Test Scores: Tucker-Maxon Students More Than Make the Grade

Once again, Tucker-Maxon’s 2007 test scores spelled success in academic subjects. Students who are deaf and students with typical hearing are scoring at or above the
national average in every testing category.
IIn reading, our students with typical hearing achieved 1.3 grade levels of growth, and 1.4 and 1.7 grade levels of growth in writing and math, respectively, in one academic year.

Our students with hearing impairment gained 1.0 grade level in reading, keeping pace with the nationwide average for students with typical hearing. In writing and math, their growth was better than average, at 1.1 and 1.3 grade levels, respectively.

Gallaudet University’s research on the literacy levels of students who are deaf shows that seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds with deafness read at a fourth-grade level, on average. Against this backdrop, Tucker-Maxon students’ progress in academic subjects is remarkable. All Tucker-Maxon students take the Woodcock-Johnson academic achievement test every spring. The test is nationally normed, so the test measures Tucker-Maxon students against a very large sample. One grade level of progress per academic year represents the national average.

Students who are deaf undergo additional tests of speech and listening skills. This year our students who are deaf attained 90.5% intelligible speech in Grades K-5 and 83.7% intelligible speech in preschool. This means that, on average, their speech is as about as easy to understand as that of a normally-hearing child in the same age group.

What explains Tucker-Maxon students extraordinary progress in academic subjects? A commitment to a truly auditory-oral education and a focus on individual learners, according to executive director Steve Noyce. For the children with hearing impairment, we do everything necessary to provide a rich auditory-oral environment. That’s one thing, and having typically
hearing peers in the classroom is part of that. But look in any classroom and you’ll fi nd small classes where teachers can focus on the needs of each student. They can tailor learning to the individual. And that benefits all students.”

--Jessica Johnson

This article is from the Fall 2007 issue of Now You're Talking.