Abstract

In 1978 a federal law marked the beginning of standard setting and professionalization of court interpreters through testing. In 1995, an entity now called the Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification was created by the National Center for State Courts and four founding states (Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington.) The Consortium was created as a way to ameliorate shortages of resources and expertise to implement standards for interpreting proficiency at the state level, problems shared by virtually all of the states. Now, as a consequence of institutionalization, a forum has been created wherein exchange of information and expertise, and development of policy recommendations about any issues relating to language services for linguistic minorities takes place.

The National Center for State Courts, with funding by the State Justice Institute, initiated a project to consult with personnel of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) in an effort to explore these questions: What, if any, advantages might be secured for both federal and state courts from systematic efforts to exchange information? Are there any areas of responsibility where operational coordination might be advantageous and practically feasible? The methodology was simple: project staff traveled to Washington D.C. periodically over a period of six months to meet with staff of the AOUSC in structured work sessions. The report that follows documents the information that was exchanged during these meetings about the state and federal systems and program initiatives that are underway or that are being contemplated or evaluated. Conclusions that NCSC staff reached as a consequence of the project are also presented and discussed.

This abstract has been taken from the authors' section on background.

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

10-1998

Publication Information

National Center for State Courts (1998)

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