Program Description

American Sign Language - English Interpreters in the Pre-K to 12th Grade Academic Setting

The Department of Education, New Jersey Administrative Code 6A:9-13.18 Educational Interpreters requires Sign Language/English Interpreters in the Pre-K to 12th grade academic setting to have a “Standard Educational Services Certificate with a sign language interpreting endorsement” through the state of New Jersey. To receive this endorsement educational interpreters are required to take the Educational Interpreter Performance Test (EIPA) and pass with a 3.0 or higher along with a 15 semester hour sequence of academic coursework. 

Increased numbers of Deaf and Hard of Hearing children are mainstreamed in the public school system, which means there are an increased number of educational interpreters in demand.

The EIP courses provide students with knowledge regarding their unique role and responsibilities as educational interpreters and their role as a member of the education team in the various interpreter assignments within multiple educational settings.

Prerequisite: Approval of Division Dean’s office and official transcript review is required prior to registration.

Upon successful completion of all program requirements, graduates will be able to:

• Develop a personal philosophy of education from the perspective of the Educational Interpreter;
• Discuss characteristics of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards;
• Identify and define characteristics of a curriculum including instructional;
• Outline historical and current trends of childhood language development;
• Relate strategies and techniques for facilitating English language development in Deaf children including, but not limited to alternative forms of communication, bilingual/bicultural issues, assertive technology, sign support, and oral/auditory philosophies;
• Compare and discuss the different philosophies of child development; (i.e. Freud’s psychoanalytic or Freudian theory, Erikson’s Eight Stages of Human Development, Psychosocial Development, Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development and Adolescent Development, source information taken from the American Academy of Child Psychiatry materials and how they apply to children who are deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind;
• Differentiate the interaction of physical, cognitive, emotional, linguistic, social and cultural factors within developmental stages and how they affect children with specialized needs and deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind children;
• Complete a comparison of the development of children without specialized needs with the development and issues facing children and families with specialized needs;
• Discuss how different paradigms within the profession of sign language interpreting impact on the application and interpretation of ethical standards and behavior;
• Discuss the various disability laws and how they apply to deaf and hard of hearing children pre-k to 12. (PL 89-333 Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1965, PL 93-112 Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 501, Section 503, Section 504 recipients of federal assistance, PL94-142 Education for all Handicapped Children Act, Americans With Disabilities Act, IDEA, No Child Left Behind);
• Develop understanding and apply knowledge of the N.J. Administrative Code in daily work in the Pre-K to 12 academic setting.

After Union County College

Graduates may apply for the “Standard Educational Services Certificate with a sign language interpreting endorsement” through the state of New Jersey (Licensure) along with Educational Interpreting Performance Assessment (EIPA) score of 3.0 or higher. These graduates will work in the academic setting, Pre-K to 12 grades.

Recommended Sequence

Milestone Courses