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Preparing to Use the CMD System

Local educational agencies (LEAs) should develop a plan and structure for using the Clearinghouse for Multilingual Documents (CMD).

Organizing Local CMD Users

The CMD offers three levels of access to provide flexibility to LEAs for managing the CMD data. Depending on the size and organization of an LEA's document translation operation, an LEA may use one or more of the access levels.

  • "Level One" access allows a local user to add new records, read and write to any records belonging to the LEA, and read any record in the CMD database. The person assigned the Level One access will be the person who will provide the CMD access codes to other CMD users in the LEA. Only one Level One account will be given to each LEA. For example, if only one person in the LEA is responsible for handling translated document data in the CMD database, that person should have Level One access.
  • "Level Two" access allows a local user to add new records, write to any records belonging to the user (identified by the email address), and read any record in the CMD database.
  • "Level Three" access allows a local user to only view records in the database. An LEA user that will be only searching the database should have Level Three access.

Every participating LEA should have one person assigned the Level One access. This person is the point of contact for CMD communications from the California Department of Education (CDE) and can distribute Level Two and Level Three access codes to others in the LEA.

For an LEA that has several staff managing CMD data, assign one person as the Level One CMD LEA administrator, assign Level Two contributor access to staff who will be entering data, and assign Level Three read-only access to staff who will be only searching the database. Smaller LEAs with only one person managing the CMD data might need only the Level One access.

Determining Which Translated Documents Will Be Shared Via the CMD

Prior to entering data about translated documents into the CMD database, LEAs should consider how the translated document will be useful to other LEAs.

Reasons for sharing documents via the CMD
  • The translated document content would be useful to other LEAs.
  • The translated document is in a language needed by other LEAs.
Reasons for not sharing documents via the CMD
  • The translated document has copyright, proprietary, or intellectual property restrictions and permission to share or distribute has not been granted.
  • The translated document has caused problems or confusion within the community being served.
  • The translated document has not been tested and verified.

Making Translated Documents Available

There are no standard methods for sharing translated documents with other LEAs. When sharing documents, LEAs should consider the following recommendations:

  • Providing English source documents with the translated documents.
  • Making translated documents available on the LEA's public web server.
  • Accepting feedback to improve the quality of a document translation.
  • Acknowledging agencies for sharing document translations.
Questions: Clearinghouse for Multilingual Documents | cmd@cde.ca.gov | 916-319-0881 
Last Reviewed: Friday, April 19, 2024
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