Texas court staff propose 40-hour online training to boost court interpreter pass rates

Court staff proposed a 40-hour, self-paced online training course to better prepare prospective court interpreters for the licensing exam and to raise pass rates for Texas courts.

Sandra DeJo, of the Office of Court Administration (OCA) court services division, presented the plan during a meeting of the Judicial Language Access Committee. DeJo said the course would be available for 60 days and would include 20 modules focused on Texas court proceedings, ethics and the three modes of interpreting. “We do not believe 6 hours is enough for somebody that is an aspiring court interpreter to have a grasp of what is needing to become a licensed court interpreter,” DeJo said.

The proposal, which OCA staff described as a pilotable, optional program, is intended to raise passing scores on the oral proficiency portions of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) licensing exam used statewide. Ron Morgan (staff member) told the committee the largest shortfall is oral exam performance: “The biggest need that we're seeing is that people are having a hard time passing the oral proficiency exam, in order to serve as an…