Madonna University in Livonia offers the state’s only bachelor of arts degree in sign language studies. A grant from the Community Foundation is helping the school use its unique expertise to develop a master’s degree program for teachers of the hearing impaired. Research tells us that deaf and profoundly hearing-impaired children learn best with a teaching method that combines American Sign Language and English language training. Unfortunately, a shortage of teachers with the suitable experience is making it difficult to serve these children. Madonna University’s program aims to reduce the achievement gap between deaf and hearing children by using bilingual and bi-cultural approaches to teaching both ASL and written English.