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The K12Translate Family Gives Back

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010


All of us here at K12Translate and the viaLanguage family believe that ensuring language access through translation is really about building community. That’s what effective communication makes possible. I guess you could say we sort of have a community-minded focus just by virtue of the work we do.

So, it would just seem to make sense that we feel a natural desire to give back. And I wanted to take this post to applaud all the people in the K12Translate family, and beyond, who find the time and make the effort to give back during the year. Cheers to all of you!

Are you looking for some philanthropic ideas for your company? Here are few organizations and efforts we support:

  • Humane Society – One paid day is donated to each employee to support their favorite non-profit organization. The company also offers an annual team volunteer opportunity. This year it’s the Humane Society—because pets are also part of the community!
  • Operation Cornbread – We support Sisters of the Road Café in Portland, Ore., as part of that organization’s annual matching program, Operation Cornbread, which keeps food coming to the needy during the peak summer months.
  • Annual Translation Grants - We offer in-kind translation grants for organizations reaching out to limited English proficient (LEP) communities, both Healthcare and K12.
  • Heifer International – We provide annual support to a needy family by purchasing and donating a cow. Learn more about this unique program in an earlier post by viaLanguage.

As the Oregon Lottery once said, though I paraphrase, “Your odds of winning are 550,000 to one—significantly higher than if you don’t play.” And it’s the same with making a difference. Act and you can help.

Keep Learning & Keep Giving Back!
Leslie
K12Translate

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Perhaps PPS Can Be a Lesson to All School Districts

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010


I came across an interesting story right from K12Translate’s home state (and city!) of Portland, Oregon. As reported by KATU News, a local Latina activist by the name of Marta Guembes went undercover to investigate Portland Public Schools’ progress in communicating with non-English speaking parents.

Just last year, PPS was required by the state Department of Education to improve communication with non-English speaking parents in order to meet state and federal laws. With 10 percent of the PPS parent population not speaking English, and over 72 languages represented, Guembes set out to see if the district was making strides towards better communication with these populations.

Guembes, undercover as a Spanish-speaking immigrant, called 85 Portland schools over two days. As you can read in her report, the results were not favorable as over one-third of the schools called provided no assistance or information to her, simply responding with “no español.” The remaining schools, according to Guembes, did “not meet the protocol” either.

Now we at K12Translate are big fans of school districts in any state, and we truly understand and appreciate the many barriers there are to providing language access to increasingly diverse student and parent populations. With budgets drastically shrinking, and classrooms rapidly growing, achieving this is challenging at best. But with a bit of planning and the right translation tools and teams, not being another lesson like PPS is possible, and very worth it.

Keep Learning!
Leslie
K12Translate

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A Boost to Help Build the Home-School Connection

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010


We at K12Translate believe that bridging the language gap is key to improving and increasing parental involvement of your ESL/ELL students. To further this cause and support schools or districts pursuing similar initiatives, we are excited to announce our first annual K12 Translation Grant Program! This unique, in-kind donation program will award a total of $2000 in translations to schools or districts meeting the eligibility requirements. The deadline is June 15th, 2010 so visit the K12 Translation Grant Program page now to apply!

Best of luck, and keep learning!
Leslie
K12Translate

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Improving Educational Outcomes for English Language Learners

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010


With many states facing dramatic increases in their ELL populations, The Working Group on ELL Policy, a team of leading ELL researchers and policy experts, has published a report on how to best keep pace with the growing needs of English Language Learners. Focused on improving educational outcomes for ELLs, the report is aimed to inform lawmakers who are discussing reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Left Behind.

The report offers recommendations to improve five key areas of ESEA, making the new policy much more comprehensive than it is today. The proposed changes not only emphasize access to high-quality teachers for ELLs, but also suggest backing schools’ efforts to teach bilingual education. The report recommends that the amount of time it takes ELLs to learn English should be taken into account, therefore allowing the students to have adequate time and resources to develop proficiency and academic progress. It is also suggested that states should employ consistent identification and classification of their ELL students, as well as the length and type of services for them.

With increasingly diverse student populations growing faster than ever, it may be time to revisit our policies to ensure the best strategies and educational opportunities are available for our English Language Learners.

Keep Learning!
Leslie
K12Translate

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On the Move from Oaxaca: Expanding Language Translation Services

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009


As our neighbor to the south and our third largest trading partner, Mexico has been in the news quite a bit recently. We have heard news reports ranging from the strengthening value of the peso to swine flu.

However, I have seen relatively little about the significant increase of indigenous Mixtec and Zapotec speakers from the Mexican state of Oaxaca migrating to the United States. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Zapotecs and Mixtecs have immigrated to the United States over the last 20 years. The Zapotec and Mixtec ethnic groups are marked by incredible linguistic diversity. There are 64 separate Zapotec languages and approximately 57 different Mixtec languages.

What does this mean for education translation in the United States? It means that we need to start discussing language access and language translation services for this population. According to researcher Sarah Poole, by the year 2010 Mixtecs and Zapotecs will comprise 20 percent of the agricultural force in the United States. Currently, this population primarily resides in Southern California, but as they migrate across the country following agricultural cycles, school districts need to start thinking about adding these languages to their language translation services budgets.

Ultimately, the better prepared we are, the better equipped we will be to provide effective language translation services to these families.

Keep Learning!
Maggie
K12Translate


References:http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/oaxaca_cultures.html.

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