Deaf Education Policies
Comprehensive Written Examination (Deaf Education)
Students who do not elect the Plan A or Plan B option will take a comprehensive written examination at the beginning of the semester prior to their residential student teaching placement. The examination will last six hours. The time and place of the comprehensive examination will be determined by the chair of the comprehensive exam committee.
The examination is designed to reveal the candidate’s knowledge of the history of Deaf Education, current best practices in the field, appropriate pedagogical tools used for assessment and teaching of language (both American Sign Language and English), education-related law that impacts the education and culture of the Deaf, IEP development and lesson plan preparation and delivery. Students will be evaluated on the level of their knowledge as well as their ability to express their knowledge in acceptable written form.
Appropriate accommodations will be made for students with documented disabilities.
Nature of Written Comprehensive Questions
The graduate faculty will create comprehensive examination questions that are focused on the education and programming of the child who is Deaf or hard of hearing. The questions will cut across course lines.
Example: Discuss the pedagogical and assessment implications of IDEA as it applies to the education of the child who is Deaf or hard-of-hearing.
Scoring Procedures
Each answer will be rated by the members of the graduate committee as 4 (excellent), 3 (pass), 2 (poor), or 1 (fail). All ratings for each student’s answers will be averaged for a total score in order to determine the outcome of the student’s examination. Students must pass each question with a score of 3 or higher in order to pass the comprehensive examination.
Oral Examination
Students who do not elect the Plan A or Plan B option will take an oral examination given to each candidate by their selected Graduate Committee. The chair of the committee will be the head of the student’s Plan C committee. The oral examination will not exceed two hours in length.
The oral examination will be based on questions that might arise due to the student’s responses on the written examination. If two or more members of the committee believe the student failed one or more questions from the written examination, the student will have an opportunity to demonstrate appropriate knowledge in the area(s) of the question(s).
At the end of the oral exam, the committee will take a pass or fail vote. If two or more members of the committee vote for failure, the student will be dismissed from the program, unless the committee agrees to allow the student to re-take either or both segments of the comprehensive examination (writtens and orals).
Comprehensive American Sign Language Exit Evaluation
Each candidate will be given a comprehensive American Sign Language Exit Evaluation in the semester preceding the residential student teaching placement. If the student does not receive a score of PASS or CONDITIONAL, he/she will not be allowed to student teach in the residential placement. This evaluation may be repeated.
Graduate Student Grade Policy
- Any student that receives two grades of C+ or lower will be dropped from the graduate program.
- Any student that receives one grade of C+ or lower in a graduate class is required to re-take the class or take an independent study to address competencies not adequately attained in the course as determined by the instructor and division. This class will not result in the replacement of the C+ or lower grade. If a C+ or lower is obtained in this subsequent class, the student will be dismissed from the graduate program.