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The Willie Ross School
for the Deaf is a small school with an ambitious mission and a rich
history. The focus of the school, since its founding by parents
in 1967, has been on providing quality programs and services to the
deaf or hard-of-hearing students that it serves. Willie Ross has
always invested in student programs before facilities and has long
acknowledged that its human resources are the most precious resource
that it possesses.
In the
mid-1960’s, a group of parents came together, united by the needs of
their children who had been deafened by the rubella epidemic that swept
the eastern seaboard. Their common goal was to ensure that the
best possible educational programs and services were available for
their children. From the initial establishment of the parent
group, they shared a common goal: to have their children live at home,
and they realized, well before their time, that inclusion must begin
with the family before it can occur at a school.
At the time, residential placement for all
deaf children was the prevailing option. When the existing
programs did not welcome their vision of the benefits of a day
placement, they were undaunted by the rejection. The parents,
confident of their decision, moved ahead and established their own day
school. They recognized that it is the families’ responsibility,
before it is the school’s, to ensure that we leave no child
behind. They were united in their goal that, first, their
children would be full and contributing members of their
families. They were secure in their knowledge that an appropriate
education would be the means to ensure that their children would become
full and contributing members of their communities. As a result
of their efforts, the Willie
Ross School for the Deaf first opened
its doors in 1967.
The legacy of their vision and their dedication to
improving the lives of their children through education serves as the
school’s beacon to this day. A tenet of the founders’ legacy is
the recognition that instructional models must evolve as the needs of
the students that they serve evolve. They realized that a
school’s history, even before Willie Ross had a history, can help guide
the development of new models, but a simple preservation of historical
approaches cannot promote students’ educational success. They
learned from the residential schools’ resistance to the establishment
of a day program that parents must be advocates for their children to
ensure they receive the most appropriate programming.
The commitment to recognizing the value of different
approaches is demonstrated by the ongoing development of the Willie
Ross model. For example, Willie Ross began as an oral school, but
over time the limitations of an oral-only approach became clear to the
members of the Willie Ross community.
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Rather than abandon the approach completely, sign language was
integrated into the methodology, and Willie Ross adopted a simultaneous
communication approach. The value of both sign and spoken
language was recognized. Over time, the Willie Ross
School
has integrated other communication approaches, as well, to enhance
students’ access to the instructional model.
The advancements in the utilization of residual
hearing through digital hearing aids, FM classroom auditory training
system, and cochlear implants have been recognized and maximized in a
fashion that cannot occur when only a single method is available.
The value of integration for deaf students with hearing students was
understood, and the value of integrating approaches to enhance
instruction was adopted. This foundation led to Willie Ross’s
development of the dual-campus model. The school offers a
center-based educational environment at its Longmeadow Campus.
The Partnership Campus, housed in the East Longmeadow Public Schools,
offers mainstreaming opportunities for for Willie Ross students.
Willie Ross also recognizes and supports the
notion that not all children with a hearing loss should be placed in a
school for the deaf. Drawing on that belief, the school
established its Outreach Division which provides services from infancy
through age twenty-two. Whether it is a toddler, identified
through universal newborn screening and being served at home, or high
school students, receiving tutoring at their home schools, our services
are there assisting them with their studies. The school
recognizes that certain students with a hearing loss can be placed in
their local school. The Outreach Division provides the support
and specialization that is needed to ensure that the academic
environment is responsive to the students’ needs.
The Outreach Division sponsors the Laurin
Audiological
Center,
located in Pittsfield,
made possible by the generosity of one of our Trustees. The
cities of Springfield and Pittsfield
receive extensive audiological support for their students with a
hearing loss who attend their local public schools. The Curtis L.
Blake Center for Audiological Services at the
Longmeadow Campus services the students in the western part of the
state and the Laurin Center services the students in Berkshire County.
Willie Ross has grown,
Willie Ross has changed, and Willie Ross will continue to search for
and introduce improved instructional methods. The school welcomes
all of its students by responding to their needs. The Willie Ross
community celebrates the diversity of our students and recognizes that
no single approach or method is appropriate for all students. We
will embrace the differences by offering programs which are student
driven and not insulated from change because of history. The
mission of the Willie
Ross School for the Deaf has always
been and always will be to provide the best possible program to its
students.
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