Reaching Students' Families on Their Terms

"This is not about putting words from one language into another," Jarrett said. "After all, 'stakeholder' is not a word in Farsi. Rather, it's about translating meaning."

For translators, the job can be tricky. English terms don't always have direct equivalents in other languages.

"It's very challenging,'' said Diana Vergara, who has worked for 12 years as a Spanish translator in the Fairfax school system.

As a translator, Vergara had an advantage. She was a teacher in Chile, so she understands at least some of the education jargon. However, she said, she sometimes comes across phrases that leave her scratching her head. The hardest, she said, are legal documents.

It's not just language issues she must contend with. Sometimes a document can be translated, but because the concept is uniquely American -- or because it might not exist in another culture -- its meaning could be lost on the target audience.

Take the Dr. Seuss classic "Green Eggs and Ham," which Vergara was asked to translate as part of a home activity for students. The concept of colored food doesn't necessarily translate to other cultures, Vergara said.

"In other countries, people might think, 'Why would you want to eat a green egg?' " Vergara said. "But children here, they grow up with that book, so for them, it would be fun to eat a green egg."

Montgomery's Prather said there are some phrases that all parents, regardless of language ability, need to be able to understand and use. In those cases, with terms such as individualized education program, or IEP-- an acronym used widely in special education -- translators will use the acronym but attempt to explain it in the parent's language.

For less-common languages, most school systems rely on a network of community members. And often officials will have documents proofread by several people to ensure accuracy.

"This is just something that's going to become a fact of life for most school systems,'' said Patti Caplan, spokeswoman for Howard County schools, where students speak 77 languages. "The demand has always been there, but because the population of non-English-speaking parents is growing, we know that if we're going to engage them and keep them involved, we have to reach out."