Testing Registered
Registered - Testing Authority
The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) was mandated by the Legislature on July 1, 1990, to administer a comprehensive testing and certification program for spoken language interpreters utilized in court proceedings (RCW 2.43.070). Specifically related to testing, the stature requires the AOC to:
- Establish and adopt standards of proficiency (written and oral) in English and the languages to be interpreted;
- Conduct periodic examinations to ensure the availability of certified interpreters. Periodic examinations shall be made readily available in both eastern and western Washington locations;
- Compile, maintain, and disseminate a current list of interpreters certified by the AOC; and
- The AOC may charge reasonable fees for testing and certification.
Note: These same provisions will apply to the registered category.
In 2005, the legislature appropriated funding for creation of the category of registered interpreters. The AOC and Court Interpreter Commission have established a program for testing and registration of interpreters in languages for which certification is not available.
Council of Language Access Coordinators
The AOC joined forces with Minnesota, New Jersey, and Oregon to create the Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification (The Consortium). Later the Consortium was reorganized into the Council of Language Access Coordinators (CLAC). CLAC operates under the direction and is staffed by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), located in Virginia.
CLAC addresses resource shortages that impede efforts by state courts to define and implement standards for interpreting proficiency. The Consortium was created in July 1995 as a way to provide for and regulate exchange of existing court interpreter proficiency tests and to develop new tests. It is a mechanism through which funds from several sources can be combined to achieve economies of scale across jurisdictional and organizational boundaries that would otherwise be impossible. To date, there are over 40 member states of CLAC.
The functions of CLAC are to:
- regulate court interpretation, test development and reliability for test construction,
- regulate test administration standards,
- provide testing materials, and
- facilitate information sharing among member states, and act as a repository for test versions and candidate tracking.
The Washington State Court Interpreter Program exclusively uses CLAC approved written examinations.
Testing
(1) Written Examination. The written exam is a general English proficiency exam that contains 135 questions in multiple-choice format and includes questions related to legal terminology, English aptitude, and court interpreter ethics. A test candidate must pass with a score of 80% or better to be eligible to take the oral examination.
Passing the written examination is a prerequisite to sitting for the oral examination. However, a passing score of the written examination shall only be valid for 10 years. If a candidate passes the written examination, yet fails to pass the oral examination within 10 years of the written examination date, the candidate must re-take the written examination in order to be eligible for future oral examinations.
(2) Oral Examination. The oral exam consists of simultaneous, consecutive, and sight translation interpretation exercises. The entire oral exam is audio taped and sent to the Consortium to coordinate rating. Linguistic professionals, hired by the Consortium, conduct rating. The test candidate must pass each section with a score of at least 70% or better. In no case shall a person be allowed to take the same oral test version more than once within a 12-month period.
For the purpose of testing English, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) shall administer the Versant English Test of Pearson Education. A rating score of 49 is required to pass the test. For the purpose of testing the non-English language, the AOC shall make every effort to administer the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) developed by Language Testing International. A rating score of Superior is required in order to pass the test. In the event that an OPI exam is not reasonably available for a given language, the AOC may administer the Spoken Language Evaluation from ALTA Language Services, Inc. A rating score of 12 is required in order to pass the test.
