Rebuttal to Program Closure by Dr. Freeman King

February 25, 2022

To All Who Might Be Interested,

I am disheartened and disilliusioned that the outstanding Bilingual-Bicultural Program in Deaf Education at Utah State University has been closed based on the recommendation of an “internal committee review” whose members consisted of the Dean of the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, Dr. Al Smith; the Department Chair of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education, Dr. Karen Munoz; and the Director of Deaf Education, Dr. Lauri Nelson. None of the “internal review” members have any institutional knowledge of or expertise in Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education or American Sign Language teaching.   I was the Director of the Deaf Education Program at USU for 26 years, and was replaced in 2017 by Dr. Lauri Nelson, who at the time was the Director of the Listening and Spoken Language Program (LSL).  The reason for my replacement was a philosophical impasse relative to Bilingual-Bicultural teacher preparation and Listening and Spoken Language with the Department Chair at the time, Dr. Kim Corbin-Lewis. I continued to teach Deaf Education in the Bilingual-Bicultural track until I retired December 31, 2020 and was granted Professor Emeritus status.

The Dean, Dr. Al Smith, stated on the College website, February 2, 2022, “…. The recent accreditation review of the Bi-Bi program by the Council on Education of the Deaf made it clear to us that this program track is not currently providing the high-quality education expected at Utah State University. Moreover, we came to learn of some weaknesses in our undergraduate ASL (American Sign Language) curriculum…” NOTE: ON FEBRUARY 3, AFTER RECEIVING A LETTER FROM DR. BARBARA RAIMONDO, PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL ON EDUCATION OF THE DEAF, HE RETRACTED THIS STATEMENT, AND SAID IT WAS ATTRIBUTED TO AN “INTERNAL REVIEW” OF THE PROGRAM. 

This official announcement of the program’s closure was issued without the Dean having the professional courtesy to consult with Dr. Curtis Radford, Dr. Carolyn Ball, Jan-Kelley King, and Brian Burns, the Deaf Education/ASL professors still employed at Utah State. In fact, he has never even met them.

It is apparent that the Dean was not informed of or blatantly ignored the reputations of these highly qualified professors in Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education.  Dr. Curt Radford, who is Deaf, has a doctorate in Deaf Education and is a national authority on the teaching of American Sign Language and the use of ASL in the classroom.  He also achieved the highest rating possible, a five, on the American Sign Language Proficiency Interview administered by Gallaudet University; Dr. Carolyn Ball is hearing, with an earned doctorate in Educational Interpreting.  She is an acclaimed professor and a nationally certified interpreter; Jan Kelley-King is hearing and has a master’s degree in Deaf Education and is nationally known for her innovations in teaching reading to the Deaf as well as her knowledge of designing ASL assessments that are used for evaluating the ASL skills of pre-service teachers; and Brian Burns, who is Deaf, has a master’s degree in ASL Teaching from Gallaudet University. He also has excellent teacher ratings and like Dr. Radford, achieved the highest rating, a five, on the on the American Sign Language Proficiency Interview.

The only input solicited by the Dean was from the Department Chair and Deaf Education Division Director whose professional training and experiences are in audiology, not Bilingual-Bicultural teacher preparation or American Sign Language methodology. It would have been far more appropriate, if it were necessary to conduct an internal review, that the members of the internal review committee had been professionals in the areas being reviewed.

It is interesting to note that the Bilingual-Bicultural Program at Utah State University has been accredited by the Council on Education of the Deaf (CED) for over 30 years.  In fact, past reviewers of the program have been laudatory in their evaluation of the USU Deaf Education Program, deeming it to be one of the premier teacher training programs in the nation. When the time for recertification of the program came up, CED was experiencing a drastic reconfiguration and reorganization; resultantly, the recertification was delayed.

In 2019, at the national American Colleges Educators of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ACE-DHH) convention, Dr. Radford was informed by Dr. Joseph Fishgrund, the Executive Director of CED, at the time, that our program had been reviewed and there were a few minor edits recommended, but that he had as of yet to find a second reviewer, as is required by the recertification process.  For whatever reasons, a second reviewer was not found, so the reaccreditation was further delayed until the present moment. 

During the ensuing year of the reaccreditation process, the Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education faculty was summarily instructed by the Department Chair, Dr. Karen Munoz, not to discuss their plight (problems with the reaccreditation process or the possibility of the program closure) with any colleagues on the national level, and certainly not to contact the Council on Education of the Deaf (CED) with any concerns or questions.

Dr. Radford and Jan Kelley-King experienced an inordinate amount of additional work related to CED reaccreditation, that was added to their already full teaching loads. Dr. Munoz, the Department Chair, gave both Dr. Radford and Jan Kelley-King teacher ratings of NOT MEETING EXPECTATIONS on the annual Performance Appraisal of 2020; both felt that these ratings were not reflective of their role statements or the positive contributions each had made to the success of the Department, the Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education Program, or the profession of Deaf Education, in general. 

Certainly, it must be admitted, every program, including Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education has its systemic, operational weaknesses and areas that need improvement.  Every program also has its strengths which should be embraced and highlighted.

