Why have educational outcomes for students who are deaf and hard of hearing remained substandard?

Answer 1

Sorry, but the problem is not on how to write a proper IEP. The problem is bigger and more complicated than that.
1) Writing a good IEP is based on the abilities and understanding of the counselor, yes; However, these same counselors do not want to expend any extra efforts to write teh proper IEP.. sometimes it is due to their lack of understanding. Mostly its abuot what the parents know too adn if teh parents do not get involved, the the kid suffers.
2) School administrations: They get their money for these programs from eth state and there is only so much money.. I know, its sad but very true. Adminstrators only set up what their program says they can.. and I have witnessed there being no adviocacy by the school adnintsrtors to say this will not work (soemtiems they don't know what will either, but rely on the "experts" telling them what to do.
3) the so-called "experts:" in educating Deaf/HofH have all kinds of degrees, etc, but I have not come across any who are in the world of the Deaf/HofH to know what is needed and how to achieve better education standards.
4) Government (state and federal!!).. need I say more?
Its a shame that it used to be that Deaf and HofH would graduate at a higher level than they do now.
I am sure ther may be other factors and people will have differences in opinions, but the bottom line is there is very little advocacy in schoosl to ensure a higher standard be implemented.. partly due to mainstreaming and partly due to the various approaches in how to educate Deaf/HofH.. and a lot to do with the ideas that Deaf and HofH will not be able to succeed in a hearing world .. *(Which is a lot of Bull!!!)
Any changes needs to start with educating parents what their rights are for their Deaf/HofH children. Many guidance counsleors do not do this .. which is why the IEPs can be prroly written .. and agencies such as the one I am on The Board of do not have the ability to step in and do this (we have no legal authority to do so).

Answer 2

The education of Deaf and HoH has come a long way, but it still has a long way to go... and it is very unfortunate that many Deaf and HoH kids are still graduating high school reading at a 4th grade level. There are so many factors that play into this, it's hard to identify why this still occurs so much.

What I see in my field as a major contributing factor is hearing parents (clueless about deafness) not exploring ALL the options they have and not educating themselves about what is best for their Deaf child.

Deaf children cannot hear and so they cannot pick up on the English language the way hearing kids do naturally growing up, so there is no possible way they can develop English as a strong solid language base... and language is so critical! Learning to use a language that is not accessible to you takes work; and language should not take work, but it should develop naturally. I have seen so much success in Deaf children who are exposed to American Sign Langauge (ASL) from birth. Only with a solid language base can they learn English as a second language to read and write successfully. This does not mean that I don't believe that Deaf children should not learn to use what residual hearing they have or use speech, but this should not be at the expense of gaining a foundational first language. The Deaf children I have had experience working with who were exposed to ASL from birth successfully graduated high school reading at the same level as their hearing counterparts, and usually moved on to college.

Why can't this be the case for almost all Deaf children? The bilingual-bicultural approach is scary and overwhelming to hearing families of Deaf children. Making your child try to communicate with you in your own language is much easier than having to learn a language for your child... but that works pays off and it is so worth it.

This is a huge issue... and unfortunately, with the rise of cochlear implantations going on now, research about the success of this approach has "fallen on deaf ears," so to speak.

Answer 3

Just for another perspective, lets look at two groups of D/HH; those born or acquired hearing impairment ONLY and those born with serious distressed birth conditions.

Of the group with only a hearing impairment there is a much higher probability of success provided they receive early intervention of either speech/hearing aids/CI or ASL.
The top oral schools in US graduate students who are very successful, go to college etc.
There is a trend in ASL education which teaches English as a second language and it is seeing increased performance: Bi-Bi Education.

Unless a baby is born into a family who signs as soon as they bring it home from the hospital, there is going to be a long, large gap in communication. If the parents and doctors are not proactive and pick up on the hearing impairment it may be 3-6 years before the child receives services. Believe it or not, there are pediatricians who are still telling non-verbal preschool parents "He'll talk, just give him time."

