Over the weekend I blogged a news article at About.com that had the usual mention of the average fourth grade reading level for deaf students. Every time a newspaper, magazine. or television program mentions that, it hurts the deaf community. Not only that we get told about parents "determined" that their child will not be "like that," automatically setting the stage for a superior attitude on the part of child and/or parents.
How can we stop the spread of this fourth grade myth? We can't stop it completely but it could be reduced. It could be reduced if deaf people and parents of deaf children insisted on the right to review articles before publication. I think I may have mentioned this before but it bears repeating as the problem persists.
Deadlines be damned. What's more important a deadline or the image of the deaf community? If enough people exercised that right of review prior to publication then the frequency of the fourth grade mention could be sharply reduced.
I should know. In the past I have been interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, and other papers. With all of them I always request a chance to review before they go to press. This gives me a chance to make sure deafness is portrayed positively in any article that includes a statement from me.
Monday, June 02, 2008
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21 comments:
I think the first thing to do is to prove that it's wrong. How?
If the source of the information is outdated, explain that.
If there is more current information, publicize it.
If there is not more current information, commission it.
AGBell/AVT and its associates always warn parents that learning sign language will degrade English reading and writing skills.
Nearly all of those that have poor reading and writing skills started off the oral only method system before they eventually learned ASL later in life.
Another words, those that have poor English reading and writing skills did not have the cognitive development skills from the age 0 to 3.
Either we let AGBell and its associates control Deaf language and education or You start speaking up about exactly what is the problem which is the AGBell/AVT industry.
John
You said: "It could be reduced if deaf people and parents of deaf children insisted on the right to review articles before publication."
Bad idea.
DeafRead editors routinely prove why this a bad idea.
:o)
Paotie
This isn't a myth - and it should be publicized. But what we can do to make it a better slant is by stating that hearing educators control deaf education and THEY are responsible for that 4th grade reading average.
Deaf Pundit ..
You said, "But what we can do to make it a better slant is by stating that hearing educators control deaf education and THEY are responsible for that 4th grade reading average."
Wrong.
Hearing African Americans have NOTHING to do with DEAF schools, all things being equal.
Hearing Gay/Lesbians have NOTHING to do with DEAF schools, all things being equal.
Hearing Native Americans have NOTHING to do with DEAF schools, all things being equal.
Hearing Hispanic-Americans have NOTHING to do with DEAF schools, all things being equal.
Hearing Polish-Americans have NOTHING to do with DEAF schools, all things being equal.
So, what is "hearing?"
Huh?
CODAs? Are you blaming them - they are "hearing" people, too?
For someone who despises generalizations, you sure have little problem tossing contradictory generalizations around, especially about "hearing" people.
:o)
Paotie
Lack of early language acquisition is at blame.
A Deaf Pundit, the deaf child is 3 or 4 years too late by the time school begins. It starts with the doctor who must stress the importance of language acquisition.
Once a language is acquired, cognitive development, which is just as important, can occur and any other language can also be more easily learned.
From Gallaudet GRI webpage:
"For the 17-year-olds and the 18-year-olds in the deaf and hard of hearing student norming sample, the median Reading Comprehension subtest score corresponds to about a 4.0 grade level for hearing students. That means that half of the deaf and hard of hearing students at that age scored above the typical hearing student at the beginning of fourth grade, and half scored below. The "median" is the 50th percentile, and is one of the ways to express an average, or typical, score. (A "mean" score, or arithmetic average, is not the same as the median.)"
Based on studies done some 12 years ago.
http://gri.gallaudet.edu/Literacy/
Contact Len Kelly, Ph.D. at Gallaudet who is a research scientist at the Gallaudet Research Institute and has a special research interest in English literacy. He is familiar with others at Gallaudet University who conduct research related to English literacy, as well.
Jamie:
It is not a myth, according to the most recent research I have seen (I don't have the link right here, right now). The thing we need to focus on, is to fight for full funding of IDEA, increasing the teeth of IDEA and the ADA so that they have REAL penalties for not being met, and identifying deaf/hoh children at an earlier age so that they can be taught properly during that magical 0-3 age range.
I hate the media stereotype as well, but if it is factual, we can only work to change the results by educating people appropriately.
Eddie
(ThumpaFlash)
actually
its half and half
the myth that ALL deaf people are at 4th grade reading level, which they use to threaten hearing parents of deaf children 'your kid cant read past 4th grade'
now.. on Hearing People - their average reading level is 5th grade, do you see people spewing that to everyone ?
nope.
Average age of reading level of adults in the U.S. is 8th to 9th grade.
“Adult Literacy in America (NALS)” National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Dept of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (NCES 1993-275), April 2002.
