Literacy & Deaf Students

What is the reading level of deaf and hard of hearing people?

We have examined large numbers of deaf and hard of hearing students who are quite representative of those throughout the United States. When the Gallaudet Research Institute conducts large educational test standardization studies to obtain norms (percentile scores) for deaf and hard of hearing students, the data collected are used to describe students' achievement. In the last norming of a widely used achievement test, the Stanford Achievement Test, 9th Edition (Harcourt Educational Measurement, 1996), deaf and hard of hearing students aged 8 through 18 were given the test, including the Reading Comprehension subtest. The measure of reading achievement we are using is the Reading Comprehension subtest, a multiple-choice test.

It is important to note that the reading achievement is of deaf and hard of hearing students who are in school. We are not talking about adults, and we are not talking about high school graduates. (I want to clarify this point, because many people ask about adults and about high school graduates, for which we have no data.)

For the 17-year-olds and the 18-year-olds in the deaf and hard of hearing student norming sample, the median Reading Comprehension subtest score corresponds to about a 4.0 grade level for hearing students. That means that half of the deaf and hard of hearing students at that age scored above the typical hearing student at the beginning of fourth grade, and half scored below. The "median" is the 50th percentile, and is one of the ways to express an average, or typical, score. (A "mean" score, or arithmetic average, is not the same as the median.)

The technical report of the norming study (Interpreting the Scores) describes the students and details the methods used. It describes also the psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the test when used with deaf and hard of hearing students. The norms booklet presents the test scores and is the source of the 4.0 grade equivalent score for 17- and 18-year-old deaf students in the norming sample. The norms booklet gives test score information for deaf and hard of hearing students aged 8 through 18 on the subtests Word Study Skills, Word Reading, Reading Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics: Problem Solving, Mathematics: Procedures, Spelling, Language, Environment, Study Skills, Science, Social Science, and Listening. Age-based percentile norms are given for Word Reading/Reading Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics: Problem Solving, Mathematics: Procedures, Spelling, and Language. These are the citations for these documents:

Holt, Judith A., Traxler, Carol B., and Allen, Thomas E. 1997. Interpreting the Scores: A User's Guide to the 9th Edition Stanford Achievement Test for Educators of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students. Gallaudet Research Institute Technical Report 97-1. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University.

Gallaudet Research Institute. 1996. Stanford Achievement Test, 9th Edition, Form S, Norms Booklet for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students. (Including Conversions of Raw Score to Scaled Score & Grade Equivalent and Age-based Percentile Ranks for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students.) Washington, DC: Gallaudet University.

How can one assess the language skills of deaf students?

Where can one find reliable research on literacy or another topic related to deafness?

You can do a search for your topic at Gallaudet University. There is a search engine that will search all of the web sites at Gallaudet University.

You can use the two information sites at Gallaudet University: