Discussion Board: EDLD 5333 Leadership for Accountability

Week #5- What should schools do when they get stuck? “Stuckess” typically when people feel like they are doing their best work and it’s not paying off in visible of improved student performance. Have you or has your school found itself in that position? What are some things that can be done at that point to gain forward momentum?

My campus faced this kind of situation with its deaf education program and yet we haven’t gotten off the sinking ship yet. My campus is a public high school with a day school program for deaf students; there are numerous challenges in deaf education. The non-deaf student population at our campus is just over 1,000, whil there are 40 deaf students. Most of the deaf students tested lowest in all subject core areas, although this has had little impact on the status of AEIS because it is such a small subgroup. This is still a significant concern for our program supervisor and deaf educators.

The deaf student subgroup test scores have not improved since 2005, which is a clear indication that this subgroup is in much need for improvement. My supervisor and campus principal have pushed deaf educators to work harder to raise test scores by providing countless professional development meetings and experimenting with instructional curriculums for deaf students. Some of our deaf educators expressed that such effort has nothing to do with improving test scores, and noted that many of the deaf students are also economically disadvantaged. They usually come from homes where there are a lot of communication barriers, factors that contribute to low test scores. Despite such barriers, we are still devoted to finding ways to fill gaps in their educational needs.

We are committed to finding solutions, but it is not an easy task. Fortunately, there is an annual State Conference for Deaf Educators, a great opportunity for our deaf educators to work with other deaf educators to share ideas, explore alternate deaf education curricula and acquire new research on deaf education issues. The conference helps us bring effective instructional and motivational practices for raising deaf students’ test performance scores. Additionally, on-going professional development for deaf educators is also a key to improving test scores.

As a deaf educator, two main goals in my career are to advocate for deaf students and to work with schools to find creative solutions to bridge the communication gap between deaf students and their teachers through not only better instructional practices, but also through a better understanding of Deaf culture, greater parental involvement, and deaf professionals in the school. I am firmly convinced that research is needed in order to identify, understand, and propose solutions to the various dilemmas that affect the deaf education programs.