The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) put all of its certificates on moratorium in 2016 when CASLI was created and that body took responsibility for the administration and ongoing development and maintenance of exams. This involved the NIC, CDI, ED:K-12, SC:L and Oral Transliteration Certificates. The moratorium was subsequently lifted on the NIC and CDI certifications, but not on the other three. For the ED:K-12, SC:L and Oral Transliteration Certificates, the moratorium only affects new applicants; those who hold these Certificates continue to be RID-certified.
Holders of the ED:K-12 Certificate demonstrated the ability to interpret or transliterate classroom content and discourse between students who are deaf and hard of hearing and students, teachers and school staff who are hearing. They demonstrated a score of 4.0 or higher on the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA), using spoken English and at least one of the following visual languages, constructs, or symbol systems at either an elementary or secondary level:
- American Sign Language (ASL)
- Manually Coded English (MCE)
- Contact Signing (aka: Pidgin Signed English (PSE) or English-like Signing)
- Cued American English (CAE) (aka: Cued Speech)
No ED:K-12 Certificates have been issued for nearly six years.
The RID “Certificates Under Moratorium” page on their website states that:
Restarting the awarding of these certifications is dependent upon
- RID operationalizing the 2007 member motion regarding establishment of criteria for recognizing tests other than RID’s – such as Boys Town, BEI, or some other non-RID or CASLI created testing tool
- The adoption of this criteria by the RID certified membership
- Application of these entities for recognition of their test, and compliance of the test with the approved criteria
If and when these events happen, then the RID Board could determine lifting the moratorium on the appropriate certifications.
However, RID has a contract with Boys Town verifying the psychometrics and confirming the 4.0 meets RID standards. That raises a question: with this contract in place, why was the moratorium on the ED:K-12 Certificate not lifted when the moratoriums were lifted on the NIC and CDI certifications?
Some hopeful news though on this issue – the RID Board of Directors has recently created a K-12 Educational Interpreter Task Force. More detail on that task force will be forthcoming from RID.
