Black Deaf Students : A Model for Educational Success

5 The Role of Schools in Resilience

82 The Role of Schools in Resilience 5 The school plays a paramount role in the development of children in their intellectual, social, physical, and emotional development. This development is enhanced when the educational setting has in place protective factors that help develop and reinforce resilience in students. Social competency and school achievement have been identified as protective factors that help at-risk populations adjust to their environments (Wang & Gordon, 1994). Throughout the literature that focuses on school improvementforAfricanAmericanstudents ,thereisevidencethatschoolscaneither provide protective factors that facilitate students’ academic achievement or deny these protective factors and become settings that place students at risk. For academic achievement to be used as a protective mechanism to reduce the effects of poverty and racism, the school environment must be designed to facilitate the positive academic achievement of all students, including those who have been placed at risk (Clark, 1991). The national test scores, high school graduation rates, and college graduation rates show that African American students are lagging a long distance behind White students. Socioeconomic status and family composition have long been touted as reasons for African American students’ low level of academic achievement. However, there is evidence that socioeconomic status and family composition are not necessarily the major factors that lead to college entrance and graduation. Instead, the protective factors in the home, school, and community have a greater influence on positive academic achievement (Benard, 1991; Clark, 1983, 1991; Comer, 1980; Hrabowski, Mato, & Greif, 1998). There is a gap in academic achievement between African American students from both lower- and middle-income levels and their White peers. Shaffer, Ortman, and Denbo (2003), citing Viadero (2000) state the situation succinctly: “what is clear is that the longer African American children stay in school, the farther they fall behind. Even middle-class African 83 The Role of Schools in Resilience American students with access to additional educational and familial resources fail to keep pace with their middle class White peers” (p. 20). The data on middle-class African American students and the reasons for the academic achievement gaps between them and their White peers are limited. Some of the theories are the ongoing negative institutional practices , which include lack of culturally relevant curriculum, challenging curriculum and activities, lower expectations, and lack of an environment that encourages and reinforces high school performance (Shaffer, Ortman, & Denbo, 2002, p. 20). Culturally biased curricula, inappropriate school placement and tracking , a lack of understanding of differences in learning styles, an insufficient awareness of cultural differences, and a lack of understanding of diverse family practices and value systems have contributed to inadequate educational practices for minority deaf students (Cohen, Fischgrund, & Redding, 1990, p. 69). If school personnel do not understand minority students’ needs and backgrounds and fail to expose them to challenging curriculum, students’ opportunities to excel in school will be limited. In addition to considering a student’s deafness-related needs, school personnel must pay attention to the child’s cultural and socioeconomic background and the associated influences of the home and the community. To help minority deaf students succeed, teachers, administrators, and government officials must reevaluate curricula, make resources accessible, recruit minority staff, analyze intake and placement procedures, review and improve relationships with parents, and focus on the strengths of the students and their families (Cohen, 1991). Once educators better understand the ethnic and racial heritage of their deaf and hard of hearing students, they will be able to incorporate this understanding into their instructional practices and the curriculum (Christensen & Delgado, 1993). The data on resilience reinforce the need for students to have positive self-images, and cultural identity is a major part of how African American students perceive themselves. Teachers’ responses to students have a great impact on how the students feel about themselves, their ability to learn, and their comfort level in the classroom. The following is a quote from the late Ham Ginott, a teacher and child psychologist: Chapter Five 84 I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated...