Rhode Island School for the Deaf: Family is Not Enough

Watch what is happening in the tiny state of Rhode Island, at the Rhode Island School for the Deaf. A new director, Lori Dunsmore, says she is trying to "align the school’s curriculum with state standards and grade-level expectations, providing an academic structure the school has lacked." At the same time, the vice president of the Rhode Island School for the Deaf Teachers’ Association, Mary Cummings, says "This is not a factory. This is not just a school. This is a family." The teachers feel that their years of experience and skills are underappreciated.

Both Ms. Dunsmore and Ms. Cummings are correct. A school for the deaf does tend to have a family-like atmosphere. I see this myself, as a parent of a deaf student at a deaf school. However, Ms. Dunsmore is right to want to upgrade the academics. How else can the school survive? The next generation coming up, as we know, has better hearing and better language skills on the average. Either the schools for the deaf become the academic equivalent of hearing public schools, or die.

Dunsmore says she will provide professional development opportunities so that established teachers can bring themselves up to the new standards. If an established teacher can not meet new standards even with professional development help, that teacher should retire and allow newer teachers to take their place. Otherwise, nothing changes, and students will suffer academically.

On a related tangent, I am aware of what is happening in California. Looking at it from an administrator's point of view, I can understand why schools for the deaf seem threatened. The administrators see low enrollment and high expenses. It is important to maintain a continuum of educational options, but if the economic burden of maintaining this continuum becomes too great to bear, then it is no wonder there is talk of closing down certain schools for the deaf.

Schools for the deaf mean a lot to the deaf community, particularly the older generation that had little choice prior to 1975. Very few schools had mainstreaming programs established prior to 1975, and I was fortunate enough to attend one. It is not enough to wax nostalgic and talk about the importance of keeping a school for the deaf open. Alumni of those schools who care, need to become recruitment ambassadors for their schools. The enrollment of those schools must remain stable, or grow for those schools to be able to justify being kept funded and alive. Otherwise, they become tempting easy targets for administrators looking to reduce budgets.

How can alumni become recruitment ambassadors for their schools? Some ideas that come to mind are: blogging positively about their experiences; sending representatives to attend conferences of organizations for parents of deaf and hard of hearing children, and contacting the media to get positive stories written about the school for the deaf experience.

I don't know what the current enrollment situation is at my child's deaf school. Thus far, they don't seem to be lacking for students. Hopefully it will not get to the point someday that they need help from alumni to get students. If that day does arrive, I'm sure there will be plenty of alumni willing to step forward.