Testing Deaf Students in an Age of Accountability

Edited by Robert C. Johnson & Ross E. Mitchell

Imprint: Gallaudet University Press
Ebook : 9781563684289, 248 pages, September 2009
Request a Desk or Exam Copy Request a Media Review Copy

Table of contents

Part One: Testing and Accountability Issues
1 Accountability in the Education of Deaf Students
Under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
and No Child Left Behind 17
Barbara Raimondo
2 Academic Achievement of Deaf Students  38
Ross E. Mitchell
3 Accommodations to Improve Instruction and
Assessment of Deaf Students 51
Betsy J Case
4 Using Universal Design Research and Perspectives
to Increase the Validity of Scores
on Large-Scale Assessments  63
Martha L. Thurlow, Christopher Johnstone,
Sandra J Thompson, and Betsy J Case
5 Alternate Assessments: Leaving No Child Behind
Amid Standards-Based Reform 76
Elizabeth Towles-Reeves
6 No Child Left Behind and Schools for the Deaf:
Integration Into the Accountability Framework 92
Stephanie W. Cawthon
Part Two: Case Studies from Selected States
7  One State's Perspective on the Appropriate Inclusion
of Deaf Students in Large-Scale Assessments  115
Courtney Foster
8  High-Stakes Testing of Deaf Students
in North Carolina 136
Jana Lollis
9  Implications and Complications of Including Deaf
Students in Statewide Assessments in Illinois  149
Michael Jones
10  Testing, Accountability, and Equity for Deaf Students
in Delaware  167
Ed Bosso
11 Participating in the Massachusetts Comprehensive
Assessment System   181
Michael Bello, Patrick Costello, and Suzanne Recane
12 Marlon's Charge: A Journey Into the World
of Assessment  194
Joseph E. Fischgrund
13  The Effect of No Child Left Behind at the Maryland
School for the Deaf and Nationwide 204
Richard C. Steffan, Jr.
14  The Potential Harm to Deaf Students of High Stakes
Testing in California 217
Pat Moore

This collection examines the impact of the No Child Left Behind legislation and high-stake testing on deaf students and their education.

 
 

Description

Despite the idealism represented by the No Child Left Behind law’s mandate for accountability in education, deaf students historically and on average have performed far below grade level on standardized tests. To resolve this contradiction in deaf education, this collection presents a spectrum of perspectives from a diverse corps of education experts to suggest a constructive synthesis of worthy ideals, hard realities, and pragmatic solutions. Contributors to this study include volume editors Robert C. Johnson and Ross E. Mitchell, Ed Bosso, Michael Bello, Betsy J. Case, Patrick Costello, Stephanie W. Cawthon, Joseph E. Fischgrund, Courtney Foster, Christopher Johnstone, Michael Jones, Jana Lollis, Pat Moore, Barbara Raimondo, Suzanne Recane, Richard C. Steffan, Jr., Sandra J. Thompson, Martha L. Thurlow, and Elizabeth Towles-Reeves.
These noted educators and researchers employ experiences from Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Illinois and California to support their findings about the dilemma facing deaf students and their teachers. They assess the intent and flexibility of federal law; achievement data regarding deaf students; potential accommodations and universal design to make tests more accessible; possible alternatives for deaf student not ready for conventional assessments; accounts of varying degrees of cooperation and conflict between schools and state education departments; and the day-to-day efforts of teachers and school administrators to help deaf students measure up to the new standards. By presenting these wide-ranging insights together, Testing Deaf Students in an Age of Accountability provides a unique opportunity to create genuine means to educate deaf students for the only test that matters, that of life.

 

Robert C. Johnson is former Research Editor at the Gallaudet Research Institute, Washington, DC.
Ross E. Mitchell is Assistant Professor in the School of Education at University of Redlands, Redlands, CA.