A New National Mission

Related Info

About Our Mission

National Mission Plan

Dr. Fernandes' Preview Article

Literacy

Transition

Family Involvement

Cochlear Implant
Education Center

EDA

National Mission Advisory Panel

Board of Trustees
Presentations

by Jane Kelleher Fernandes
from the Spring 1996 edition of Preview

Literacy. Family education. The transition from high school to the world beyond. These are the research and demonstration priorities of Pre-College National Mission Programs (since renamed the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center) as we move toward the 21st century.

Literacy is the key to the success of deaf and hard of hearing students. The natural acquisition of a first language and the ability to read and write English is paramount to educational achievement and to maximizing one's potential. Family education is critical in helping parents and siblings understand and nurture their deaf or hard of hearing child, and in helping them learn how to work together with educators. And the transition of deaf or hard of hearing students from high school to gainful employment or further educational success is a nationwide priority.

Pre-College is reaching out to others across the nation in a true partnership that works for the maximum educational benefit of deaf and hard of hearing students throughout the United States. And the framework for establishing such a partnership and meeting our priorities is Pre-College's new National Mission Plan, developed collaboratively last fall by Pre-College and its constituents.

"I am excited that the plan provides a strong 'blueprint' for restructuring Gallaudet University's Pre-College Programs," says Sandy Harvey, executive director of the American Society for Deaf Children. Like other parents who are working with us on the National Mission Plan, Harvey is enthusiastic. "Historically, parents have been eliminated from the process of receiving information and becoming part of the collaborative relationships that are developed by professionals in the field," she says."The plan recognizes the need for collaboration within Pre-College and throughout the United States. Parents are interested in any plan that will raise the academic achievement levels of children who are deaf or hard of hearing."

Along with Gallaudet University president I. King Jordan, I share the concern about communication, coordination, and collaboration--the "three Cs". Partnership and open communication are key facets of the National Mission Plan and integral to the very process by which the plan was developed.

Why a National Mission?

Since the establishment at Gallaudet University of model and demonstration schools began some 30 years ago, the education of deaf and hard of hearing students in our country has experienced a number of significant changes. Enrollments swelled, crested, and ebbed with the rubella wave. Corresponding changes in educational policy drove a shift toward mainstreaming and evolving roles for state schools for deaf children. Different curricula, approaches to classroom communication, technological innovations, and learning strategies were proposed, developed, adopted, and often abandoned. The Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) and other schools and programs around the country have graduated deaf and hard of hearing students--some now prominent educational and community leaders. An increasing number of deaf and hard of hearing men and women administer schools and educational programs.

The field of deaf education has seen some successes and certainly many changes since Pre-College's demonstration schools were established. But the sad truth remains that the average achievement levels of deaf and hard of hearing students in our country have not improved. Despite instances and pockets of success, we fail as a nation of educators to enable deaf and hard of hearing children, especially children of color, to realize their full potential.

The 1992 amendments to the Education of the Deaf Act (EDA) recognized the problem and proposed a solution. The EDA requires Pre-College Programs to work collaboratively with programs across the nation to develop, evaluate, and disseminate innovative curricula, materials, and instructional strategies that are applicable in a variety of educational environments. The act stipulates that Pre-College provide programs and services equitably to deaf and hard of hearing student in these varying environments. In addition, the statute requires that Pre-College provide training, technical assistance, and outreach; establish and publicize research priorities through a process of public input; and disseminate information and follow-up services to meet the needs of constituents.

Simply put, the clear and compelling mission of Pre-College Programs is to provide the solution: to work together with parents, educators, deaf and hard of hearing students, and adults throughout the country to improve the quality of deaf education. To emphasize that mission, we are now called Pre-College National Mission Programs. To implement that mission, we have created the National Mission Plan (NMP).

How Will It Work?

Not long ago, Doreen Higa, a speech-language pathologist from the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and the Blind, called me with a question about the National Mission Plan. We have a literacy program that s really working here, my friend told me via e- mail. The English reading and writing skills of the students are showing major gains. How is your plan going to help us build on and share what we re learning in our state? Fortunately, I was able to reply that a copy of the plan, providing the detailed answers to the question, was already in the mail.

Higa is not alone in her desire to share successful education programs with others. Many schools throughout the country deserve support in their efforts to disseminate the results of their programs.

Over the next decade, Pre-College National Mission Programs will work to have a direct line of communication in each state, territory, and commonwealth to key representatives involved in educating deaf or hard of hearing students. The purpose of this intense collaboration is to produce a resulting rise in students academic achievement levels.

We will use public input, partner programs, and collaborative relationships with key people in each state to help us recognize the needs of constituents and establish research and demonstration priorities. We also will use state communication networks, public requests for collaboration, a national survey, and other avenues to identify exemplary programs, innovative ideas, and promising practices that advance our knowledge in the national mission priorities of literacy, family education, and transition. In cooperation with others, Pre-College will describe these programs, evaluate their effectiveness, and disseminate information about them.

What Is the Role of MSSD and KDES?

