Researchers Publish, Earn Grants to Improve Instruction

UA College of Education researchers studying the social inclusion and academic success of deaf and hard-of-hearing students have just received a $800,000 grant to train educators who teach this population.

The continued national trend in moving deaf and hard-of-hearing students out of segregated classrooms and into general education classes – and the implications of that movement – is one University of Arizona researchers have closely watched.

The shift began in the 1970s with federal legislation – such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act – designed to improve education and services for students with special needs, including deaf and hard of hearing, or D/HH students. The government also began encouraging the mainstreaming of those students.

One problem today is that so little is understood about how to appropriately integrate such students – particularly those who have mild or moderate hearing loss, said Shirin D. Antia, a UA professor of special education, rehabilitation and school psychology.

"Most of our field has been focused on children with severe hearing loss, but we're realizing that students who are not deaf but hard of hearing are quite neglected and have particular needs," said Antia, who has studied the language development, classroom placement, social integration and academic success of D/HH students.

"We have never really developed expertise on how to work with children with mild and moderate hearing loss," Antia said. "But even mild hearing loss puts a child at risk for academic achievement."

Antia is an Erasmus Circle Fellow – the highest honor that goes to UA College of Education students and faculty – who has spent three decades working to improve the inclusion of D/HH students as well as the instruction of the individuals who teach them.

To continue a portion of her work, Antia has just received a four-year, $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs – which becomes effective in January.

The grant will cover scholarships and instructional costs to train teachers who work with D/HH students. After a pilot run, the master's level program will now be offered exclusively online to teachers across the nation, leading to a D/HH specialist certificate.

"We have students scattered far and wide throughout the school district and they need support," Antia said, noting that as the reason why she and others began offering training services online.

Newly Published Research on D/HH Students

Antia and her colleagues have just published findings from a recently completed five-year longitudinal study that involved analyzing the academic success of nearly 200 D/HH students in general classrooms in Arizona and Colorado.

The article, "Academic Status of Deaf and Hard-of Hearing Students in Public Schools: Student, Home, and Service Facilitators and Detractors," was published in October in the fall issue of the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.

Antia co-authored the article with Susanne Reed, the project director, and Kathryn H. Kreimeyer, adjunct associate professor in the UA's special education, rehabilitation and school psychology department.

The Colorado Department of Education, the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind and University of Northern Colorado collaborated on the study, which is expected to result in a series of publications.

The purpose of the project was to "examine their status and progress, and to examine the relationship between student demographic variables, and academic and social status."

The students involved – from elementary to high school in many cases – were identified as having hearing loss and were in general education courses supported by teachers with training in the area of deaf and hard-of-hearing education

Among the findings were that D/HH students were performing better than expected. The researchers measured the students' social skills, particularly "problem behaviors" like bullying, shouting and other disruptive behavior. The team also paid attention to whether students were overly lonely or shy.

Kreimeyer also said there are numerous assumptions about D/HH students. Among them are beliefs that milder hearing loss students do not need additional support, that D/HH students are socially isolated and also socially immature compared to their peers.

"What our data shows is that is not the case," Kreimeyer said.

Antia and her colleagues found that the majority of students made one year's worth of progress annually as opposed to making 1/3 of progress annually as early articles have reported.

"Previous research shows while they do better than their peers in segregated classes, we didn't know how well they were doing," Antia said. "But our research shows they are performing within the low average range, which is better that what anyone has previously reported."

"But the sample is also one that nobody has ever looked at very carefully before," she said.

This makes a good case for D/HH students' inclusion, she said.

"The issue of inclusion has been a major point of contention in our field," Antia said, adding that an estimated 45 percent of D/HH students are now in general classes.

The Case for Inclusive Classrooms

Over the years, Antia's research has shown that integrating deaf and hard-of-hearing, or D/HH, students does not preclude them from academic success. She said the longitudinal study reinforced that finding.

Yet inclusion remains a contentious issue.

Antia and her colleagues have found that D/HH students do not arrive in classes with singular challenges, but "a multiplicity of barriers," she said.

Some of the factors include the amount of classroom time spent on the curriculum, how educators feel about inclusion, teacher support, the educator's proficiency in American Sign Language, the relationships between teachers and the child's special needs educators, along with numerous other barriers.

"The reason why this research is important is that we always looked at just a few barriers," Antia said.

"I think the interview data shows there are a host of variables; there is no single or even two major barriers," Antia added. "With all these interacting problems, it is clear that if we want them to succeed we have to attack with several programs at one time. Those are some of the issues the training program is meant to address."