The uniqueness of
Willie Ross
School
and the implementation of its mission are most clear in the
dual-campus
model, which provides our students with many opportunities for
varying experiences, both with deaf peers at the Longmeadow Campus and
with age appropriate hearing peers in the Partnership Campus within the
East Longmeadow Public Schools.
The
Willie Ross School has always been committed to an integrated approach
to instruction, which has led to the development of our dual-campus
model: the Longmeadow
Campus and the Partnership Campus in East Longmeadow. Our
approach recognizes that the placement of our students must be
determined as to which campus will best meet their needs, as revealed through their
evaluations. The capacity of the selected setting to provide
accessible instruction is the primary requirement of a campus placement
at Willie Ross. The choice is not based on the philosophy or
history of the school, but on the needs of the student. Our
approach and our mission have the capacity to ensure that our focus is
on our students and on addressing their needs. Our revised
mission further enhances our ability to achieve that goal.
The dual-campus model offers
the availability of two campuses and the possibility of placement
changes at all points in a student’s career. At Willie Ross, the
special educational continuum can be presented in a systemic,
interdisciplinary fashion. This permits services to be provided
based on the diagnosed needs of the students, and not upon the assumed
capacity of one educational environment being superior over
another. A continuum is defined not as a series of discrete
steps, but as a range of multiple offerings at each step. The
environmental context in which services are provided has taken on a far
too important role as opposed to the importance of the appropriate
services being provided within those settings.
The
model responds to the proven historical requirement that students with
a hearing loss require programs and services provided in different
settings. For many, a completely accessible environment with
age-appropriate peers, and a curriculum and instructional methodology
that can respond to their needs through center-based approaches is the
optimal setting.
The academic abilities of deaf or
hard-of-hearing students may vary. Experience has shown that
incremental inclusionary opportunities sponsored by and evaluated by a
school for the deaf may be superior to an all-or nothing mainstream
placement in a public school setting or a full-time placement in a
center-based school.
The Partnership
Campus of the Willie
Ross School responds to these service
requirements. This model recognizes that the value of a
specialized setting can be enhanced when inclusion services are
available. There is a mutual benefit for both the deaf and
hearing students being educated together.
All of us in
the Willie Ross Community have the same principal goal for all of our
students: that they develop their
cognitive and intellectual skills to the maximum extent possible and
that the transition into the next phase in their lives, whatever that
might be, is supported and nurtured during their time at Willie
Ross. Citizenship and participation in their home communities is
a major goal for all of our students. Our commitment to academic
excellence, the development of a variety of skills necessary to be a
successful citizen, and maximum development of communication skills all
contribute to this goal.
The great equalizer in American society among students with challenges
and those without is education. Educated individuals, regardless
of the challenges or obstacles that they have had to overcome in order
to achieve, will have much better opportunities to benefit from their
communities. Conversely, their communities will have the benefit
of access to them as full and contributing members.
