UBSCT requirement presents challenges

Imagine having to take final exams, with your high school diploma in the balance, in a foreign language.

That's what's happening to many of Utah's deaf and hard-of-hearing children when they take the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test's reading and writing sections.

English is a second language for deaf or hard-of-hearing students.

American Sign Language, which many deaf or hard-of-hearing students use, is a language all to its own — students at the University of Utah, even high schools including Skyline in the Salt Lake Valley, take it for foreign language credit. Some students sign in English word order, but it's still not a perfect English translation.

The language barrier is standing in the way of some students' success on the UBSCT.

Just five of 28 Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind students who took the exam have passed all three sections (reading, writing and math), said Mark Peterson, spokesman for the State Office of Education. Eight have passed reading, five have passed writing and eight have passed math.

Those students could be deaf, deaf and blind, blind or have other disabilities, such as an intellectual disability, that impact pass rates.

But similar pass rates are seen at the Utah Schools for the Deaf program at Skyline High School. Of the 19 students there, four have passed all three sections, two have not had a chance to take it, and three have additional disabilities qualifying them for an alternative assessment, teacher Teresa Kunde said. Some of the other students may have other impairments also. While pass rates on the three UBSCT sections vary, "writing is probably the biggest thing we're working on," she said.

The State Office of Education otherwise doesn't track test scores of students who are deaf or hard of hearing who are in public schools throughout the state. Rather, their scores are expressed in the "students with disabilities" group.

The UBSCT isn't an ordinary test. Whether a student passes it or not will be printed on his or her high school diploma and permanent school transcripts. While Utah's System of Higher Education commissioner has said college entrance test scores and grades, not the UBSCT, will determine whether a student can attend a Utah college, it's uncertain what will happen in the job market.

The idea is to show Utah's high school diploma equals basic math, reading and writing skills. A group of employers a few years ago griped that high school graduates they saw did not have that skill set.