Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor Educators Serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Fortunate to Have Journal of Annals' High Quality I wish to compliment you and your staff members for the high quality evident in issue after issue of the Annals. You and your competent support personnel do conceivably everything possible to make each issue reader friendly and eye appealing. I make these observations from several perspectives. First, as a professional aware of the information needs of my colleagues in the education of deaf and hard of hearing children and youth, the contents of the articles in each issue are very relevant and useful. Second, as a former editor of various publications, I am familiar with the fine points of layout and typesetting. By these criteria, from the headings, to the table formats, type styles, and other related attributes, every article is made visually attractive to the reader. Third, as a contributing editor, I have closely followed my submitted manuscripts through the stages of peer review, editing, copy reading, and proofreading. At each step actions are taken to enhance the quality of the emerging article . Your eagle eyes and those of the peer reviewers, Vincent Ercolano, Mary Ellen Carew, and other staff catch every detail of the manuscript. Nothing is overlooked to make the article more lucid and appealing to the reader. I have published in numerous professional journals and experienced that the quality of peer review and editing ranges widely among these journals. Educators serving deaf and hard of hearing students are indeed fortunate to have such an outstanding journal as a resource took in our work. John G. Schroedel, Ph.D. Research Professor University of Arkansas Rehabilitation Research and Training Center for Persons Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing Little Rock, Arkansas 72205 Volume 145, No. 5, 2000 American Annals of the Deaf Letter to the Editor Praise for "Our Decision on a Cochlear Implant" I recently read the article "Our Decision on a Cochlear Implant" by Edward Peters {Annals, Volume 145(4), October 2000) and believe it to be one of the most insightful articles I've read to date regarding such an important decision in a child's life and that of her family. I learned so much from Mr. Peters' perspective as a parent and appreciate (his) and his wife's willingness to share such a personal decision with others. I trust that Mr. and Mrs. Peters will have their child's love and respect for years to come and would not be surprised to learn that Margaret's pride in her parents grows as she reads this article at various times throughout her life. Mrs. Mary Boas Hayes, IC/TC Sign Language Interpreter Abraham Lincoln High School Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program Philadelphia, PA 19136 Volume 145, No. 5, 2000 American Annals of the Deaf Letter to the Editor HIGH STAKES TESTING: WHAT IS AT STAKE? The recent editorial entitled "High Stakes Testing: Are the Stakes Too High?" illustrates the leadership dilemmas posed by the confluence of interest in the educational, political, economic, and cultural arenas within general education. The impact on students who are Deaf or hard of hearing and schools or programs providing instruction may be exacerbated by the inevitable collision of those four forces and will ultimately result in a review and change of educational policy and practice. Furthermore the role of the Superintendent of the state residential school has changed from that of a manager of resources to an educational leader fully accountable for the performance of the school and the Deaf students who attend it: a significant paradigm shift. No longer can or should the Superintendent be insulated from accountability. Some Superintendents embrace the scrutiny and the responsibility in this new paradigm of leadership, as they now must be fully invested in the educational program and all of the responsibilities placed on it by legislators, boards and the public. Education is a big money budget item at state and national levels, and now, in efforts to respond to tax payers' understandable concern, state officials and legislators are demanding that we as educators be accountable and provethat what we are doing is, in fact, what the public expects...