Parents as Partners in Educational Improvement A New Strategy for Change: Parents as Partners in Educational Improvement Harold Johnson/Michigan State University, Leeanne Seaver/Executive Director - Hands & Voices National & Susan Easterbrooks/Georgia State University

Presentation Outline Susan Easterbrooks Recommended Practices What and why they were developed? How were they developed? Where can they be found? Leeanne Seaver Hands & Voices What is Hands & Voices and why did they get involved? What did Hands & Voices do? What impact did this work have? Harold Johnson A Strategy for Change What do we now have? What do we now need? What can we now do to change?

“Recommended Practices” The Join Together grant’s Topical Team 2.2 was charged with identifying content area practices that have an evidence base. The No Child Left Behind Act mandates evidence-based teaching practices in schools. Best practice exceeds the Individuals With Disabilities Improvement Act (IDEIA) standard and case law precedents that established FAPE (a free and appropriate education). Recommended practices derive from what research and practice have shown to be effective for students. And they are replicable. Copyright 2007 Hands & Voices

When the National Center on Low Incidence Disabilities reviewed 40 years of study in the field on literacy and deafness using the NCLB standard, John Luckner, PhD and his colleagues identified only 22 studies that qualified as “scientifically based research.” “No two studies examined the same dimension of literacy (e.g., reading comprehension, vocabulary, word recognition, writing)” and none were replicated. (Luckner, Sebald, Cooney, Young and Muir, 2005). The Mystery of Missing Research…

What the research does say… “…such findings have led to the general conclusion, similar to that for reading, that the average deaf 18-year-old writes on a level comparable to that of a hearing eight year-old.” (Marschark, Raising & Educating a Deaf Child, 2nd Edition, 2007)

Where do we start? 20 Recommended Practices in Deaf Ed “Twenty Literacy, Science and Mathematics Practices Used to Educate Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing,” were derived from practices “routinely cited either in the literature or as field-supported practices.” But the list “is not intended to imply that any of the selections are best practices; rather they are examined practices.” (Easterbrooks, S., & Stephenson, B. 151(4), 2006 American Annals of the Deaf)

Who recommended these practices? THE PRACTICES WERE DISTRIBUTED TO MASTER TEACHERS IN THE JOIN TOGETHER PROJECT AND WERE VERIFIED AS IMPORTANT PRACTICES. (SEE COMPANION ARTICLE IN AAD 151,4, 2006)

Literacy Practice 1: Independent Reading Literacy Practice 2: Use of Technology Literacy Practice 3: Phonemic Awareness & Phonics (*Concerns expressed) Literacy Practice 4: Metacognitive Reading Strategies Literacy Practice 5: Writing to Promote Reading Literacy Practice 6: Reading in Content Areas Literacy Practice 7: Shared Reading & Writing Literacy Practice 8: Semantic Approach to Vocabulary Literacy Practice 9: Morphographemic Approach to Vocabulary Literacy Practice 10: Fluency Recommended Practices in Literacy

Ten Recommended Practices in Math & Science Practice #1: Teacher as Skilled Communicator Practice #2: Instruction through Primary Language Practice #3: Teacher as Content Specialist Practice #4: Active Learning Practice #5: Visual Organizers Practice #6: Authentic, Problems-Based Instruction Practice #7: Use of Technology Practice #8: Specialized Content Vocabulary Practice #9: Critical Thinking Practice #10: Mediating Textbooks

Where can I find the recommended practices?

Knowledge of the influence of hearing loss on educational outcomes Content knowledge (plus specialized vocabulary) with special attention paid to developing associated vocabulary in preparation for and conjunction with classroom Fluent communication & skilled communicator Current and capable with technology Expertise in the recommended practices Efficacy with the general curriculum and state standards In all 20 Practices -- A Common Theme: Teachers Who Are Trained & Prepared

Go to the source: Example of how these materials can be turned into an action plan: “Semantic Approach to Vocabulary” PPT “Creating a Back & Forth Book”

Semantic Mapping The teacher writes a word that represents the key concept. The students are asked to think of words that relate to the key word. These words are grouped around the key word in categories. The teacher then presents new words and encourages a discussion about where these words might fit into the map. (Duffelmeyer & Banwart, 1993; Heimlich & Pittelman, 1986; Johnson, Pittelman, &Heimlich, 1986)

Semantic Map of the Solar System

What to expect from these resources… All Recommended Practices have a description, an evidence-base listed, and a powerpoint presentation available in two versions: - for teacher preparation programs in deaf education - a modified version for general education teachers with deaf children in their classes.

Literacy #2. Use technology such as CDs, captioned materials, and interest-based Internet sites that are known to be motivating. Eight Things You Need To Know About Captioned Materials (PPT) by Dr. Susan Easterbrooks and Dr. Nanci ScheetzEight Things You Need To Know About Captioned Materials Ten Things You Should Know About Listening Technology (PPT) by Dr. Susan Easterbrooks and Dr. Nanci ScheetzTen Things You Should Know About Listening Technology Science/Math #4. Enhance concept mastery through the use of minds-on activities and materials that focus on active learning principles that cognitively engage students. Active Learning for Deaf Students: Teaching Tips for Enhancing Instruction in Science and Mathematics (PPT) by Dr. Harry Lang and Rachel LewisActive Learning for Deaf Students: Teaching Tips for Enhancing Instruction in Science and Mathematics

10 Things You Should Know About Listening Technology by Dr. Susan Easterbrooks and Dr. Nanci Sheetz Provides a great introduction to parents of a newly diagnosed deaf or hard of hearing child, family members, a new teacher…an older child could show this to his/her classmates. Very simple to understand. Provides information on: How do we hear? What are listening devices, what do they look like, how do they work? What does my child hear? Troubleshooting. Resources for more information.

