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MISSION PRIORITIES DUAL CAMPUS MODEL
 THE SCHOOL'S VISION
The Willie Ross School for the Deaf provides a comprehensive educational program stressing academic excellence that focuses on the development of students’ intellectual, social, and emotional growth. The School fosters appreciation of the dignity of every individual and acceptance of the many cultures within our society. Willie Ross School offers a program which encourages the development of the necessary combination of academic strengths, social skills, and general preparation for successful participation in society upon the completion of students’ studies. This goal is accomplished through the dual-campus model, which offers an immersion approach (deaf students learning together) and inclusion (academic and community mainstreaming – deaf and hearing students learning together).

 Mission Priorities

The educational model of the school is designed to achieve the following goals:

1. To create a unified Willie Ross community, accomplished through regular communication and participation by all staff, families and Trustees.
2. To support the academic success of all Willie Ross students through recognition of their unique needs and provision of individualized programming to address those needs.
3. To foster a community-wide culture of academic excellence through the use of an integrated instructional approach, provision of the most enabling academic environment, regular assessment, and an emphasis on Individualized Educational Plan’s success.
4. To promote and support communication between the campuses in order to facilitate transition, to recognize evolving student needs and the value of the dual-campus approach.
5. To promote a community-wide adoption of the values of ongoing assessment of students’ outcomes in order to insure all programs and services remain responsive to student needs.
6. To recognize communication methodologies as an instructional tool to enhance access to the curriculum and to give equal consideration to all approaches.
7. To recognize and support the value of an integrated instructional approach which recognizes the heterogeneity of students with a hearing loss.
8. To recruit, appoint, and retain appropriately licensed professional staff who are prepared to work with our students and implement an integrated approach with a commitment to ongoing student and programmatic assessment.
Mission Components
The Willie Ross mission has six components:
1. Academic excellence and a commitment to providing quality education to all of our students.
2. Willie Ross will offer communication methodologies to its students that best responds to their needs.
3. Willie Ross provides alternative educational environments and use mainstreaming based upon the needs of the students.
4. Our language of instruction is simultaneous communication that is English-based.
5. Spoken language, sign language, total communication, and all methods are provided to students on an as-needed basis to facilitate instruction and access to mainstreaming. Approaches are integrated on the basis of the student’s Individual Educational Plan.
6. The use of residual hearing will be encouraged and supported. Students with cochlear implants will receive appropriate related services to maximize the benefit of their implant.



 The School’s Vision
The Willie Ross School for the Deaf will provide educational environments and process-based instructional approaches that each student will have access to in all settings. Since the world is an increasingly more complex place, certain skills are required of all individuals for success. Willie Ross utilizes both an immersion and inclusionary approach which enables students to develop the ability to participate in society as a whole. The Willie Ross School provides a model that recognizes that educational environments must evolve as students’ needs evolve. Willie Ross supports families in their search for communication with their sons and daughters, and our mutual goal is reflected in our common vision; to provide a contemporary educational program with an emphasis on academic excellence.

The Willie Ross School does not utilize a single methodology of instruction or communication to the exclusion of all other methodologies. Willie Ross recognizes the value of sign language, and also the value in developing spoken language. The Willie Ross integrated approach recognizes that students with different needs are best served in a setting which recognizes the value of integrating different approaches to meet student needs. Our focus is on the student, not a particular approach or philosophy.