Why is education for deaf students generaly poor quality ?

Answer 1

This is a problem with a history that stretches back to the 1800s. For many years (until the 1960s-70s, bigotry and prejudice forced deaf children to attempt to learn entirely via "oralism"--learning to read lips.

Currently, myths born in that period still persist--that hearing -impaired students can't learn to read and write well because they cant hear. Consequently, the students are not expected to do well, and no one holds schoos accountable.

Most deaf children use American Sign Language (ASL)--which is an entirely different language from English--or from "signed English." So--to make a long story short--when these students are taught English as a "second language"--what is now termed "bilingual" education for the deaf--they do well.

Unfortunately, few special education programs-and even some schools for the deaf--persist in using outmoded and ineffective methods.

Answer 2

Education that is outside the "normal" situations (average kids, average teachers, few or no learning disabilities) is often of poor quality.

And smart deaf students who are in a school/classroom with all deaf students, will be stuck, because the teacher is likely to teach to the lowest common denominator, rather than stick to the grade-appropriate curriculum.

Answer 3

Teachers of the deaf are in high demand. Many school districts do not have or utilize teachers of the deaf, therefore they do not have professionals in the district that understand the needs of deaf students. And some teachers are resistant to utilizing strategies needed for the child, because they feel it takes away from their other students. Another reason is that districts like to play the money game, and do not want to spend the money needed to provide serivices and technology needed for the student, and if it doesn't work, there is nobody in the district that knows how to troubleshoot, so it sits there, broken, because the district does not want to spend the money to fix it. There are some districts however, that do have teachers of the deaf, that do spend the money, and that do make sure that these students get the services that they need. I have had the luxury of working in these districts for the past several years, and my students are getting a very good education.

Answer 4

Why is it difficult for SOME deaf or hard of hearing students to achieve high reading, writing and to some extent math scores? Because they do not hear the sounds that make up all of our written language. That’s the short answer- but you didn’t really ask that, you asked why the programs are “poor quality”.

Let me ask you this: Do you judge a dentist’s “quality” if you eat too much sugar? Of course not. Then why would you blame all programs for the Deaf as “poor quality”. Like dentists, there are poor ones and there are many great ones both private and public. Here are the world renown ones which are pumping out kids on or above grade level!
http://www.cid.edu/
http://www.sjid.org/ind/index.html
http://www.lexnyc.com/
http://www.ntid.rit.edu/
http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/mssd/


You have to look at all the factors involved. I have worked at a school where foreign students arrived having never been in school until they were 14 years old. They had no English at home, no hearing, never wore hearing aids and never learned sign language and their parents didn’t read. It’s tough to catch up when you are that far behind. There are kids who are habitually absent, move every 6 months to different schools and who get no support at home. Just like hearing kids, they do poorly despite the best teachers or programs. Some parents are struggling just to feed their kids and education is the last concern.

On the other hand, I have also worked at a private program where the babies had hearing aids at 2 weeks old, the parents put them in parent-infant programs until they were able to go to school, took them to speech therapy three times a week and put them in schools where the ratio was 3 kids to one teacher. These kids were above average in academic skills.

Now let’s talk about hearing impairment. Some kids hear more and find speech and reading easier than having to learn to memorize all words as do profoundly deaf students.
There are genetic Deaf kids with grandparents and parents signing to them from the day they are born and these kids are often gifted, their language reading and math that of their hearing peers or above! They attend universities not only for the D/HH but local ones too.

But there are also hearing impairment caused by damage, injury, babies born prematurely and medications. Many of these kids would have other problems learning EVEN if they could hear. They struggle- does that make a poor program? There is no magic fix, hearing or deaf.

Programs that ARE poor are programs which are not funded by the state because the legislature does not understand what equipment is needed or that low teacher/student ratios are needed to teach these students, especially those with other problems. Some schools don’t hire good interpreters or teachers from the good teacher programs around the country.

By reading other special ed questions on Yahoo Answers, it is apparent that many schools just do not have the funding to give special ed kids what is really needed in equipment, personnel or training. Deafness is only 1% of the population, that is a very small number and many folks just don’t know what is needed.

Did you know that where I live a nationally certified interpreter can earn $25 an hour freelancing (interpreting for clients going to the doctor or doing business) but the school district only pays $11. What would you do!?

Most deaf ed teachers have their master’s but in some districts they travel to 16 different schools or have 25 kids grades k-12. Imagine asking a regular teacher to teach 12 grade levels! That means they are not providing kids with the TIME each kid needs. Teachers put in a lot of time rewriting materials, finding pictures to go with lessons, teaching sign language on the side and otherwise supporting the students. This is seldom recognized by parent, other teachers or staff. My district lost 3 D/HH itinerant teachers to “burn out” last year and the district never replaced them, just shared the load with whomever was left.

Parents advocating for their children makes more of a difference than a teacher trying to change the system, so encourage parents to fight for what they need and want for their kids!

Answer 5

It's really hard to generalize, but I would have to say it's because first of all, most parents go with the oralism meathod of learning for their deaf children, thinking it will make life easier for them, but the truth is that the majority of their education is spent in speach therapy and not on learning basic knowledge. Most parents dont' learn sign language when they find out that their child is deaf. I think that it is an important thing that is grossly overlooked. I don't understand why parents think that it's not important. But anyway...I hope that helps.