What constitutes a good DHH program

R

rockdrummer

Guest
I know that many people would suggest that to get a good deaf education that one must attend a deaf school. However I have to believe there are good DHH programs at some of the mainstream schools or at least I hope there are. I was wondering what are the elements that one would look for to help determine if a particular school has a good DHH program. Things like;
Bilingual-BiCultural approach, Least Restrictive environment etc. etc. Since I am not an expert in this area I was wondering if you all could share your experiences and what you think would make a program good or even bad for that matter.

Thank you for your time..

RD
 
I know that many people would suggest that to get a good deaf education that one must attend a deaf school. However I have to believe there are good DHH programs at some of the mainstream schools or at least I hope there are.
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Not quite. I think it probaly depends on the state. Some states have very good formal dhh mainstream schools. I think most people here think that placing a kid in a formal mainstream program, is MUCH better then putting them in a "regular school regular classes, mainstream to the max" with minimal accomondations setting.
 
Thank you DD. So what are some of the things that would make a good DHH program?
 
A good DHH program would include both ASL and English, more than a handful of deaf children, teachers who are fluent in both languages and sensitive to deaf children's needs (dont see them as broken hearing children), Deaf culture is promoted and accepted, classrooms are set up as having full access visually (captioning, graphic organizers, word walls, circular seating), ASL classes are offered to hearing children, appropriate groupings of deaf children (not putting 13 deaf children from kindergarten to
8th grade in the same classroom for language arts), and have deaf role models who work or as guest speakers.
 
Notice how Shel says ".....would include both ASL and English......." and ".....teachers who are fluent in BOTH languages.......". Shows you how sometimes we are skeptical because oftentimes speaking of/for ASL by those who run such programs is/can be nothing more than paying lip service......and we are right to be skeptical.
 
Tousi said:
Notice how Shel says ".....would include both ASL and English......." and ".....teachers who are fluent in BOTH languages.......". Shows you how sometimes we are skeptical because oftentimes speaking of/for ASL by those who run such programs is/can be nothing more than paying lip service......and we are right to be skeptical.
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If I understood you correctly, I agree.
 
shel90 said:
A good DHH program would include both ASL and English, more than a handful of deaf children, teachers who are fluent in both languages and sensitive to deaf children's needs (dont see them as broken hearing children), Deaf culture is promoted and accepted, classrooms are set up as having full access visually (captioning, graphic organizers, word walls, circular seating), ASL classes are offered to hearing children, appropriate groupings of deaf children (not putting 13 deaf children from kindergarten to
8th grade in the same classroom for language arts), and have deaf role models who work or as guest speakers.
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Ditto. Shel has said it all.

The thing is, the reason so many people are in favor of a deaf school rather than a self contained program is you rarely find these accommodations on a consistent basis in a self contained program. With a deaf school, it is par for the course in daily classroom activity.
 
First of all, I'd like to comment on what constitutes a "good" D/HH program w/o getting into pedagogical stuff (ASL/English) obscuring the issue. A good D/HH program should have...

  • Highly qualified personnel. (i.e., certified in their subject area and exceptionality.)
  • While not practical, it would be nice if there's more than one teacher; where one can be highly qualified in Language Arts/Reading and the other similiarly qualified in Math/Science, and students can go to these classes.
  • Follows state standards and uses same materials as found in a gen. ed. classroom.
  • A red flag is if the D/HH teacher uses the Milestone series. That shows extensive modification of instruction deviating from state standards.
  • All students in the class(es) are on the same grade level. (i.e., seeing a single D/HH classroom that has all students from K-5 is another red flag.)
  • If practical, students should have the opportunity to participate in gen. ed. classrooms with appropiate accommodations. (i.e., they may be in a self-contained class for the whole day, except for Math.)
  • Students are subject to standardized state assessments.
  • Classroom is of a highly visual nature; (I liked Shel90's recommendations.)
Any other additions? I'd like to see more 'red flags' that we might encounter in self-contained D/HH classrooms and/or D/HH programs.
 
When you guys are saying "visual" are you referring to LRE (least restrictive environment). Or is that something completely different?
 
