Exemplary Programs and Research

Exemplary Programs and Research (EPAR) manages and provides research and evaluation support to the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center. By working collaboratively with schools and programs across the country, the Clerc Center addresses critical needs in the priority areas of literacy, family involvement, and transition from high school to postsecondary education, training, and careers. Collaborations target traditionally underserved students: those who come from homes in which English is not the primary language, are members of diverse cultures, live in rural areas, have additional disabilities, or are lower achieving academically.

Results of EPAR's collaborations include the following papers and products:

• Shared Reading Project: Evaluating Implementation Processes and Family Outcomes (Executive Summary)
• How Public Input Shapes the Clerc Center's Priorities: Identifying Critical Needs in Transition from School to Postsecondary Education and Employment
• We are Equal Partners: Recommended Practices for Involving Families in Their Child's Educational Program
• A Look at the Decisions Hispanic Families Make After the Diagnosis of Deafness
• A Look At Rural Families Weighing Educational Options: Identifying the Factors that Influence Parents as They Make Educational Placement Decisions For Their Children
  
• DecisionMaker: A Student-Directed Transition Program
• Families Count!

EPAR is under the Clerc Center's National Outreach, Research, and Evaluation Network (NOREN) umbrella. Other departments under NOREN include Publications and Information Dissemination (PID) and the Gallaudet University Regional Centers (GURCS).

Partners for Progress

EPAR manages Partners for Progress, which seeks collaborations with researchers, educators, parents, and administrators to address specific areas of need in the three priority areas. Partners for Progress includes several components:

• identification of critical needs in the priority areas through a process that includes public input on priorities for research, development, and demonstration;
• development of Requests for Collaboration based on the critical needs;
• review of applications for Requests for Collaboration by an external review group; and
• implementation of the collaboration.

If you would like more information about Partners for Progress, please contact Gary Hotto at Gary.Hotto@gallaudet.edu (e-mail) or by mail at: KDES 3100, Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, Gallaudet University, 800 Florida Ave. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002. Please provide your name, address, telephone and fax number, e-mail address, and job title in your inquiry.

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Requests for Collaboration

In order to determine the areas of critical need, the Clerc Center has developed a national agenda in each priority area. In general, the process for developing the national agenda included a dialogue with individuals who have a variety of perspectives and experiences with children who are deaf or hard of hearing, preparation of a stimulus paper in the priority area in collaboration with Gallaudet faculty members, review of the stimulus paper by individuals from Clerc Center constituent groups, interviews, and surveys. Based on this input, we developed a Request for Collaboration (RFC) in the Clerc Center priority areas of family involvement and transition. Future RFCs will focus on the priority of literacy, with specific attention to middle school students who are not reading on grade levels.

Applications for RFCs are reviewed by an external panel of parents of deaf and hard of hearing children who have leadership roles, educational professionals, and researchers with expertise in the priority area or related to the RFC. Reviewers rate the applications using the specific criteria identified in the application materials for each RFC. Based on the review, we select a specified number of collaborating schools and programs.

The initial collaborations on family involvement and transition are described in more detail below.

The Clerc Center will continue to use the RFC process to develop future collaborations in the areas of literacy, family involvement, and transition.

Family Involvement

The initial collaborations on family involvement resulted in a National Forum on Family Involvement in 1998. Parents and educators from eight schools and programs were selected to participate in the forum, which was held at the Clerc Center. In the three years following the forum, the participants and the Clerc Center crafted recommended practices. The paper, We are Equal Partners: Recommended Practices for Involving Families in Their Child's Educational Program, is available through the Clerc Center's KidsWorld Deaf Net library and Sharing Results series. Additional information about family involvement can be found in the Winter 2002 Odyssey at: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Odyssey/index.html or http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/FamilyInvolvement/index.html.

