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Hello. My name is Janet, and I work
at the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center,
known as the Clerc Center.
The Clerc Center is pleased to announce
the awarding of a contract for the development
of ASL content standards.
Nationwide, states have established standards
and benchmarks to outline what students should know
in various academic areas, including English
and other languages.
Thus far, however, there have been no formal standards
or benchmarks for ASL learning in grades K-12.
It is important to be able
to assess students' ASL skills by comparing them
against established standards and benchmarks
so that teachers can plan instruction accordingly.
Ultimately, this will help students become fluent
in both ASL and English.
For a while now, teachers, professionals,
and parents have noted the need for ASL standards.
The Clerc Center agreed
and released a Request for Proposals (RFP)
in the fall of 2010 for the development
of ASL standards for grades K-12.
Through this process, individuals and groups
were invited to submit proposals.
Now, the Clerc Center is pleased to announce
that the contract has been awarded to a group
that includes teachers, specialists,
researchers, and administrators.
This is an experienced, innovative group
with expertise in deaf education, language
and literacy development, ASL assessment,
and ASL instruction.
The group is composed of researchers and educators
from a variety of universities and schools.
The participating universities are Boston University,
the University of Manitoba in Canada,
the University of California-San Diego,
and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The schools consist of
the California School for the Deaf-Riverside,
the Indiana School for the Deaf in Indianapolis,
The Learning Center for the Deaf in Massachusetts.
This is a special group indeed.
This group will develop the ASL standards.
The Clerc Center looks forward to collaborating
with this group, and will share periodic updates
on the work of ASL standards development.
The goal is to disseminate the completed standards in 2013.
For more information,
visit the Clerc Center website.
Thank you.