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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