OK School for the Deaf educators earn teaching certifications
SULPHUR, OK – Two trailblazing Oklahoma School for the Deaf teachers, Jason Sledd and Rose Crouch, who are deaf, earned deaf education teaching certifications on December 29.
Sledd has been an award-winning coach at OSD for various sports since 2012.
He served as a teacher’s aide from 2010 to 2012, deaf specialist for OSD’s equipment distribution program from 2012 to 2018 and a teacher since 2018.
Rose Crouch has been a family consumer and sciences teacher for four years. She previously worked in the dorm as a direct care specialist for 17 years and as an American Sign Language specialist for 3 years.
In the past, Deaf educators who knew the test material struggled to pass teacher certification tests because of features that depended on test-takers’ ability to hear rather than knowledge of the material.
House of Representatives Speaker Charles McCall (District 22-Atoka), Senator Charles Simpson (retired-Springer) and Mark Lawson (District 30-Sapulpa) championed legislation and worked with the previous OSD Superintendent Chris Dvorak and OSD Program Developer Sharon Baker to establish an equitable alternative process to certification that involved a year-long mentorship and evidence portfolio.
“Everybody needs to have measurements and accountability,“OSD Director of Instruction Scharla Becker said, “but that evaluation process must be equitable and accessible – and now it is.”
“Rose Couch and Jason Sledd have worked so hard and have put so much time into earning this achievement,” Becker said. “OSD is proud to have them both on campus educating our students.”