Ernest C. Drury School for the Deaf is committed to providing our students educational and lodging programs that are rich with opportunities to acquire and develop language, literacy, numeracy and inquiry skills in American Sign Language (ASL) and English in a diverse, multiculturally- enriched learning environment.

Through a bilingual-biliteracy-bicultural school and residence program, together with strong family and community partnerships, students gain an appreciation of various cultures including ASL culture and embrace equity and diversity as an integral part of their learning environment.

Principles
Our students will:

• develop biliteracy, numeracy and inquiry skills in ASL and English;
• develop an understanding of ASL and English culture within a diverse, multicultural society; and
• develop a cultural identity which supports well-being and active engagement within the ASL, English and global communities.

Biliteracy Skills
The goal of biliteracy skills for students is to develop a strong ability to use language to engage in higher-order thinking that involves the transformation of information and ideas in both languages (ASL and English). Biliteracy builds students’ capacity to: access, manage, create and evaluate ideas and information; think synthetically and analytically; communicate thoughts and ideas effectively; apply metacognitive knowledge skills; and develop a sense of self-efficacy and interest in life-long learning. Biliteracy skills provide students the ability to create cross-linguistic and cross-cultural connections between the two languages in a variety of contexts.

Having strong literacy skills in ASL and English provides students with a foundation for academic achievement as problem solvers with critical and creative thinking skills which leads to success as engaged citizens of the increasingly competitive global community.