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School Districts Turn to K12Translate to Build Home-School Connection with English Language Learners

Survey by Leading K-12 Translation Service Cites Decreasing District Budgets as Biggest Challenge in Serving Non-native English Speakers

 

PORTLAND, Oregon – March 1, 2010 – Faced with a growing number of English Language Learners (ELL) and shrinking budgets, K-12 school districts are grappling with the challenge of clearly and cost-effectively communicating with these students and their families. Increasingly, they are turning to K12Translate to help them build the home-school connection with non-native English speaking students and their families.

viaLanguage, a leading provider of global translation and localization services, launched their K12Translate business unit dedicated to serving K-12 schools a year ago to serve the growing demand for these services. Today K12Translate is the nation’s leading professional, online translation service for schools and provides translation services in more than 50 languages to the nation’s top school districts.

According to a survey unveiled today by K12Translate, communicating with and engaging limited English speaking students, parents and communities amidst shrinking budgets is a major concern for school districts for the 2010-2011 school year. Nearly half of school districts reported that limited budgets are their largest challenges in serving their ELL communities, with 44 percent stating that in 2010 they will see a decrease in the federal Title III funding that helps them serve these special populations.

Nearly 90 percent of districts reported that they regularly use the Internet for parent-student communications. However, despite nationally reported growth in social networking, only 12 percent of districts said they used sites such as Twitter and Facebook to build the home-school connection.

“Our 2010 education survey quantified the trends that K12Translate and viaLanguage have been seeing over the past decade. Schools are educating a growing number of students who are non-native English speakers, and education leaders are looking for effective, affordable and timely translation services that will help them ensure that their diverse student and parent populations are connected to the overall school community,” said Chanin Ballance, president and CEO, viaLanguage. “At K12Translate, we have designed our translation process to meet the unique needs of K-12 schools.”

K12Translate offers translation services for any project a school district might have from small projects, such as health notices or field trip permission slips, to larger documents, such as school manuals and educational materials. The company works with more than 1,000 native-speaking translators to ensure that the finished product uses the appropriate dialects and reflects cultural sensitivities. To ensure the highest quality, all K-12 education translations are put through the same rigorous process. They are translated by a native-speaking translator, proofread and edited by a secondary native speaker for accuracy and reviewed by a K12Translate project manager for completion and final delivery.

For more information about K12Translate’s survey results, click here

About K12Translate
K12Translate, a division of viaLanguage, lowers language and cultural barriers to help school districts and educational institutes clearly and effectively communicate with their limited English speaking parents, students and communities. Through the unique combination of its Online Language System (OLS), expert linguists and integration capabilities, K12Translate offers school districts a comprehensive, affordable solution for meeting today’s increasing need for effective multilingual communications. K12Translate serves hundreds of districts across the United States, including Wake County Public Schools (North Carolina), Baltimore City Public School System, Denver Public Schools and Prince William County Public Schools (Virginia).

Media Contact
Lisa Wolfe,
L. Wolfe Communications
773-227-1049
lwolfe@lwolfe.com