NVCSA

Until recently, Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) has provided three strong, independent K-6 schools catering to the deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHOH) kids in the community. Canterbury Woods ES (Cued Speech), Mantua ES (ASL), and Camelot ES (Oral). Beginning school year 2011 these three modalities will be combined into one of these three schools. While all have strong cases why they should be considered the front-runner when making the final decision, many teachers, parents and professionals believe Canterbury Woods would benefits the DHOH kids most.

Canterbury Woods elementary school has long been the strength of Cued Speech in the Northern Virginia area. It is recognized by parents and educators as a school where deaf kids, with all types of hearing loss, can gain the knowledge of the English language and keep on par with their hearing peers.

Cued Speech helps deaf children learn spoken language at the same rate as hearing children with equal exposure. Mastery of a spoken language by the age of 7 is essential for literacy. Reading levels are dependent on the child's ability to phonemically decode written language. Cued Speech was designed to give deaf/heard of hearing children the tools to naturally acquire phonemic decoding skills at the same rate as their hearing peers.

It is imperative for a child to have an early, consistent, accurate language model in order to become fluent in any language. 90% of deaf children have hearing parents. Using their native spoken language, families can learn the "cues" in a matter of days and with a few months of practice, can be proficient enough to be a language model.

Historically and statistically, literacy rates among deaf students were significantly lower than their hearing peers. In 1966, Dr. R. Orin Cornett, designed a visual system to replicate English phonemes so that deaf individuals could access the necessary building blocks to "sound out" words. There are now close to 60 languages with Cued Speech systems.

Today, research has shown that deaf children raised with Cued Speech have equal reading levels to their hearing classmates.

Recent brainstorming session among parents, teachers and professionals, came up with these key points when considering a combined elementary school deaf program:

What should be expected from a combined deaf and hard-of-hearing program?

• Do not combine modalities within single classes - All modalities represented separately
• Allow flexible trials
• Appropriately trained staff per modality
• Go for excellence - push for achieving highest potential
• Students should be included in general ed classrooms as dictated by individual needs
• Students should attend elementary school in the pyramid where their hearing peers go to middle and high school
• Having an ASL interpreter and a CLT for Cued Speech would be crowded and distracting for small children, so separating modalities is preferred
• Do not follow MD Montgomery County schools model which have Cued Speech 2 days/wk, ASL 3 days/wk - general consenses is this is not working well
• We envision working collaboratively to meet the needs of the child and not necessarily promoting one philosophy over another
• Promote immersion into mainstream classrooms
• Best use of technology
• Try not to have DHOH students be in self-contained classrooms every day
• Preschool at same school with elementary school kids because older kids (deaf and hearing who Cue) are good role models for little kids (whole culture of communication in school)

What do we want the school system to pay close attention to?

• Culturally, Cued Speech does not have a problem with the other modalities - but other modalities do have bias against Cued Speech
• Need to ensure staff expertise is recognized - standards are established for proficiency
• That all 3 programs be treated equally/fairly - unbiased
• Appropriate training for staff
• School system should pay attention to academic outcomes of deaf children as compared to hearing peers rather than deaf norms
• School professionals should be able to communicate with students in their modalities
• Need an open minded administration that understands and respects all modalities
• Family/parent focused program that meets needs of whole family - one size doesn't fit all
• Make sure children are properly placed based on primary disability
• Staffing issues (keep all teachers, CLT's, IA's, interpreters)
• Mainstreaming and inclusion is the goal, not promotion of "culture" over literacy
• Respect for what family has chosen as child's first language
• Administrator at site impartial about modalities

What are the strengths of our school if the program were to be placed at Canterbury Woods ES?

• Long established deaf culture; hearing students are accepting
• General ed. teachers are motivated to learn to Cue
• School will be renovated soon - opportunity to make the physical space fit the needs of the DHOH students
• Accepting community for our DHOH children and Cued Speech
• Our program is heavily mainstreamed - strive to continue that goal of inclusion
• We are in the current pyramid - relationships build and continue both inside and outside of school
• Staff is used to working with assistive staff (CLT, SpEd teachers)
• Many Canterbury Woods staff have learned to Cue
• Canterbury Woods has highest test scores
• Entire student culture is very inclusive of deaf kids (CLT's are cool, cue club for hearing kids is cool) kids are inclusive with other kids - get invited to Birthday parties/events and are part of the community

What questions need to be answered?

• What happens if there's limited options for class placement due to class/grade size? The consequence is altering the mainstream for every student.
• Is the goal consolidating to cut costs, or is the goal to provide the highest educational attainment for each individual student?
• Should the children be exposed to two systems at once?
• Would the 3 programs be in separate classrooms (in the same building)?
• Is there a successful model that we can look at? (Flower Valley - Mont. County)
• How will you deal with negativity from some staff & family when trying to combine the three modalities into one school?
• How is this really saving money?
• How will you work the physical space needs at 3 modalities each needing at least some self contained space?