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Dilemma for deaf students: Where to attend high school | The Detroit News | detnews.com
When her teacher looked away in class recently, Autumn Stephens' hands sprang into action to discuss the Miss Deaf Teen Michigan Pageant with another student at the Detroit Day School for the Deaf.
The school, where American Sign Language is the primary way to communicate, makes her feel at home, Autumn said through an interpreter.
But the eighth-grader's comfort will be short-lived, because the school does not offer a high school curriculum. That means Autumn, 13, likely will be sent next fall to one of four Detroit public high schools that have small programs for deaf students.
Teachers and parents at the 35-student school have proposed the addition of a full high school curriculum in partnership with a traditional high school. The addition would allow students to continue to be surrounded by deaf peers, have access to a staff that is proficient in sign language and be exposed to successful deaf adult role models. They would also have access to the sports and clubs of a traditional high school.
Autumn's mother, Monique Hunter, said her daughter, who cannot read lips, is concerned about feeling alone next year if she's forced to go to a school populated by hundreds of students who don't use sign language and who can't relate to deaf culture -- such as the pageant.
"She has said she would want to be able to make friends with everybody," Hunter said. "But when she can't talk to other kids and they can't communicate with her, then she wouldn't have friends. She wouldn't have anybody to socialize with."
Finding teachers a challenge
Officials for the Detroit Day School for the Deaf say the cost of adding a high school curriculum would be minimal because teachers from the other schools would be concentrated in one location. District officials say they are considering it, but the building is not equipped to handle high school students, and finding the specialized teachers is a challenge.
In the meantime, many students transfer to the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint, the state's only residential public school. The 145-student school caters to deaf or hearing-impaired students ages 3 to 26. Elsewhere throughout the state, districts partner to serve deaf students in their general education schools.
Because Detroit Day School for the Deaf doesn't offer high school, the Detroit school district has lost at least 21 students -- and the roughly $7,500 from the state that accompanies each of them -- over the last five years to the Michigan School for the Deaf, said middle school math teacher Lori David.
"We're not saying this would be the option for all deaf students," David said. "But it needs to be an option."
Autumn's brother, Matthew Stephens, is a ninth-grader at Detroit's Communication and Media Arts High School, but he feels isolated from the rest of the student body, Hunter said.
Hunter said administrators told her Matthew would be integrated in classes with other students, but he has just one class with hearing students. Much of the time, he is in a room with other deaf students, leaving him feeling secluded because there are so few deaf students in the school, she said.
Hunter said that violates the U.S. Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, a law governing how to teach students with disabilities. The law says schools must provide a free appropriate public education in the "least restrictive environment" for students with disabilities. That means they should have the same access to curriculum, activities and sports as nondisabled students, and, to the extent possible, be educated with nondisabled peers, called "mainstreaming."
But, according to the Day School for the Deaf's proposal to Superintendent Connie Calloway, some students are better served when surrounded by teachers and peers who can communicate with them.
"While (mainstreaming and other approaches) have served many children with disabilities very well, this has not always been the case for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. All too often, mainstreaming, integration and inclusion are confusing and do not equate to a true inclusive placement," the proposal states.
Trouble making friends
Jacqueline Crandall, a deaf social studies teacher at the school for the deaf, said students who communicate through sign language have trouble befriending students who can hear, particularly in a typical high school.
Crandall speaks from experience. She graduated from Allen Park High School in the 1970s as the only deaf student in her class.
"It is a rare child who will take the time to learn sign language to learn to communicate with another child," she said. "It looks good on paper, but in reality, it does not happen."
The school's advocates say it would be cost-effective to house the district's deaf programs at the Day School for the Deaf and one traditional high school, concentrating scarce resources and limiting the number of sign language interpreters. General education students could learn sign language at the school for the deaf, building a community to communicate with deaf students, school officials said.
Advocates believe the school for the deaf's small classes -- no more than seven students per teacher -- also would continue to provide necessary interactive, one-on-one instruction for deaf students. Teachers at the Day School for the Deaf are always within close eyesight of students so they can see their hands or read their lips.
But if the students are forced into schools where the teacher does not know sign language, necessitating a sign language interpreter, students might lose information in translation, school officials said.
Traditional schools create other barriers, as well, they said.
Deaf students forced to rely on an interpreter sometimes struggle to take notes because they can't look away to write, and studies have shown that deaf students have trouble following an interpreter during group discussion because it's difficult to follow who is talking.
Challenges of the change
But the district said transforming the school is challenging.
"High school is not offered because the school is not adequately equipped to handle the current demands for secondary mathematics (and) science," said Detroit Public Schools' spokesman Steve Wasko. "And there is a need to upgrade the facilities to meet the size and physical needs of today's teenagers and young adults."
The school's teachers would not meet the strict teaching requirement to be considered "highly qualified" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, he said.
While the district is reviewing the proposal, several factors must still be considered, he said.
"We are initiating a team to develop instructional goals and process to evaluate the school and student needs," Wasko said.
Harold Johnson, co-director of the deaf education program at Michigan State University, agreed that many factors need to be considered when educating students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment.
Isolation is a concern for deaf students in traditional high schools, he said. In fact, 86 percent of deaf or hard-of-hearing students are being educated in neighborhood schools, while 14 percent are in schools for deaf. In neighborhood schools, 60 percent of the programs have one to three deaf or hearing-impaired students in the building, he said.
"The primary problem with deafness in not the lack of hearing, but an abundance of isolation," he said. "Many times in an inclusion setting, (students) can be very isolated."
However, Johnson said creating a quality high school program for deaf and hearing-impaired students is a challenge. That's because research shows the best teachers are proficient not only in American Sign Language, but also in bilingual teaching and English as a Second Language. For deaf students, English reading and writing are often taught as a second language after sign language.