The thing is, the reason so many people are in favor of a deaf school rather than a self contained program is you rarely find these accommodations on a consistent basis in a self contained program. With a deaf school, it is par for the course in daily classroom activity.
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Self contained programs aren't the only formal dhh program available.
What about the "magnet" program offered in some states, where a mainstream school serves as a "magnet" for dhh kids. All teachers are fluent in ASL and knowledgable about dhh issues , and the kids get the advantage of a self contained classroom within a greater school.
And to add, you very rarely get really good accomondations for kids with more "classic disabilites" at a regular school with "only a resource room, where the teachers may have only been taught minimal accomondations, and if you don't suceed with those, you get lumped in with the " Ummm who's President Obama?" kids who are LEGION in sped programs.
I do think some kids (especially just hoh kids) may not need a Deaf School placement. Some formal programs can be quite good....and can serve as an appropreate placement until the kid is old enough to go to deaf school.
 
And what about placement based on level of hearing/deafness? Seems to me that there will be some kids that are aided that would be appropriatly placed in some mainstream classes with accomidations vs. profoundly deaf kids that have no benefit from aids or CI that would do best in a LRE. If that is true then wouldn't another component of a good DHH program be proper placement depending on level of hearing/deafness? Hopefully that makes sense.
 
rockdrummer said:
When you guys are saying "visual" are you referring to LRE (least restrictive environment). Or is that something completely different?
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LRE is usually interpreted (often incorrectly, IMO) to be the home district school. Actually, it is supposed to be the environment that creates the greatest availability to academic programs and access to peers and teachers. For the deaf kid, the mainstream classroom is quite often most restrictive for just those reasons. I have argued this in any number of IEP meetings.
 
deafdyke said:
Self contained programs aren't the only formal dhh program available.
What about the "magnet" program offered in some states, where a mainstream school serves as a "magnet" for dhh kids. All teachers are fluent in ASL and knowledgable about dhh issues , and the kids get the advantage of a self contained classroom within a greater school.
And to add, you very rarely get really good accomondations for kids with more "classic disabilites" at a regular school with "only a resource room, where the teachers may have only been taught minimal accomondations, and if you don't suceed with those, you get lumped in with the " Ummm who's President Obama?" kids who are LEGION in sped programs.
I do think some kids (especially just hoh kids) may not need a Deaf School placement. Some formal programs can be quite good....and can serve as an appropreate placement until the kid is old enough to go to deaf school.
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I am well aware of the fact that self contained programs are not the only option. However, you will find many, many more self contained programs than magnet programs. Self contained programs are the norm in the public system if there is a separate program at all.

"Just hoh" kids tend to miss out on one hell of a lot of academic material, not to mention socialization, in the mainstream.
 
And what about placement based on level of hearing/deafness? Seems to me that there will be some kids that are aided that would be appropriatly placed in some mainstream classes with accomidations
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Well the thing is, the reason they are in the program is b/c they weren't served well in the mainstream.
 
rockdrummer said:
And what about placement based on level of hearing/deafness? Seems to me that there will be some kids that are aided that would be appropriatly placed in some mainstream classes with accomidations vs. profoundly deaf kids that have no benefit from aids or CI that would do best in a LRE. If that is true then wouldn't another component of a good DHH program be proper placement depending on level of hearing/deafness? Hopefully that makes sense.
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Makes a lot of sense, and the way the IEP is supposed to operate. Unfortunately, far too many times, it doesn't. Mainstream teachers and administrators tend to lump rather that look at the individual student when considering placement.

Re: the split placement that DD constantly refers to.....looks good on paper. Getting a school system to actually agree to split placement is a different story. There aren't many willing to do so under the high school level, and generally not until the student is a jr. or sr. And then it is most often a split placement between the deaf school and a voc school.
 
deafdyke said:
What about the "magnet" program offered in some states, where a mainstream school serves as a "magnet" for dhh kids. All teachers are fluent in ASL and knowledgable about dhh issues , and the kids get the advantage of a self contained classroom within a greater school.
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We call them 'cluster' programs; where there are specific schools that have a cluster of D/HH students, either in self-contained classes or mainstreamed to some extent with accommodations, or a mixture of both. The same rationale still applies; are the D/HH students accessing the gen. ed. curriculum and are undertaking standard state assessments? Are there highly qualified personnel?

One knock against cluster programs is that these schools may not necessarily be the 'home' school for some D/HH students. There's transportation and the time involved.
 
Does anyone know of specific mainstream schools that have what is considered good DHH programs. Is there a national list?
 
rockdrummer said:
Does anyone know of specific mainstream schools that have what is considered good DHH programs. Is there a national list?
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I know Fairfax County Public Schools in VA has a good program at Mantua. It is labeled as TC for political reasons but many of my deaf friends who work there say it is really a BiBi program.
 
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