearinghouse for Multilingual Documents will be a central, searchable database of documents that have been translated into non-English languages by the state, local districts and county offices of education. CDE Education Program Consultant Wayne Shimizu, who is overseeing the clearinghouse, says he hopes the service will be up and running by the end of September.
With an immigrant population that totals almost 3 million new arrivals to the state each year, California schools have an obvious need for materials for parents and students who do not speak English, Shimizu said. It can be expensive and difficult to find documents that have been translated into the many different languages that California’s immigrant residents speak.
“We want to eliminate redundancies, where districts and county offices are duplicating effort by translating the same documents,” he said. Shimizu said local education agencies will be able to search for documents they need by title, subject or language and generate a list of what’s available.
The clearinghouse will also include links to state and LEA Web sites that offer documents for free downloading. It makes good educational sense to communicate effectively with parents, but districts with large immigrant student populations also have legal obligations to provide certain material in their students’ native languages.
The California Education Code requires that any local educational agency where 15 percent or more of pupils speak a language other than English must provide notices, reports, statements and records to parents or guardians both in English and in the students’ native language. The federal No Child Left Behind Act contains similar provisions.
“Many districts are on the verge of hitting 15 percent,” said Jo Ann Yee, CSBA Director of Urban Education and Outreach. “Many do not want to wait until they reach the threshold to begin providing these translated materials.”
The state is now “stocking the shelves” of its clearinghouse, identifying districts and county offices that have translations available to share with their colleagues in other regions and collecting documents translated by the state. Shimizu emphasized that educators must check the quality of the translations before they post material.
“School districts use a wide range of methods for translating documents,” he said. “Some use volunteer language speakers, some use bilingual staff, and others use translation services. No wonder we get a variety and a mix of document translations in school districts.”
But if districts carefully examine database documents, the service can be an important asset. “We simply don’t have the money to critique the documents that districts and county offices provide for inclusion in the database,” Shimizu said. “We do have a sort of ‘buyer beware’ disclaimer. It will be up to districts to ensure that these documents say what they purport to say.”
Shimizu said the resource is “a tool and a help,” but will require districts to do some fact checking.
“Editing a document is much less work than translating it,” he said.
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