A $1.5 million virtual reality project has improved the test scores of deaf and hearing-impaired students by an average of 35 percent overall, according to the leaders of the Virtual Reality Education for Assisted Learning (VREAL) project funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

When hearing-disabled students start school, they're already at a disadvantage compared to their hearing peers because they're usually behind in acquiring language skills.

"They can often be one or two grade levels behind," said Patti Schofield, a resource teacher at Lake Sybelia Elementary School in Maitland, Fla. "We have to give them a sign vocabulary in addition to writing." Schofield approached Veridian, a company that does national security work for the U.S. Department of Defense, to see if their virtual reality technology could help hearing disabled students learn.

Schools across the country are now challenged by the No Child Left Behind Act to reach every child. Deaf or hearing-impaired students often get left behind by the education system, but VREAL's developers hope the technology will help more students graduate.

"The average 17- or 18-year-old deaf student is reading at a fourth grade level," VREAL's Program Manager Bob Edge said, citing a study from Gallaudet University, a leading college for the deaf and hearing impaired. Sixty percent of hearing-impaired persons younger than 25 are unemployed, and 70 percent are dependent on someone for financial support, he added.

VREAL attempts to address such problems by helping hearing-impaired students improve their language skills early in their school careers. Funded by two education department grants over the past two years, engineers at Veridian developed an elaborate virtual reality environment to help address the gaps between hearing-disabled students and their hearing peers.

Veridian engineers created a true-to-life replica of the Florida elementary school in the virtual environment using photographs and the school's blue prints. In addition to replicating the school, the engineers created a whole town—complete with a supermarket, a post office, a farm, and a fire station—based on real photographs.

In the first year, students used the virtual environment to learn life skills such as how to order food at McDonalds, dial 911 in an emergency, handle strangers in the school yard, and what to do during a fire drill.

"We felt life skills were most important first," Schofield said. "They need to be safe…there are so many people in their life that they can't connect with."

Before using the virtual reality program, Schofield videotaped the students to find out what they would do during a fire drill. She found most students got lost or used the farthest exits. "It was a real eye-opener," Schofield said. "Now the children can find the quickest route out."