Black Deaf Students : A Model for Educational Success

1 At-Risk Factors and Resilience

1 At-Risk Factors and Resilience 1 A comprehensive and collaborative educational approach needs to be taken to improve the educational achievement of African American students . Large achievement gaps in educational outcomes still persist between diverse groups, and by some measurements, these gaps have widened in recent years (Edelman, 2002, citing Tidwell, 2000). The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test, referred to as “the Nation’s Report Card,” measures what America’s students know and how they perform in various subject areas. Assessments are conducted in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, geography, and the arts. The reading assessment shows that as early as the fourth grade, there is a difference between the reading scores of African American, White, and Hispanic students. Although 75 percent of White students’ test scores are at the basic level or above, only 44 percent of Hispanic and 40 percent of African American students are reading at the basic level or above (Legler, 2004). When compared to their percentages in the student population, African Americans are underrepresented in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. For example, African Americans represent 17 percent of the student population and 5 percent of AP calculus tests, and White students represent 60 percent of the student population and 72 percent of AP calculus tests. Furthermore, African American students have lower high school and college graduation rates than White students. Only 51 percent of African American students who began high school in 1997 graduated in 2001, whereas 72 percent of White students graduated. Of those students who entered college in the fall of 1998, 40 percent of African American students graduated in four years, and 59 percent of White students graduated (Legler, 2004). There have been school reform programs, innovative strategies, and discussions by school administrators, researchers, politicians, the media, parents, and community stakeholders about how to improve the school achievement of African American students; however, the gaps in academic Chapter One 2 achievement between African American and White students continue. The African American students who are failing to achieve at grade level are from all income levels, one- and two- parent homes, stable and dysfunctional families, and suburban and inner-city schools. However, some African American students from these same backgrounds have overcome the odds and have succeeded in school. They have graduated from colleges and some elite universities. Some hold prestigious positions and earn high incomes. This obviously dispels the myth that African American students do not have the innate abilities to succeed in school and attend colleges and universities. What protected this group of African American students from succumbing to the challenges and adversities that confronted them and allowed them to pursue successful educational and life goals? How have these students obtained the strength to overcome problems and obstacles and succeed while others from the same backgrounds have not been able to do so? Instead of focusing on a deficit model of African American students, research is beginning to focus more on successful African American students who are resilient, can overcome obstacles, and have successfully achieved in and transitioned through high school, colleges, and universities. Also, research is focusing on schools that have been successful in increasing African American students’ standardized test scores and graduation rates and preparing them for college, as well as college programs that provide protective factors that result in graduation. Like their hearing peers, too many deaf and hard of hearing African American youth and young adults are functioning below academic grade level, have low standardized test scores, are overrepresented in low-level and special education classes, have lower graduation rates, and are less prepared to enter and graduate from college. Too many of them are ending up dependent on public financial aid, in low-paying and dead-end jobs, unemployed , loitering on the streets, and increasingly in penal institutions. The transition of African American deaf and hard of hearing students from high school to four-year colleges and universities is one of the more important but least researched issues in the field of Deaf education . Little is known about what contributes to their success in school and postsecondary programs. The majority of the educational research on deaf and hard of hearing students has been done on White students and their families. Research data indicate that the positive effects on students’ 3 At-Risk Factors and Resilience school achievement based on samples of White students may not apply to African American...