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Press Release: VIEWS, fall 2007
National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers: An Update!
By Betsy Winston
The National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers (NCIEC or Consortium) is a relatively new institution in the field of interpreting and interpreting education. Formed very late in 2005, the Consortium, consisting of 6 member Centers, has been working diligently to meet and exceed the mandates of the federal government funding priorities. Results of much of our work to date can be viewed at our website, www.asl.neu.edu/nciec/. Our projects, our mission, reports of our activities, resources for interpreters, educators and mentors populate the site. A recent market survey indicates that, despite our short history, stakeholders and consumers are beginning to recognize the efforts and ideals of the Consortium. At this juncture, barely two years into our work, we hope this update will serve to further inform practitioners and educators, consumers and stakeholders alike.

The goal of the NCIEC is to increase the number of qualified interpreters and advance the field of interpreting education. We have identified several concurrent initiatives that support our achievement of this goal. These include identifying the actual needs of our field, our consumers, and our educational approaches to preparing qualified interpreters; identifying, implementing and promoting effective practices in interpreter education; and disseminating resources that satisfy our definitions of best and effective practices. Over the course of our first two years, we have made substantial progress in each area.

Identifying Needs
The NCIEC has begun to identify the needs of consumers, practitioners, and educators through a series of initial needs assessments. These have been, and continue to be, developed by national teams of content experts, practitioners, consumers, and stakeholders. We presented the results of our first needs assessment report, focused on interpreting practitioners, at the RID convention in San Francisco. It sheds light on many aspects of practitioners’ needs, the kinds of education that they have, the years of experience, their plans to remain or leave the field. Anecdotally, we have long believed that we faced a growing crisis in the number of interpreters available. The Practitioners Needs Assessment documents this for the first time, and illuminates needs and trends across a variety of areas. The full report is available to anyone at the NCIEC website www.asl.neu./edu/nciec/resource/.  Currently we are analyzing the results of needs assessments from Deaf consumers, mentors and mentees, and from interpreter education programs. Needs assessments for IEP Educators and for students are being disseminated in October 2007. If you are a member of either of these two groups, you can contact us at NCIEC@neu.edu  to find out where you can fill out the survey. Future assessments include more intensive needs assessments with Deaf and Deafblind consumers, interpreting agencies, and vocational rehabilitation service providers. Synthesizing the results of this massive data-gathering activity will provide our field with a much-needed analysis of what “qualified” means to these various and diverse groups. The results of this work will serve to inform revisions and enhancements for our next round of needs assessments.

Establishing Effective Practices
The national, comprehensive needs assessments are an exciting part of our work in the NCIEC. However, identifying needs is only the first stage of our work. In order to ultimately increase the number of qualified interpreters, we need to identify what is happening now to educate interpreters. Our national teams have begun gathering this information in a variety of areas of education, including Deaf interpreting, mentoring, mental health, medical and vocational rehabilitation. Once gathered, the teams determine which fall into the category of “best practices.” These are practices that are believed to be valuable, and that are used by leading educators and institutions, but for which there is little or no data from evaluation and research to document their impact. We have begun intensive literature reviews, focus group meetings, and interviews with content experts in order to determine which practices are seen to be “best” in our field.

Once best practices are identified, we take two complementary approaches—we evaluate the effectiveness of the best practices, accumulating data to demonstrate whether or not the practice actually does have an impact. Where practices may be lacking, we design, implement, and evaluate new practices. NCIEC has established teams of interpreting practitioners, educators, and consumers to lead us through this process in several essential topic areas. Currently, NCIEC teams are working through an intensive process of identifying current practices, further narrowing those into a group of best practices, and systematically evaluating the short and long term impact and effectiveness of these practices. Teams are also identifying areas where practices are rare, and developing new educational approaches for ensuring that participants move toward the goal of becoming qualified interpreters. Reports describing the work of each team, and the progress of each team through the stages of identifying and investigating practices, implementing and promoting effective practices are available on our website. Similar activities are being implemented by specific Centers, especially related to teaching interpreting and interpreting educators effective practices in teaching interpreting.

Promoting Effective Practices
As we identify those practices, materials and products that are proven to be valuable to teaching interpreters, through evaluation and testing, dissemination and promotion of those activities will become a more and more important aspect of our work in the Consortium. Although we are in the earliest stages of this aspect of our work, one such activity is an exciting collaboration of the six member Centers in convening IEP directors and faculty to create cohesive curriculum and identify faculty who are qualified to teach interpreting. Over the course of the coming year, meetings are being held in several locations across the US to introduce the Teaching Interpreting Competencies for evaluating interpreting faculty skills, knowledge, and abilities as teachers. originally identified by Project TIEM.Online, and to discuss the components of a cohesive and comprehensive curriculum, as delineated by the CIT National Interpreter Education Standards and put into practical application through the CCIE’s nationally recognized IEP accreditation process. Information about this new and exciting initiative can be found at our website at www.asl.neu./edu/nciec/resource/. Please contact the Center serving your region for additional information about these meetings. Links to each Center are found on the consortium website at www.asl.neu.edu/nciec/.

Fundamental Elements of our Work
The work of the teams described above is supported by extensive input from each of the six member Centers. Each Center is committed to ensuring that its work and its activities reflect the philosophies of the funding entity, and to achieving the goal of increasing the number of qualified interpreters and advancing the field of interpreter education. Each Center recognizes the strength and impact that this collaborative approach brings to our work, and has committed to active collaboration with the Consortium, with its sister Centers, and with partners across a broad and diverse spectrum of individuals, organizations, and institutions.  Some of the specific criteria that we use to evaluate our work and progress include:

1. dedicated efforts to demonstrating effectiveness in every area, including not only the specific topical team, but in the accessibility and diversity of our materials, activities, and products
2. involvement of consumers at every step and in every aspect of our activities
3. a focus on consumers using VR services
4. promotion of innovation
5. effectively maximizing our resources
6. proactive sharing of products nationwide
7. development of strong partnerships

To these ends, we are developing guidelines for creating and evaluating translations of websites, products and materials into the languages of our consumers, including Spanish, ASL, and English. We ensure that our materials are accessible for Deafblind consumers, and strive to approach each project with the needs of our diverse audience of stakeholders and consumers foremost in mind.

As a newly established organization, we are only beginning our journey toward increasing the number of qualified interpreters and advancing the field of interpreter education. At the end of two years of growth and diligent collaboration, we are beginning to see the impact of the exciting information and improved practices that we are identifying. As we continue our work to increase the number of qualified interpreters and to advance the field of interpreter education, we look forward to ever-growing partnerships with all those we strive to serve. We invite you to visit our website for further information, for details about our work, our achievements, and our on-going goals and commitments, and for resources in interpreting and interpreting education. We encourage you to participate in our many activities and project.

Betsy Winston, Director
National Interpreter Education Center at Northeastern University
Member, NCIEC  RSA Grant #H160A&B05

The National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers is funded from 2005 – 2010 by the U.S. Department of Education RSA CFDA #84.160A and B, Training of Interpreters for Individuals Who Are Deaf and Individuals Who Are Deaf-Blind.

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