When her teacher looked away in class recently, Autumn Stephens' hands sprang into action to discuss the Miss Deaf Teen Michigan Pageant with another student at the Detroit Day School for the Deaf.
The school, where American Sign Language is the primary way to communicate, makes her feel at home, Autumn said through an interpreter.
But the eighth-grader's comfort will be short-lived, because the school does not offer a high school curriculum. That means Autumn, 13, likely will be sent next fall to one of four Detroit public high schools that have small programs for deaf students.
Teachers and parents at the 35-student school have proposed the addition of a full high school curriculum in partnership with a traditional high school. The addition would allow students to continue to be surrounded by deaf peers, have access to a staff that is proficient in sign language and be exposed to successful deaf adult role models. They would also have access to the sports and clubs of a traditional high school.
Autumn's mother, Monique Hunter, said her daughter, who cannot read lips, is concerned about feeling alone next year if she's forced to go to a school populated by hundreds of students who don't use sign language and who can't relate to deaf culture -- such as the pageant.
"She has said she would want to be able to make friends with everybody," Hunter said. "But when she can't talk to other kids and they can't communicate with her, then she wouldn't have friends. She wouldn't have anybody to socialize with."
Finding teachers a challenge
Officials for the Detroit Day School for the Deaf say the cost of adding a high school curriculum would be minimal because teachers from the other schools would be concentrated in one location. District officials say they are considering it, but the building is not equipped to handle high school students, and finding the specialized teachers is a challenge.
In the meantime, many students transfer to the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint, the state's only residential public school. The 145-student school caters to deaf or hearing-impaired students ages 3 to 26. Elsewhere throughout the state, districts partner to serve deaf students in their general education schools.
Because Detroit Day School for the Deaf doesn't offer high school, the Detroit school district has lost at least 21 students -- and the roughly $7,500 from the state that accompanies each of them -- over the last five years to the Michigan School for the Deaf, said middle school math teacher Lori David.
"We're not saying this would be the option for all deaf students," David said. "But it needs to be an option."
Autumn's brother, Matthew Stephens, is a ninth-grader at Detroit's Communication and Media Arts High School, but he feels isolated from the rest of the student body, Hunter said.
Hunter said administrators told her Matthew would be integrated in classes with other students, but he has just one class with hearing students. Much of the time, he is in a room with other deaf students, leaving him feeling secluded because there are so few deaf students in the school, she said.
Hunter said that violates the U.S. Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, a law governing how to teach students with disabilities. The law says schools must provide a free appropriate public education in the "least restrictive environment" for students with disabilities. That means they should have the same access to curriculum, activities and sports as nondisabled students, and, to the extent possible, be educated with nondisabled peers, called "mainstreaming."
But, according to the Day School for the Deaf's proposal to Superintendent Connie Calloway, some students are better served when surrounded by teachers and peers who can communicate with them.
"While (mainstreaming and other approaches) have served many children with disabilities very well, this has not always been the case for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. All too often, mainstreaming, integration and inclusion are confusing and do not equate to a true inclusive placement," the proposal states.
Trouble making friends
Jacqueline Crandall, a deaf social studies teacher at the school for the deaf, said students who communicate through sign language have trouble befriending students who can hear, particularly in a typical high school.
Crandall speaks from experience. She graduated from Allen Park High School in the 1970s as the only deaf student in her class.
"It is a rare child who will take the time to learn sign language to learn to communicate with another child," she said. "It looks good on paper, but in reality, it does not happen."
The school's advocates say it would be cost-effective to house the district's deaf programs at the Day School for the Deaf and one traditional high school, concentrating scarce resources and limiting the number of sign language interpreters. General education students could learn sign language at the school for the deaf, building a community to communicate with deaf students, school officials said.
Advocates believe the school for the deaf's small classes -- no more than seven students per teacher -- also would continue to provide necessary interactive, one-on-one instruction for deaf students. Teachers at the Day School for the Deaf are always within close eyesight of students so they can see their hands or read their lips.
But if the students are forced into schools where the teacher does not know sign language, necessitating a sign language interpreter, students might lose information in translation, school officials said.
Traditional schools create other barriers, as well, they said.
Deaf students forced to rely on an interpreter sometimes struggle to take notes because they can't look away to write, and studies have shown that deaf students have trouble following an interpreter during group discussion because it's difficult to follow who is talking.
Challenges of the change
But the district said transforming the school is challenging.
"High school is not offered because the school is not adequately equipped to handle the current demands for secondary mathematics (and) science," said Detroit Public Schools' spokesman Steve Wasko. "And there is a need to upgrade the facilities to meet the size and physical needs of today's teenagers and young adults."
The school's teachers would not meet the strict teaching requirement to be considered "highly qualified" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, he said.
While the district is reviewing the proposal, several factors must still be considered, he said.
"We are initiating a team to develop instructional goals and process to evaluate the school and student needs," Wasko said.
Harold Johnson, co-director of the deaf education program at Michigan State University, agreed that many factors need to be considered when educating students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment.
Isolation is a concern for deaf students in traditional high schools, he said. In fact, 86 percent of deaf or hard-of-hearing students are being educated in neighborhood schools, while 14 percent are in schools for deaf. In neighborhood schools, 60 percent of the programs have one to three deaf or hearing-impaired students in the building, he said.
"The primary problem with deafness in not the lack of hearing, but an abundance of isolation," he said. "Many times in an inclusion setting, (students) can be very isolated."
However, Johnson said creating a quality high school program for deaf and hearing-impaired students is a challenge. That's because research shows the best teachers are proficient not only in American Sign Language, but also in bilingual teaching and English as a Second Language. For deaf students, English reading and writing are often taught as a second language after sign language.