The initial family involvement RFC also resulted in collaborations with the Children's Seashore House at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to study how parents/guardians from traditionally underserved groups obtain and utilize information about education options for their deaf or hard of hearing children. The results of the studies from these two collaborators are found in the papers: A Look at the Decisions Hispanic Families Make After the Diagnosis of Deafness and A Look At Rural Families Weighing Educational Options: Identifying the Factors that Influence Parents as They Make Educational Placement Decisions For Their Children. Both are available through the Clerc Center's KidsWorld Deaf Net library and the Sharing Results series.

The original announcement about the above collaboration selections can be found at: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/EPAR/family.html.

The RFC process was also used to identify collaborators to review training materials for Families Count! (formerly Family Math), a program for deaf and hard of hearing children and their families that aims to alleviate math anxiety while promoting math literacy. For a description of the Families Count! materials, visit the listing in the Clerc Center catalog.

To view the original RFC for Families Count!, visit: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/EPAR/rfc-family-math.pdf (PDF, 95KB)

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Transition from School to Postsecondary Education and Employment

Based on the results of the RFC in transition, EPAR is addressing needs in the transition priority area by conducting a Longitudinal Graduate Study. This multi-year collaborative effort is to explore experiences of deaf and hard of hearing high school graduates for the first five years after graduation. In 1999, the Clerc Center selected two collaborators for the project: the Illinois School for the Deaf (ISD) in Jacksonville, Illinois, and the South Hills High School (SHHS), Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program, in West Covina, California. (More information about these schools can be found at: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/EPAR/trans-selections.html.) The Clerc Center's Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), ISD, and SHHS are conducting a longitudinal follow-up study of a selected group of their graduates.

The collaboration also responds directly to the current needs of deaf and hard of hearing students in classrooms through the development of instructional materials designed to facilitate the preparation of these students for successful life experiences. The materials are called DecisionMaker:A Student-Directed Transition Program, formerly known as Transition Instructional Package for Students or TIPS). The materials are intended to actively engage deaf and hard of hearing high school students in the process of learning about themselves and others. More information about the DecisionMaker materials can be found in the Clerc Center catalog.

To view the original RFC for the Longitudinal Graduate Study and DecisionMaker, visit: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/EPAR/rfc-questions.html and http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/EPAR/rfc-application.html or in PDF at: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/EPAR/rfc.pdf (192KB).

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Selection of Research Projects

We also select Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES) and Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) research projects using a proposal review process. Teachers and staff at the Clerc Center, Gallaudet faculty and staff, and professionals, researchers, and others at other schools, universities, and organizations may submit proposals for review. The proposals are reviewed internally to assure they address one of the three national priorities of literacy, family involvement, and transition. The proposals are also reviewed by a panel composed of people outside of Gallaudet. If a proposal is accepted, it is managed by a committee composed of key personnel at the Clerc Center.

Contact Margaret Hallau, the director of Exemplary Programs and Research, for application materials if you are interested in conducting research at the Clerc Center.

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Gallaudet Research Institute Projects

The Clerc Center also conducts research projects through the University's Gallaudet Research Institute's Directed Priority Area Research process, which includes the Clerc Center priority areas. Priorities are set through various mechanisms, which include consulting, with the Gallaudet Research Institute National Advisory Panel and the Clerc Center National Mission Advisory Panel, both of which are comprised of deaf and hearing leaders of educational and human service organizations throughout the country. Priorities are also established through a series of forums at Gallaudet University.

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Collaboration with Regional Centers

Gallaudet University Regional Centers (GURCs) are located in Flagler College, Florida; Johnson County Community College, Kansas; Kapi'olani Community College, Hawaii; Northern Essex Community College, Massachusetts; and Ohlone College, California. The GURCs serve as touchstones of knowledge and information about what is happening in the regions that they serve. By working with the GURCs and their networks, the Clerc Center promotes collaborative relationships with programs and schools in the GURC regions. The Clerc Center and the GURCs also collaborate on projects in the Clerc Center's priority areas, such as the dissemination of information through training workshops. The Clerc Center supports a collaboration specialist in the four mainland GURCs to serve as a liaison between the Clerc Center and the regions, as well as to support GURC activities on our priority areas.

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