The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2022 - 24

its first Conference for
Interpreting and Translation
in Education.5
The 2018
OCDE conference helped
build momentum and served
as the official launching
pad for what is now the
American Association of
Interpreters and Translators
in Education (AAITE).
Constrained by
budgetary restrictions,
schools have sought to
fulfill these requirements
by adding bilingualism
and interpreting and
translation duties to the job
descriptions for existing
positions. Although this
is a creative solution to
provide language access,
it lacks understanding
of the skill set needed by
a bilingual individual to
become an interpreter, a
translator, or both-a skill
set that requires formal and
prolonged training.
Some school districts have
benefited from serving highly
diverse student populations.
Ensuring that the needs of
this population are met has
resulted in many schools
taking a different approach
to language access-
one providing a greater
understanding of what
interpreting and translation
entail. Many schools have
created language services
departments and full-time
positions for interpreters
and translators, coupled with
contracting language services
providers for translation
and on-site and remote
interpreting services.
For example, in 2017,
the Orange County
Department of Education
(OCDE) in California, under
the leadership of Natalia
Abarca, who manages
the OCDE Multilingual
Consortium, organized
24 The ATA Chronicle | July/August 2022
AAITE's Ethics and
Standards Committee
In 2019, a call for volunteers
was issued. Translators and
interpreters from across
the U.S. received an e-mail
from the initial group of
organizers of the OCDE
conference asking for their
participation on multiple
committees, each with
specific responsibilities.
The work formally started
in the winter of 2020,
when AAITE went by the
preliminary name of the
Interpreters and Translators
in Education Workgroup. Six
committees were created:
Ethics and Standards, Job
Task Analysis, Best Practices,
Communications, Bylaws,
and Administrative.
As the founding cochair
of the Ethics and
Standards Committee, I
promoted a consensusbased
process and approach
among committee members.
Together we defined our
purpose and created a
shared vision of what the
product of our work would
be. We also determined it
was going to be important
to analyze the work already
completed by other similar
organizations. Committee
members came from
diverse backgrounds and
levels of professional
experience. We've
benefited from having
members with previous
direct knowledge of and
participation in similar
endeavors by the National
Council on Interpreting
in Health Care, National
Board of Certification
for Medical Interpreters,
International Organization
of Standardization, ASTM
International, and the
Minnesota Department
of Education.
Agreeing upon an approach
was our committee's first
task. We felt it was important
not to reinvent the wheel,
but to build a tailored code
of ethics reflecting the
real-world experiences of
translators and interpreters
working in education
across the entire nation,
including those with dual or
multidimensional roles.
To create a starting point
for our analysis, we designed
an 11-step process to be
followed methodically as
a map for our work in the
upcoming months. This
process included building
a thorough understanding
of the current landscape
of existing codes of ethics
developed by other highly
recognized organizations.
From these existing codes
of ethics, our committee,
through consensus,
conducted a preliminary
selection of tenets and their
associated standards of
practice that we considered
should be represented in
our code of ethics (e.g.,
accuracy, confidentiality,
and impartiality). (See Figure
on page 25.) The next steps
in the process incorporated
activities designed to locate
areas where additional tenets
and standards of practice
were needed based on data
obtained through a national
survey. This survey was
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The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2022

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