How should literacy outcomes be measured for Deaf students?

How should literacy outcomes be measured for Deaf students?

• A. By bilingual literacy assessments that evaluate sign language proficiency and English reading/writing, with visually based tasks.
• B. By oral-only assessments that focus on spoken language.
• C. By standard English reading tests with no sign language evaluation.
• D. By numeracy tests and logical reasoning measures.

Answer: (A)

The main idea is that literacy outcomes for Deaf students are best measured with bilingual assessments that evaluate both sign language proficiency and English reading and writing, using visually accessible tasks. This recognizes that sign language is a full language for many Deaf learners and that literacy develops across both languages. Including sign language assessment helps you see how well a student understands ideas, expresses them, and connects them to written English, while visually based tasks ensure access and fairness. Relying on oral-only assessments misses sign language access, and standard English tests that don’t evaluate sign language can misrepresent a Deaf student’s true literacy. Numeracy tests measure math and reasoning, not literacy, so they don’t serve this purpose.

The main idea is that literacy outcomes for Deaf students are best measured with bilingual assessments that evaluate both sign language proficiency and English reading and writing, using visually accessible tasks. This recognizes that sign language is a full language for many Deaf learners and that literacy develops across both languages. Including sign language assessment helps you see how well a student understands ideas, expresses them, and connects them to written English, while visually based tasks ensure access and fairness. Relying on oral-only assessments misses sign language access, and standard English tests that don’t evaluate sign language can misrepresent a Deaf student’s true literacy. Numeracy tests measure math and reasoning, not literacy, so they don’t serve this purpose.