Following is a brief historical chronology of the evolution and closing of the Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education Program at USU (Note that none of the positions have been refilled through the years, causing one to assume there is a systemic bias against bilingual-bicultural teacher training held by the Department and the College):

*In 1990, the state legislature designated Utah State University as being responsible for the training of teachers of the Deaf and hard of hearing. This program was designed by Dr. Tom Clark and Dr. James Blair, who at the time directed the Deaf Education teacher training program.

*Dr. Blair recruited Dr. Freeman King in 1991 to teach at Utah State University and to assist in facilitating programmatic changes of the program from a Signed English/Total Communication program into a Bilingual-Bicultural-ASL-English program.

*Jan Kelley-King was hired by the Department in 1992 to teach undergraduate American Sign Language courses, a graduate course in the teaching of reading to the deaf child, and to serve  as the Deaf Education advisor. Having previously been employed as a classroom teacher and parent advisor, she was later assigned to also teach literacy methodology in the teacher preparation Bilingual-Bicultural classes. 

*At the time, Dr. Sue Watkins, a faculty member in Deaf Education and an internationally recognized authority in early intervention-parent advisor training was the director of the SKI-HI Institute housed on campus at USU. The SKI-HI Institute, begun in 1972, focuses on developing new programs, materials, and training for children who are deafblind, deaf or hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, their families and providers. Dr. Watkins’ graduate program in early intervention was closed due to a funding problem. Dr. Watkins ultimately retired and her teaching position was not replaced.

*Dr. James Blair was appointed Department Chair in 2004 and served in that position until 2007, then returned to classroom teaching. When Dr. Blair retired in 2015, his teaching responsibilities (part-time) and management of the USU accreditation by the Council on Education of the Deaf report in the Bilingual -Bicultural Program and his teaching position was not replaced.

*In 2007, the USU Deaf Education Program received a grant from the Oberkotter Foundation for over three million dollars to set up a listening and spoken language/cochlear implant preschool and teacher training program that excluded the use of ASL.  Dr. Lauri Nelson was made director of the Sound Beginnings Auditory-Oral Preschool and soon thereafter, the director of the LSL Teacher Training Program.  

*Dr. Curt Radford joined the Deaf Education Program in 2007. At the time, his responsibilities focused on teaching and programming ASL classes.  Shortly after joining the faculty, he developed the first nationally recognized program for the delivery of ASL as a full language online curriculum. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of Bilingual-Bicultural teaching experience (having served as a classroom teacher and principal), he was subsequently assigned to teach more methodology related classes in Bilingual-Bicultural teacher preparation classes, as well as Deaf Culture.

*Dr. Debbie Golos, was hired in 2007, as an Assistant Professor in the Bilingual-Bicultural Program with an emphasis in grant writing and research. In 2015, she accepted a position at the University of Minnesota. Her teaching position was not replaced.

*Brian Burns joined the Bilingual-Bicultural faculty in 2015 and due to his training in ASL teaching methodology was assigned to teach undergraduate courses in American Sign Language and to manage the ASL Laboratory.

*In 2017, the Chair of the Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education, Dr. Kim Corbin-Lewis, removed Dr. King as the Director of Deaf Education, due to philosophical differences, and replaced him with Dr. Lauri Nelson, who at the time was director of the Listening and Spoken Language Program (LSL). Dr. King continued to teach in the Bilingual-Bicultural program.

*Dr. King retired in December 2020 and was granted the title of Professor Emeritus.  His position has not been replaced. 

*Felicia Dixon, the supervisor of student teaching and an instructor in Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education, resigned in the summer of 2021, and her position was not replaced.

*Jan Kelley-King retired in December, 2021; she agreed to stay on and teach one graduate class in the Spring semester, 2022.  Her position has not been replaced.

*Dr. Curt Radford, submitted his resignation effective June, 2022. 

*The Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education Program was closed in 2022.

All teaching loads and responsibilities of those who retired, took another teaching position, or resigned were reassigned by the Department Chair, Dr. Karen Munoz, to the remaining professors, Dr. Curt Radford, Dr. Carolyn Ball and Jan Kelley-King. The majority of the workload fell to Dr. Radford and Jan Kelley-King. 

What a lost opportunity to have fully developed and supported equally two tracks in Deaf Education that would have allowed students to choose which philosophical path they wished to pursue, Bilingual-Bicultural teaching or Listening and Spoken Language; thus meeting the critical need for teachers of the Deaf, both in Utah and nationwide.

I am afraid that the decision of the Dean, Dr. Al Smith, and the Department Chair, Dr. Karen Munoz, to close the Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education Program at Utah State University will cause the university to become a pariah to the Deaf /ASL Community and students, both Deaf and hearing, whose dream was to study Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education at USU. The closing of the Bilingual-Bicultural program is already national and state news in the Deaf/ASL community. In my opinion, closing the Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education teacher training program and questioning the quality of the American Sign Language program is a travesty and the direct result of poor and weak leadership on the part of the Dean of the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services.

This decision has opened the door for the Utah State University Deaf Education Program to become a one-dimensional teacher training program, Listening and Spoken Language only.  The idea of linguistic and philosophical choice has been obliterated by the program closure. Educational equity and freedom of choice no longer exists in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education.

Respectively submitted,

Dr. J. Freeman King, Professor Emeritus
Deaf Education
Utah State University
Logan, Utah