Miss-Delectable
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Principal of hearing, deaf school bristles at school's failing grade
If you believe city educrats, the American Sign Language and English Dual Language secondary school is the single worst school in New York.
Of 1,224 schools given grades by the Education Department this month, the middle school at the former Public School 47 had the lowest score. The high school, which did only slightly better, also earned an F.
But the principal of the innovative Manhattan school that mixes deaf and hearing students in classes taught simultaneously in English and sign language says his school - or at least about a sixth of his students - should be judged by different criteria.
"There's no appropriate assessment tool that's a one-size-fits-all assessment tool," said principal Martin Florsheim, signing through an interpreter. "In many ways, we are a unique population."
Florsheim's concern is for 35 of his 210 students who were born deaf in homes where no one could communicate with them, including those from countries without services for the deaf.
Although it's not unusual in some parts of the city for kids from poor countries to arrive with little or no education, Florsheim has students who arrive with no language skills at all, having never acquired even a first language.
These students, he says, should be exempt from the standardized tests that are the primary basis of the grades.
The city disagrees because the kids have a normal intelligence and don't qualify for exemptions.
"Obviously those are challenging kids and they represent educational challenges ... but these children have all been tested through a process we use citywide [to decide exemptions]," said Jim Liebman, who heads the city's office of school accountability and met this month with Florsheim.
"The special education people are quite comfortable that these kids are being evaluated in an appropriate way," Liebman said.
Marc Marschark, a language development expert at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, said such debates are happening in other immigrant-rich cities.
"They should get an exemption, in my scientific opinion," Marschark said. "They're coming in with no language when they get here. It's not something that can be remediated in a year or two."
Studies show that hearing children can learn sign language faster than deaf children who have no language to build on, Marschark said.
Florsheim acknowledged the school's abysmal grade does not come exclusively from its most difficult kids.
He said even his hearing students did poorly on tests compared with their peers. And Liebman said the school would have gotten a bad grade even if exemptions were granted.
But the school might not have scored the worst in the city and had to break the news to students like sophomore Apollonia Moriarty, 15, the hearing daughter of a deaf mother who said she struggled at other schools before arriving there.
"Here, I just felt comfortable," she said. "This school is really great. We get a lot of one on one with the teachers."
Florsheim is teaching more test-taking skills to his students this year and says next year's grade will be higher.
"I'm not blaming anybody for our poor grade," he said.
If you believe city educrats, the American Sign Language and English Dual Language secondary school is the single worst school in New York.
Of 1,224 schools given grades by the Education Department this month, the middle school at the former Public School 47 had the lowest score. The high school, which did only slightly better, also earned an F.
But the principal of the innovative Manhattan school that mixes deaf and hearing students in classes taught simultaneously in English and sign language says his school - or at least about a sixth of his students - should be judged by different criteria.
"There's no appropriate assessment tool that's a one-size-fits-all assessment tool," said principal Martin Florsheim, signing through an interpreter. "In many ways, we are a unique population."
Florsheim's concern is for 35 of his 210 students who were born deaf in homes where no one could communicate with them, including those from countries without services for the deaf.
Although it's not unusual in some parts of the city for kids from poor countries to arrive with little or no education, Florsheim has students who arrive with no language skills at all, having never acquired even a first language.
These students, he says, should be exempt from the standardized tests that are the primary basis of the grades.
The city disagrees because the kids have a normal intelligence and don't qualify for exemptions.
"Obviously those are challenging kids and they represent educational challenges ... but these children have all been tested through a process we use citywide [to decide exemptions]," said Jim Liebman, who heads the city's office of school accountability and met this month with Florsheim.
"The special education people are quite comfortable that these kids are being evaluated in an appropriate way," Liebman said.
Marc Marschark, a language development expert at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, said such debates are happening in other immigrant-rich cities.
"They should get an exemption, in my scientific opinion," Marschark said. "They're coming in with no language when they get here. It's not something that can be remediated in a year or two."
Studies show that hearing children can learn sign language faster than deaf children who have no language to build on, Marschark said.
Florsheim acknowledged the school's abysmal grade does not come exclusively from its most difficult kids.
He said even his hearing students did poorly on tests compared with their peers. And Liebman said the school would have gotten a bad grade even if exemptions were granted.
But the school might not have scored the worst in the city and had to break the news to students like sophomore Apollonia Moriarty, 15, the hearing daughter of a deaf mother who said she struggled at other schools before arriving there.
"Here, I just felt comfortable," she said. "This school is really great. We get a lot of one on one with the teachers."
Florsheim is teaching more test-taking skills to his students this year and says next year's grade will be higher.
"I'm not blaming anybody for our poor grade," he said.