Accountability-Based Reform: The Impact on Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students

Preface

Preface The initial impetus for this book began during my graduate studies in Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My personal and professional background is grounded in language and literacy development for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Yet, until my doctoral studies, this work was largely de-contextualized from the educational systems that served this student population. While in graduate school and in the years that followed, I had the opportunity to work with teachers and district administrators who were grappling with how to implement large-scale educational reforms withstudents withsuchdiverse linguistic and academic backgrounds. The reality of educating students who are deaf or hard of hearing within a systemic framework, with factors that carried both from the student level and from the larger state and federal level, challenged me to look at the impact of educational policies on deaf education from both an interdisciplinary and interactional lens. Accountability-based educational reforms of the early years of this century seek to improve academic outcomes for all students. The most significant educational accountability reform in the United States, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), specifically stated that its purpose was to “close the achievement gap” between different student groups. The emphasis on ix x Preface the entire student body was an important shift because it represented a move toward a more inclusive definition of what (and who) “counts” in measures of school success. For years, school reform efforts either targeted students in regular education or those with special needs, but not both. The challenge of the current reforms is to establish policies that integrate the needs of students previously served under separate frameworks. The purpose of this book is to look specifically at how elements of accountability-based education reform affect students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Very little of the information available about the impact of accountability reform identifies the effects on specific subgroups of students with disabilities. A general educational reform designed for all students may fall short when applied to students from diverse backgrounds; there may also be new opportunities for growth and visibility on the larger agendas that guide educational initiatives. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing participate in unique educational, linguistic, and cultural contexts that may interact with accountability efforts in both intended and unintended ways. In the past, many students who are deaf or hard of hearing have faced significant obstacles to reaching grade-level proficiency goals that are the hallmark of accountability reforms. There is a need, therefore, for a specific exposition of how accountability reform affects deaf education. Using the NCLB structure as a starting point, this book presents and discusses key assumptions behind accountability reforms and how they affect students who are deaf or hard of hearing, their teachers, and their families. This inquiry, in turn, can lead to important questions about what it means to conceptualize an accountabilitybased education reform for all students. Federally directed legislation provides a starting point for conversations about the efficacy of an accountability approach to raising student achievement . This volume will explore both where we have seen some of the implications of accountability-based education reform for students who are deaf or hard of hearing and areas where the design of a federal system leaves only questions about the implications for deaf education. The perspectives in this book reflect the unique federal-state relationship found in the United States, with shared governance of school systems and, across states, independent mechanisms for defining student success. The sequence of this book first gives the reader a brief introduction to the deaf education context (Chapter 1) and accountability-based education reforms (Chapter 2). Chapters 3 through 7 Preface xi each address a central issue that arises from the intersection of accountability reform components and students who are deaf or hard of hearing. These chapters give an overview of an important component of accountability reform , available research, and how it has been implemented in the United States. Stemming from this foundation, each chapter includes recommendations for future action by educators, parents, researchers, and education policy makers. Chapter 8 closes the book with a synthesis of themes that cut across the narrative as a whole. The primary audience for this book is individuals who directly experience accountability policies as they impact students who are deaf or hard of hearing . Teachers, administrators, and parents are thus the primary...