There are kids passing hearing screenings in school but unable to hear or process language.There are still services which take 6-9 months to get hearing aids.

Then there is parenting a D/HH child, getting past the denial, the grief and spending time filling in all the gaps- missing information hearing children get from "overhearing" explanations and vocabulary. Deaf parents do a better job at this than hearing parents because they are signing to the kid; giving him the language he needs to understand the world.

This is all before a kid even enters school, this is if the kid has no other problems. Now about those kids born with more than one condition or who aquired a hearing impairment due to disease, like meningitis, or the drugs used to treat it, or the oxygen which was given to keep them alive. Like the hearing population, there are crack-babies and alchoholic syndrome, malformed auditory processes, ADHD and mental retardation. There are also many birth defects and syndromes which include deafness:Tietz, Antenatal Bartter,Waardenburg Syndrome to name a few.These kids may have other learning issues which will show up when they enter school.

When a kid comes into school teachers and other professionals may "know" there are other issues because they have seen it before, BUT are prevented from saying so because a) they are medical conditions and teachers are not doctors b) they have to give the benefit of the doubt: maybe this child HAS a language processing problem but how can you say that if the kid has never had hearing aids or that the family move 6 times in one year so he never got consistent education.

Family life can be a reason too, excessive absences, frequent moves, switching programs too frequently, lack of motivation...schools may or may not have a good program.

All I can really say is there are SO many factors and each case is so unique and individual that we just can't point to one reason, or one test to find the "problem."

I have taught kids who became medical technologists, lawyers, professors and I have taught kids who ended up in jail, dead or dropped out by 16- from the same class, same homework, same instruction!

I would like to see more early intervention programs for parents and kids from 0-3 yrs, fulltime kindergarten and summer education programs for any child needing it, deaf or otherwise.

When you rely only on schools, less than 6 hours a day of direct instruction;due to recess, lunch, non-academics, and then the child goes home to watch 4-6 hours of t.v. or playstation, how can you expect to make up that lost time?

Answer 4

Hearing people try to make deaf people learn in the same ways as hearing people. They try to focus on speech and hearing when the focus should be on reading and writing. They can't fix their speech (most of the time) to be intelligible to the average hearing person, so it is a waste of time in my opinion. They miss out on regular classes so they can attend hours on end of speech classes only to become mediocre at speaking. If we let them use sign language to understand concepts and stop forcing them to spend their days learning to speak, maybe they could learn something useful. Most deaf children have no one to converse with at home because parents refuse to learn sign language. So deaf children don't usually attain a language until they begin school and by that time hearing children have a vocabulary nearly double the deaf child's. I could ramble on about this forever and it's something I feel strongly about. Leave their language alone, let them use it to learn things and most importantly stop trying to fix them!

Answer 5

The same reason all have remained substandard, even w/ NCLB - MONEY; GREED; and The LOSS of VALUE for ENLIGHTENMENT.
Many people are of the opinion that if a person has the resiliency to succeed they will strive to overcome any pitfalls that are placed in their path. The problem with this is that LUCK is then the prime dictation of who is to succeed. As to why deaf children are not to be as enlightened as the hearing is that it would cost too much (government money) and the deaf are too small of a community to be heard (no pun intended).

The biggest problem though, I think, is what you said to me about perception - is a deaf person directing the "Standards of Education for the Deaf" And Why would any standard be less for a deaf person than a hearing person. All students are supposed to have "outcomes" to meet the standards proposed by the state!!! Again a deaf educator should be consulted to ensure the best path toward said standards, but the student still should be held to such standards!

Off the soap box NOW

Answer 6

Because parents don't lobby for change and our public education systems does not care !
Cpoe

Answer 7

Lack of understanding how to write a proper IEP may have something to do with it. Check out www.iepfree.com
or www.iep4u.com

Answer 8

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ag1trCAK28GfLau7RFBKkVnty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080103085048AAf3if3