"I am delighted that Pre-College has decided to reemphasize its commitment to work on upgrading the standards for deaf education on a nationwide basis," Dr. Tom Holcomb, the chair of the National Mission Advisory Panel, Ohlone College professor, and nationally recognized leader in education, recently told me. "The emphasis on innovative and exemplary programming is what made MSSD and Kendall unique in the first place. But," he added, "I realize that the resources to support the national mission will have to come from existing funds. As an alumnus of MSSD, I am concerned that the quality of educational programming for students at MSSD and Kendall will suffer as resources reallocated to support the national mission."

Like Holcomb, everyone at Pre-College National Mission Programs now recognizes that improving the quality of education for all deaf and hard of hearing students is the central focus for its demonstration schools and, indeed, the reason they exist. We will implement an expansive, more collaborative model of interacting with schools and programs throughout the United States. Pre-College s two demonstration schools--Kendall Demonstration Elementary School and Model Secondary School for the Deaf--will be the "home base" for this larger network of schools.

Together, we will develop, evaluate, and disseminate projects and materials that will contribute significantly to advancing education for deaf and hard of hearing students. The national mission will contribute to the enhancement of education provided at KDES and MSSD and will result in higher achievement levels in students. I assured Holcomb that, rather than taking away from the schools, the national mission will significantly improve them!

To achieve this mission effectively, Pre-College s demonstration schools must continue to ensure that its students reflect nationwide demographic trends. Our educational system, like those throughout the nation, shares the challenge of designing inclusive academic programming which ensures that all deaf and hard of hearing students, not only those who are advantaged, have the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

The most exciting aspect of the National Mission Plan is that our goals and priorities are clearly spelled out. We will now begin a review of all Pre-College programs and will re-engineer our structure to meet the challenging demands of the future.

Where Does Research Fit In?

Laurene Gallimore, a teacher trainer at Western Oregon State College, recently informed me of her concerns regarding the theoretical foundations for training teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students. As she told me very eloquently in ASL, "I am concerned that there is not enough research being done to provide theoretical models that define the most prevalent teaching philosophies. As a teacher trainer, I urge Pre-College to be the leader in developing theoretical models of successful teaching and to use the demonstrating schools to make practical applications of those theories."

Pre-College National Mission Programs will undertake a goal- directed program of research, centered around the priority areas of literacy, family education, and transition. We want to increase understanding of what works, why it works, and how it works to enhance students success. We will greatly expand efforts to identify effective educational practices within the three priority areas. These practices may originate anywhere in the United States. Evaluation of their projects and products will intertwine research, development, implementation and evaluation. For every project that Pre-College disseminates, documentation will be recorded on its actual classroom use, its user satisfaction, and its impact on student learning.

Product Development, Dissemination, Training

My own experience in New England, Iowa, and Hawaii, as well as dialogues with teachers around the country, have made the need for sharing information and effective practices very clear to me. Parents, teachers, and other professionals are hungry for information, willing to work hard, and eager to improve their effectiveness. We will create collaborative structures that promote greater involvement by parents and professionals. The concept of Pre-College National Mission Programs will, as a result, be expanded to include professionals, parents, and their affiliated schools from across the nation who have worked closely with us to develop, evaluate, and publish their innovations.

Pre-College and our collaborators must be proactive in championing innovations made available to the field. The aggressive dissemination of the products of our collaboration should result in a rise in the quality of education provided to deaf and hard of hearing students. We must stay abreast of technological advances for organizing and sharing information to ensure the widespread dissemination of information about exemplary programs and practices, and to ensure effective response to the needs of the field of deaf education.

Pre-College will expand its publications to include Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sheets available in both printed leaflets and on the World Wide Web. The FAQs will summarize current thinking on a question and how it applies to deaf or hard of hearing students, their parents, and professionals who work with them in different educational settings. We will also initiate a series of working/occasional papers. These will provide an opportunity for researchers, graduate students, teachers, and other collaborators to publish findings for widespread dissemination, with the ultimate goal of narrowing the gap between research and its application in the classroom. While cognizant that the future of information sharing lies in technological innovations, we also need to be aware that more traditional forms of communication such as the TTY and the U.S. mail, are welcome avenues of dialoguing with sites throughout the country.

"No Man is an Island"

A new spirit of partnership between Pre-College National Mission Programs and exemplary school programs throughout the United States will be the cornerstone for activities designed to have national impact on the achievement of deaf and hard of hearing students. Such a partnership is the basis upon which the National Mission Plan will be implemented. The goal of collaborative partnerships is to provide quality educational opportunities to all students, with particular attention given to certain categories of students cited in the EDA. These categories include students who are low achievers, come from families who use a language other than English in the home, have secondary disabilities, are members of minority cultures, and are from rural areas.

A recent conversation with John Lopez, chair of the National Hispanic Council, centered around meeting the needs of all our diverse students. "Many Hispanic students who are also deaf or hard of hearing have peculiar needs," he told me. "So I would like for Pre-College to take leadership in showing the nation how to meet their needs."

Developing the National Mission Plan has been a big task and one accomplished by broad collaboration and sharing of opinions, ideas, and knowledge. Implementing the plan, of course, is an even greater task, all the more dependent for its success on the "three Cs" --communication, coordination, and collaboration. But the reward--the fulfillment of our national mission to improve the achievement of deaf and hard of hearing students--provides ample motivation for tackling the hard work ahead.