Active Learning for Deaf Students: Teaching Tips for Enhancing Instruction in Science and Mathematics by Dr. Harry Lang and Rachel Lewis All learning is “active”. “Minds-on” learning can be more important that “hands-on” learning. This presentation provides examples of activities that engage a student, class or child, encouraging “minds-on”. There are many different approaches to active learning. They all encourage a student/child to: Be a part of the experience. Talk about the experience. Write about the experience.

Parents & Cutting Edge Research: Just enough knowledge to be dangerous? As parents, we can spend some time reading through the recommended practices and trying them out at home with our own child. We can take these practices and adapt them to our child’s environment, whether they are babies, toddlers, preschoolers, primary ed. students or secondary ed. students. Some will work, some we can save for later, some may be beyond our capacity. We can share this information with our teachers, including strategies or ideas that we believe would be well-suited for our child based on our experience trying recommended practices at home. We can use our awareness of recommended practices to be more effective participants at IEP meetings.

How are we supposed to share information on “recommended practices” with these people who are supposed to know this stuff already?

Preparation & Qualified Remarks “Tell us about the instructional strategies you use…and why?” “Are there some good resources you can share or direct us to on-line or in the library that will help us better understand your instructional practice?” “We’re particularly interested in (subject) and want to do a good job of supporting your work at school by helping our child at home. What part can we play as parents in that process?” “Do you use (insert practice ex: graphic organizers) and how do you currently incorporate it into your practice?” Talking about Recommended Instructional Practices at the IEP Meeting

What did we learn? Indiana EHDI professional and IN H&V board member Julie Schulte created a survey and sent it to a vast IN listserve to assess awareness of Recommended Practices plus a introductory letter with a call-to-action to Parent Lisa Kovacs shared that her husband has changed his bedtime reading routine to incorporate some of the literacy strategies she shared with him from her research. Michigan After researching Recommended Practices on the website, parent Kristie Medes created an activity that is easy for parents to use. Ellen Milne, a parent and educator, took comprehensive approach using the same idea and created an entire curriculum with activities that parents can give teachers to use with DHH students. New Mexico Chris O’Conner, parent and teacher, along with Denise Romine, created a flyer that went out to families and teachers. It featured an at-a-glance summary of each of the 20 Recommended Practices for quick reference.

Then what happened?? JDSDE Author’s Corner Project… Families learning from the source and the source is learning from families!

Parents as “Guerilla” Researchers H&V parents are participating on a wikispace with the Journal of Deaf Studies & Deaf Education and Michigan State University to explore what we can learn from researchers & vice versa…. Is that study relevant to our child’s situation?. Does it help address an unmet need?. Can these findings change the strategies to meet an IEP goal?. Does it validate something the teacher is doing—right or wrong? Parents weigh in and help researchers asks better questions, understand the front-line problems we’re facing in real-world classrooms, and create better solutions!

University & Parent Collaborative Partners Harold Johnson, EdD Susan Easterbrooks, EdD Leeanne Seaver, MA,

A Strategy for Change What do we now have? A field that believes a lot, but knows a lot less. A lose consortium of deaf education teacher preparation programs that are increasingly vulnerable due to pending faculty retirements, changing Federal funding priorities, and comparatively low enrollments. An unknown number of teachers who are increasingly required to be “highly qualified,” yet work across the K-12 grade continuum as “Consulting” or “Itinerant” teachers of students who are ethnically diverse, with mild to profound hearing loss and who often “come” with additional disabilities An unknown number of students who are deaf/hard of hearing (d/hh) who are increasingly dispersed in a K-12 model education that requires “adequate yearly progress” as demonstrated within the “regular” academic curriculum. An established, nation wide, mostly functional system to identify infants who are d/hh and provide services for their families. What do we now have? A challenge to learn, prepare and teach both differently and more effectively.

...Strategy What do we now need, i.e., what do we need to do to learn, prepare and teach both differently and more effectively? Learn: We need...a distributed, collaboratively, technologically facilitated, longitudinally enabled, school and/or home focused, Web based model of subject identification, data collection, data analysis and knowledge sharing Prepare: We need...a model that effectively and efficiently links our college/university classrooms with the nation’s most innovative, effective, ethnically diverse and geographical dispersed teachers of students who are d/hh, while simultaneously using a similar model of learning to prepare the next generation of deaf education faculty. Teach: We need...link learning with living in such a way that students use the academic knowledge and skills they are expected to acquire to become increasingly effective in exploring their topical interests and addressing their day-to-day problems.

...Strategy What can we now do to change? Learn: Participate in the JDSDE Author’s Corner to learn and discuss what we “know” Use existing, low cost video conferencing systems (iVisit) and existing observational analysis tools, e.g., Transana, to link researchers, parents and teachers in the collaborative design and implement needed research (e.g., 2006 NIDCD recommendations)(iVisit) Transana2006 NIDCD recommendations Prepare: Participate in the design of a collaborative model of doctoral preparation for the fiield of Deaf Educationcollaborative model of doctoral preparation Use existing “Recommended Practices,” “Master Teachers,” wiki and video conferencing systems to link theory with practices, while simultaneously providing recognition and instructional support.Recommended Practices“Master Teacherswiki and video Teach: Link learning with living by utilizing student’s topical interests and life outside of school to provide the essential context for students to use their evolving academic knowledge and skills to be become increasingly effective and sophisticated problem solvers.

Q & A We have talked enough, what do you think of the “new strategy for change?”