Fast Facts

Named for our first benefactor and first teacher, the Tucker-Maxon Oral School serves “oral-deaf” (non-signing) children from birth to 5th grade and hearing children preschool to 5th grade in greater Portland.  Once they enter a group program at age 3, children with hearing loss (who use hearing aids and cochlear implants) are educated in inclusive classrooms with children who hear normally, giving them access to the typically developing language of their peers. For 60 years, we have empowered children with hearing loss to participate fully in their communities.  Our mission statement is “Deaf and hearing children talking, learning, and achieving excellence together.”

History and Keys to Our Success
One of America’s most admired pioneers in oral education and related technology, the Tucker-Maxon Oral School was begun in 1947 by Paul Boley and five Portland families who dreamed of providing their deaf children with the gift of speech.

Recent changes in technology and public policy help us offer deaf children a future that we could not have imagined a generation ago.  Three key factors contribute to our current success:

1. Early Identification.  Oregon now requires newborn hearing screening, so we can identify infants with hearing loss while they are still in the hospital.  In the past children with hearing loss often were not diagnosed until age 2½, after a critical period in language development had passed.  Now we can help children when it will make the most difference.


2. Cutting-Edge Technology.  Babies with hearing loss can be fitted with tiny hearing aids.  After they are one year old, they may undergo an operation to receive a cochlear implant, which helps profoundly deaf people access everyday sounds – the clicking of a pen, the wind rustling leaves, or someone calling out from a distance. 


3. Life-Changing Teachers.  A profoundly deaf child who cannot access sound without listening technology is like a newborn baby who hears for the first time on the day the cochlear implant is activated.  Speech pathologists and teachers of the deaf work to close this gap between a child’s biological age and “hearing age,” measured by factors like the percentage of a child’s speech that is intelligible and number of words in a typical sentence.

Programs
To help our 49 deaf students develop age-appropriate speech, we offer an “oral immersion” program with 95 hearing peers from the greater Portland area in the following programs:

• Early Intervention helps parents of children with hearing loss from birth to age 3 understand their role as primary teachers when infants and toddlers are learning language.


• Preschool focuses on the individual development of deaf and hearing children ages 3 to 5.


• Elementary School offers curricula in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies that meets or exceeds the State Benchmarks of Oregon.


• Mainstream supports our alumni transitioning into middle and high school.

Did you know?

• We first learn language with our ears. Children with hearing loss often become adults who struggle with basic grammatical patterns in written language, the essential skill of reading. 

• While the average deaf adult reads at a 3rd or 4th grade level, the average Tucker-Maxon student with hearing loss reads at or above grade level.

• While only 8 percent of deaf adults graduate from college, 95 percent of Tucker-Maxon alumni since 1990 have graduated or are attending college.

Measures of Our Success:

• We have 132 students (age 3 or older) and 16 instructional staff members for a student-teacher ratio of 8:1.

• Our elementary student with hearing loss progressed with an average annual language growth of 16.4 months in 2007-2008 and an average speech intelligibility score of 89.7 percent.

• While the average annual academic progress for students with hearing loss is a 0.5 grade level in reading, Tucker-Maxon students with hearing loss scored 1.0 grade levels in reading and 1.3 in writing. Our typically hearing students demonstrated an average annual academic progress of 1.5 grade levels in reading and 1.4 in writing during the 2007-2008 school year.

Average Cost of Educating a Tucker-Maxon Student with Hearing Loss:

No child with a hearing loss is ever turned away from Tucker-Maxon for financial reasons.

 

Our Expenses 2007-08*

*Source: Draft Audited Financial Statement

 

2008-2009 Tucker-Maxon Tuition

*This tuition rate for children with hearing loss entitles students to the services of an audiologist, speech-language pathologist, and certified teachers of the deaf.
No child with hearing loss has ever been denied admission for financial reasons.