School-home communication in multiple languages.

The No Child Left Behind Act requires school districts to communicate with parents in an "understandable and uniform format ... in a language that parents can understand." But with a student population representing 131 countries and speaking 81 major languages, the Cobb County, Ga., Public School District was finding it difficult to meet that federal mandate.

How does a school district reach all parents when faced with such a spectrum of languages? At individualized education program conferences and disciplinary hearings, educators must convey critical information to parents, and although administrators in Cobb County tried communicating with non-English-speaking parents via their sons and daughters, other parents, bus drivers or community members, they were not always sure the information was being conveyed accurately and completely.

The district's administrators turned to the supervisor of English for speakers of other languages, Evelyne Barker, and a consultant, Craig Geers, to develop a solution. After much research, they proposed the district create an office dedicated to facilitating communications between school and home for the district's international community. Thus, the Cobb County Public Schools Refugee Immigrant Parent Outreach Services program, or RIPOS, was born.

Funding for the full-time translators and a program secretary come from a portion of the district's Title III funds as well as a refugee outreach grant from the Georgia Department of Education. I was hired to start the program and recruit, screen and train a multilingual staff of interpreters.

Proficient Translators

The first step was to identify the languages most prevalent in the district and to seek translators proficient in those languages. By reviewing the home language survey of the district's ESOL students, we discovered five most widely used languages were Spanish, Portuguese, French Creole, Korean, Russian and Hindi.

To recruit staff, we posted the interpreter positions on the district's human resources website but received an insufficient number of responses from qualified interpreters. A mailing to Chambers of Commerce, local colleges and universities, ethnic organizations and businesses catering to the five ethnic populations expanded the pool of qualified applicants.

We hired a foreign language professor from a local university as a consultant to assist in a two-step process to assess the written and verbal skills of qualified applicants.

First, each applicant was asked to translate two school documents from English to the language of his or her choice. A professor skilled in the applicant's language checked the translations and graded them using a rubric.

Second, we invited the top three candidates for each language to an interview. The first part of the interview challenged the candidate to act as an interpreter during the simulation of an individualized education program meeting. Then the candidate was asked to read a general magazine article and discuss it with us in the target language. These discussions were recorded and reviewed in detail using a rubric to ensure quality interpretation.

The seven applicants we hired came from all walks of life and included clergy, teachers, business people and recent college graduates. Although they had demonstrated their mastery of the target language during the selection process, all were required to pass the American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Languages Oral Proficiency Interview as well.

The interpreters attended training sessions on various aspects of school culture, procedures and issues of confidentiality, as well as reportable issues such as child abuse and neglect.

Multilingual Support

The Refugee Immigrant Parent Outreach Services office now employs nine full-time, trained translators/interpreters. In addition, the district contracted with Georgia Mutual Assistance Association Consortium, a not-for-profit organization, to provide interpreters on an as-needed basis in the absence of an interpreter for a specific language. As a result, the RIPOS office has access to more than 40 part-time interpreters and can accommodate most of the district's 81 language needs.

The district is divided into six areas. Each area has a facilitator responsible for meeting its schools' language needs. Schools access RIPOS services by submitting a request form to the facilitator in their area indicating the type of meeting or document to be translated, the language, timeline and pertinent information to prepare the interpreter for the assignment. The office requires five days of advance notice. Obscure languages require more time.

In addition to translating, RIPOS staff members give presentations to school staff on the culture of their students and offer workshops to inform parents about their rights, high school graduation requirements, collegiate scholarship opportunities and other topics of interest--all in their home language.

To ensure all parents have the information they need, the district contracted with a web-based service called the TransACT[R] Compliance and Communication Center,[TM] which provides more than 65 NCLB parent notification documents in six languages and more than 60 general education parent notification documents in 23 languages. TransACT's management system organizes content, manages users and keeps schools on track to provide timely and consistent communication to parents, regardless of their home language.

Cobb County's outreach to non-English speakers has affected more than 6,000 families through its diverse range of services since its start in February 2002.

Verdi Avila, former coordinator for refugee/ immigrant parent outreach in Cobb County, Ga., is comprehensive needs assessment coordinator in migrant education for the Georgia Department of Education, 205 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive S.E., Atlanta, GA 30334. E-mail: [e-mail]