English literacy is garnered through English practice, English reading and English listening/speaking. Simple as that. Programs which teach primarily via ASL will always have literacy problems unless they can concoct a way to write ASL.
Hey deaf cults!
Both AGBELL/Oral and ASL failed deaf education comparing with hearing level. Both of them wasted time!
Simple! Deaf students need to focus on WRITING and READING! not ASL not Oral. Will they use ASL or Oral on thousands of words in Book or any papers??? Of course WRITING SKILLS!!!
Wake up! Stop peanut brains! AGBELL thinks dollars! ASL deaf cults dreaming too much! fantasy!!
Be realistic! Work hard on READING and WRITING SKILLS!
Deaf students with LOW I.Q. OR LAZY OR Lack of ability, They must go to gally or deaf institutions.
That is fact! All gifted deaf students can take challenges in University belts! like Harvard Univ, Standford Univ, etc.. Best opportunities for their future career. ;-)
Guy in Midwest,
Aha! Do you have the statistics to back that up? I'd love to get my hands on that one. How many people in USA know that tidbit? This would definitely put things in perspective for the public!
There's this teeny tiny issue of stereotyping we need to do away with. This means we the Deaf people needs to be more outspoken in the public arena.
Shellehy
anonymous 3:05,
A child needs a language to learn how to read and write. And it is either ASL for visual or English for oral system. The oral system has proven a failure for many deaf people. And why do majority of the deaf children of deaf parents or hearing parents that know ASL have far more reading and writing skills? The answer is cognitive development language skills between the age of 0 to 3.
It takes a cognitive developed child''s mind to learn how to read and write.
John
I have a question. Do Schools of the deaf have to release annual state testing report cards?
I know public schools achievement test are releases annually. Our scores are then used to show AYP(Adequate Yearly Progress), Achievement and 3-yr growth(TVASS?). It is also a matter of public record. Our scores are published and available to all.
If scores are not available then they should. When I started teaching 14 years ago, it was just what is in the book. Now everything is data driven and data charts. We use data to address children achievement and common assessments. Our state standards are being realigned because our state scores are not up to national averages. I teach children who are at risk and very low income children. They are not reading at grade level. Since I do teach in public school and not deaf school, someone please explain what is happen. How are children being taught?
Shel,
Over 30 million hearing people in America can't even read nor write at all! I am not talking about people from another country.
Is English language the blame?
John
To Anonymous from an Anonymous Hearing parent:
Most students today, regardless of Deaf Schools or public schools, are required to pass state exit exams in order to get their high school degree.
Interestingly, Deaf students who have grown up in a Bilingual/Bicultural School Deaf School with ASL from the start, including Deaf kids of hearing parents, are passing their state exit exams at a comparable rate to hearing student students in public schools. The level they must pass is 9th grade.
My daughter was one of them.
Tayler, you're right about the age and the doctors needing to emphasize language acquisition.
But most special education children go to school right away at age 1. So education does play a large role in deaf children, more so than hearing children's.
And Paotie, you cannot escape the fact that the majority of the administrators and educators in Deaf education are hearing. Even with deaf residential schools, the administrators and majority of teachers are hearing. Then you have to take in the fact that most deaf children are NOT in deaf residential schools. Most of them are mainstreamed. And who runs those mainstreamed schools? Hearing people.
I'm making a factual statement - don't confuse it with generalizations.
Here's an article from Hands & Voices that explains the research in more detail:
http://www.handsandvoices.org/articles/research/v9-2_marschark.htm
Paotie, again, you're not making sense. Deafread editors proof articles about general deaf topics. Deaf people and parents should proof articles that are being written about themselves.
Anonymous to deaf cults...
If deaf children cannot communicate, how will they learn to read and write? We must focus on the ability to communicate first (through whatever language is completely accessible to them), then teach English skills.
Valerie, schools for the deaf are required to have their report cards, but they are easily misleading. Many schools for the deaf have students with extra disabilities. Many schools for the deaf have parents that aren't involved with their child's education. Many of them have disproportionate numbers of families with lower economic status. Many of the test questions are meant for hearing people, so they include questions about sounds, such as long and short vowels. Thus, people compare them to hearing schools and complain about why deaf schools aren't doing a good job. I don't think that's a fair comparison, do you?
So what if the average deaf person reads on a 4th grade level? That's better than 30 million Americans can do! Not to mention from what I read the average American who is literate only reads on a 6th or 7th grade level.
So, what the media is doing is throwing out a statistic that shows that deaf students are about average, and acting like it's a horror.
John,
That information does not surprise me. Hearing people go on and on about the so-called 4th grade reading and yet don't look to the state of education for Hearing people. Talk about someone telling another person they have to a splint in their eye and yet carry a plank in their own eye!
Shelley
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