National Technical Institute for the Deaf: a profitable investment; while giving deaf students a competitive edge in the world of high technology, NTID gives the taxpayers a return on their investment of more than 440 percent

Educators in the United States have been asking themselves some hard questions lately: "How do we train a work force and qualified teachers for a society in transition from traditional industry to high technology? How can we gain the support and cooperation of private business in public education? As greater demands are placed on our limited financial resources, can we--and should we--continue emphasis on education of the handicapped?"

The recent report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education calls for extensive renovation and redirection of the American educational system. The revitalization of that system is going to require a cooperative effort and a shared commitment by public education and the private sector.

Those looking for a model of success in cooperative education may well look to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology (RIT). A public postsecondary coeducational school for the deaf, NTID is an integral part of a private educational institution with strong ties to the surrounding high-technology business community.

NTID's goals

The world's largest technological college for the deaf, NTID has three goals:

* to provide technical and professional education and training for deaf students to prepare them for successful employment;

* to prepare professionals to provide the special services required by the nation's deaf population; and

* to conduct applied research into the social, educational, and economic effects of deafness (includes developing and evaluating teaching techniques to benefit deaf students everywhere).

In view of these goals, NTID has identified five needs of the deaf population: enhanced economic accommodation, higher educational achievement, improved communication skills, better social and personal skills, and increased effectiveness of teaching techniques used with deaf students.

To meet these needs, NTID emphasizes career development, research, and training for both students and professional staff members.

Who are NTID's students?

NTID represents the world's first effort to educate large numbers of deaf students within a college campus planned primarily for hearing students. Together with 15,000 full and part-time hearing students, more than 1,000 college-age deaf students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico study and reside on the campus of RIT. Support services such as an innovative tutor/notetaker program and interpreted religious services on campus encourage the personal, social and cultural development of students. Qualified students are encouraged to pursue graduate studies at RIT and other institutions.

Benefits of shared services

As a federally funded, national institution operating as part of a private institute, NTID is able to pass on to its students the benefits of cooperative property management, shared services, and close links with other divisions of RIT.

An example of the close cooperation between NTID and the rest of RIT is the sharing of personnel. Although RIT is composed of nine primarily autonomous colleges, NTID depends on all RIT instructional personnel to become, to an extent, teachers of the deaf.

Every year, an educational specialist and a support team are assigned to each of the day colleges of RIT to help meet the special needs of deaf students within that college. Close communications are also maintained with the placement, housing, and counseling centers of RIT, RIT's dean of complementary education, and all curriculum committees of the other colleges of RIT.

One of the major reasons for NTID's success in helping deaf students join the mainstream of American life is its close working relationship with the other colleges at RIT in developing career-oriented programs of study.

Meeting the students' needs

The curriculum of NTID has been developed with the student as the core of the system. It includes technical, personal/social, and communication instruction. All programs are designed to meet the student's needs, and instructional programs are tailored to individual interests and abilities. An emphasis on computer literacy recently has been added to the curriculum.

New opportunities for

NTID graduates

Before NTID was established at RIT in 1966 as the result of a special Act of Congress, deaf Americans had a long history of unemployment and underemployment. Opportunities for deaf people to receive vocational and technical training were limited to state residential schools and on-the-job programs. The typical deaf adult was lucky to have learned a trade such as baking, shoe repair, woodworking, drafting, or printing through high school or apprenticeship. Even deaf college graduates with bachelor's degrees were fortunate to find ready employment; often they ended up in fields of teaching or printing for which they were ill-prepared.

Today, most deaf RIT graduates join the mainstream of the nation's employed: 80 percent are in white-collar positions, compared to 25 percent of the nation's deaf population and 50 percent of the general population. In 1982, deaf graduates with bachelor's degrees in engineering averaged more than $22,000 yearly salary for their first job.

NTID at RIT maintains a direct link to private business through the National Center on Employment of the Deaf (NCED), which the Institute hosts. The Center is designed to promote successful employment of RIT's deaf graduates and qualified deaf people nationwide, offering services to employers, professionals serving the deaf, and qualified deaf persons. NCED representatives meet with employers on campus and on the job site to assist in recruiting, hiring and accomodating qualified deaf people. The center also trains employment representatives and direct supervisors of deaf people to provide a detailed understanding of deafness and its implications in the workplace.

Benefits to taxpayers

The public benefits, too, from the success of NTID in educating young deaf persons. A recent cost/benefit analysis examined the payback to the federal government on its investment in NTID through the Department of Education. The lifetime earnings gain per graduate is more than $800,000, producing tax revenues of $160,000. The cost of a degree to the federal government is slightly more than $36,000 for a return on investment of more than 440 percent.

Support services for deaf students at RIT fall into two broad categories: direct classroom assistance and indirect classroom services such as career development counseling, job placement assistance, and communication evaluation and training.

NTID uses several nontradiional approaches to curriculum and instruction. Most technical faculty are hired out of business and industry and come to RIT with up-to-date practical experience. This knowledge is augmented by teacher effectiveness training to help faculty members become more efficient in the classroom. Curriculum Advisory Groups of business and industry representatives meet yearly to evaluate NTID programs and offer their professional advice. NTID at RIT also has an internal committee to review and approve curricula.

Cooperation with industry

Through a cooperative work program with business and industry, most deaf students at RIT have on-the-job experience by the time they graduate. Almost every program of study at RIT requires at least one co-op experience before students can be certified for graduation.

Through paid and unpaid work, internships and field placements, co-op lets students apply classroom learning to actual jobs while testing and developing their technical, personal, social and communications skills. Co-op also gives students a better understanding of the demands of the working world.

More than 57 percent of NTID students find co-op jobs near their homes. Three out of four work in industry, 20 percent in government, and five percent in education.

NTID students have held co-op jobs with such companies as AT&T, Metropolitan Insurance Company, Eastman Kodak, IBM, General Motors, U.S. Steel, Hewlett-Packard, and the United States government, among others.

By developing close ties with the private sector, NTID has attained a placement rate of 97 percent for those graduates who enter the labor force, one of the best placement rates in the nation. Historically, 94 percent of these deaf graduates are placed in jobs related to their fields of study at salaries competitive with those of hearing graduates. About 83 percent of NTID graduates are placed in business and industry, while 11 percent work in government jobs and six percent in education.

Maintenance of these benefits to the taxpayers and the deaf community will require a redoubling of effort by those committed to education. Between 1963 and 1965, a rubella (German measles) epidemic swept through the United States. During those years, more than twice the usual number of hearing-impaired babies were born. As these children approach college age, NTID and other post-secondary educational schools for the deaf are preparing for a heavy influx of students from the rubella group. Despite these extra efforts, it is expected that the number of qualified deaf applicants will continue to exceed the capacity to accommodate them.

The National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology is a model of success in education. The integral relationship of NTID with its host Institute, RIT, and with the surrounding business and industrial community gives young deaf people an unmatched opportunity for an education that would not have been available to them twenty years ago. Deaf students at RIT are not learning mere survival skills. They're learning to work and succeed in a high-technology society among hearing peers and competitors. It is the mission of NTID at RIT to fulfill the public's commitment to that success, and to share that success with the educational world.

COPYRIGHT 1984 U.S. Government Printing Office
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group