Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
A Slice of Life - StatesmanJournal.com
Jane Mulholland may not be leading the Oregon School for the Deaf, but she’s still advocating on their behalf. By Sunday night I had an e-mail from her explaining the story behind OSD’s poor high school graduation diploma rate, which was reported in the news a few weeks ago.
The rate published in the story only included only those OSD students who obtained “standard” high school diplomas. In Mulholland’s e-mail she offers an explanation, “Virtually 100% of the seniors at OSD graduate each year. OSD offers three graduation "documents"--a standard diploma, a modified diploma and a certificate of completion. The difference between a standard and modified diploma is that OSD requires students to demonstrate a 9th grade reading level and a 9th grade math proficiency level in order to obtain the standard diploma, in addition to all the required credits. Students who receive a modified diploma have taken all the same classes as those with a standard diploma, but they were unable to test out at the 9th grade level in reading and/or math.”
OSD made the decision several years ago to require the 9th grade reading and math level as criteria for receiving a standard diploma. For many deaf children this is a difficult mark to meet. Think about the difficulty of learning to read without phonics — relying only on vision and touch to remember letters, and their meaning when they’re strung together. Frankly, it’s amazing so many OSD students do attain the 9th grade reading level, when there are many high school students who are not hearing-impaired who can’t seem to read at this level.
As I mentioned to Ms. Mulholland in my response thanking her for clarifying the statistics: this blog is simply a starting point for conversation. It’s up to the community to create the dialogue necessary for full understanding. So readers, if you can offer more information on a subject covered in the Slice of Life, please write back and help all of us understand community issues better.
whistleblower said...
The state deaf school's system is dishonest. Picking the hits and ignoring the misses amounts to fraud. By presenting a false image of "excellence", they are keeping the the school "viable" in the eyes of parents and the taxpayers who fund the school. Of course all the kids graduates, they're just handing diplomas out. After graduation hardly anyone will question the type of diploma the former student recieved. The state deaf school primarily uses ASL and/or Bi-bi as the mode of communication. Academic literature shows that the ASL method comes in dead last for English literacy skills. Other methods, such as Cued Speech and signed methods based on English result in higher educational output. The fake diploma system at the state deaf school needlessly keeps deaf kids English illiterate.
Jane Mulholland may not be leading the Oregon School for the Deaf, but she’s still advocating on their behalf. By Sunday night I had an e-mail from her explaining the story behind OSD’s poor high school graduation diploma rate, which was reported in the news a few weeks ago.
The rate published in the story only included only those OSD students who obtained “standard” high school diplomas. In Mulholland’s e-mail she offers an explanation, “Virtually 100% of the seniors at OSD graduate each year. OSD offers three graduation "documents"--a standard diploma, a modified diploma and a certificate of completion. The difference between a standard and modified diploma is that OSD requires students to demonstrate a 9th grade reading level and a 9th grade math proficiency level in order to obtain the standard diploma, in addition to all the required credits. Students who receive a modified diploma have taken all the same classes as those with a standard diploma, but they were unable to test out at the 9th grade level in reading and/or math.”
OSD made the decision several years ago to require the 9th grade reading and math level as criteria for receiving a standard diploma. For many deaf children this is a difficult mark to meet. Think about the difficulty of learning to read without phonics — relying only on vision and touch to remember letters, and their meaning when they’re strung together. Frankly, it’s amazing so many OSD students do attain the 9th grade reading level, when there are many high school students who are not hearing-impaired who can’t seem to read at this level.
As I mentioned to Ms. Mulholland in my response thanking her for clarifying the statistics: this blog is simply a starting point for conversation. It’s up to the community to create the dialogue necessary for full understanding. So readers, if you can offer more information on a subject covered in the Slice of Life, please write back and help all of us understand community issues better.
whistleblower said...
The state deaf school's system is dishonest. Picking the hits and ignoring the misses amounts to fraud. By presenting a false image of "excellence", they are keeping the the school "viable" in the eyes of parents and the taxpayers who fund the school. Of course all the kids graduates, they're just handing diplomas out. After graduation hardly anyone will question the type of diploma the former student recieved. The state deaf school primarily uses ASL and/or Bi-bi as the mode of communication. Academic literature shows that the ASL method comes in dead last for English literacy skills. Other methods, such as Cued Speech and signed methods based on English result in higher educational output. The fake diploma system at the state deaf school needlessly keeps deaf kids English illiterate.