Willie
Ross School’s
well-developed and longstanding partnership with the
East Longmeadow Public Schools
provides deaf or hard-of-hearing students the opportunity to
attend school with hearing peers, while providing services to
help Willie Ross School’s
students benefit optimally from these educational experiences.
This unique academic setting allows our students benefits that
can only be achieved by integrating the advantages of being
enrolled in a school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students with
those of a mainstream setting. There are few, if any,
other schools that can provide such an array of academic alternatives.
 Recent
advances in technology, including the use of digital hearing
aids and cochlear implants, have created the need for educational
settings that expand the offerings available to students
with hearing loss. The Willie Ross approach is neither
a sign language only nor spoken language only instructional/communication
approach. Rather, it is an integrated
instructional model which views each student as an individual
and recognizes the benefits of combining approaches rather
than excluding them.
The
Willie Ross approach addresses this potentially difficult
situation by creating a school for the deaf in a public
school setting, offering students the advantages of both.
At the Willie Ross Partnership Campus in East Longmeadow,
deaf students learn side-by-side with hearing peers in classrooms
with licensed teachers and certified sign language or oral
interpreters. If students’ needs are better
met by relying exclusively on residual hearing, hearing
aids, or a cochlear implant, no interpreter need be assigned.
This unique educational environment can provide whatever
combination of services best suits the strengths and needs
of individual students. The Willie Ross approach thus
tailors the instructional model to fit the student, rather
than expecting the student to fit into a mold designed for
someone else.
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 The
introduction of mainstreaming services into an educational program
designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing children recognizes that
traditional educational approaches offered by schools for the
deaf may be too limiting for many of today’s students.
Students with hearing loss often can benefit from selective
mainstreaming, with oversight provided by a school for the deaf,
but they may feel isolated in public schools where they have
no peers who are like them.
The
dual enrollment model of Willie Ross’s Partnership Campus
– an educational program designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing
students, but situated in a public school environment –
recognizes the need for deaf and hard-of-hearing students to
have both instructional options and an array of communication
alternatives available to them. It also recognizes that
advancements in assistive listening technologies can be optimized
when combined with innovative educational approaches.
Students enrolled at the Willie Ross School’s Partnership
Campus have access to a program designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing
students which is situated in a hearing environment. Willie
Ross has integrated one of its campuses into the public setting
in order to effectively provide services to its students.
The
Partnership Campus at the elementary, middle, and high school
levels is an appropriate placement for students with a range
of hearing losses and varied communication requirements.
The offering of such alternatives allows each student to have
the “best fit” educational program while providing
for effective social-academic integration and a realistic perspective
on the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The
Willie Ross approach truly offers students the best of both
worlds in a supportive yet challenging environment provides
deaf or hard-of-hearing students the opportunity to attend school
with hearing peers.
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