Nicole Dillard's List: deaf ed info

For the 17-year-olds and the 18-year-olds in the deaf and hard of hearing  student norming sample, the median Reading Comprehension subtest score  corresponds to about a 4.0 grade level for hearing students.

Deaf children who are exposed to both sign language early and spoken language  (and/or print) read better than deaf children who are exposed to only one or the  other. The key is early language--not early sign language, or early spoken  language, or parents who are deaf or parents who can stand on their heads. It's  early effective access to language.

Having done the research that I have over the past 12 years since I came to  NTID, my view on that has changed as well. I believe it is now clear that deaf  children do not learn the same way as hearing children, and education in a  mainstream classroom by a hearing teacher with material structured (created and  delivered) in a form intended for hearing students seems unlikely to optimize  learning and match the strengths and needs of deaf children. Although I might  like to change a lot about the way many schools for the deaf work, my own  pendulum has now swung back to programs that take into account what we know  about how deaf children learn, modifying instruction and instructional materials  to match the way they think. I honestly believe that for many, if not most deaf  children, this would be a way to allow them to reach their full potential. Yet,  I realize that the social/economic/legislative pendulum is not likely to swing  back this way in the near future.

75% of 18 year old Deaf persons are functionally illiterate.

 The average reading level of Deaf high school graduates in the United States  is roughly at the fourth grade level.   Only one fourth of severely to profoundly Deaf students leaving school read  at the fifth grade level.