UBSCT requirement presents challenges

"It is true that students who are deaf struggle with the English language, especially with reading and writing, primarily because they don't have that auditory access to learn language," Howell said.

American Sign Language has no written translation. Many tribal languages have no written component either, but students using them typically aren't required to get along in a written world, Howell said. Deaf and hard-of-hearing students in America, on the other hand, are.

But there's no perfect way to teach those students to read and write English.

"We have not solved that problem yet, even after hundreds of years of people ... trying to learn about deafness and how it impacts language learning," Howell said.

UBSCT performance doesn't appear to hinge on which language the child uses, nor whether the child has some hearing or is profoundly deaf, the teachers said. How well students pick up reading and writing English varies, too.

UBSCT support is available to all high school students, and the educators interviewed for this article say their students request help from practice materials to remediation and test training. Teachers can translate math questions into sign language, but not reading or writing tests.

Before the UBSCT, USDB students complete would complete high school credit requirements and graduate. Some who have additional impairments have earned certificates of completion instead. Basically they were on the same graduation trajectory as anyone else.

"But the rate they're passing the UBSCT," Howell says, "certainly adds a complication."

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