The monograph consists of 13 author contributed chapters arising out of a Nebraska study which attempted to quantify the performance of 150 profoundly hearing impaired students (4-20 years old) in the areas of language (receptive and expressive), academics (reading, spelling, math), and related learning (visual perception and short-term memory) skills. A secondary purpose of the study was to describe student characteristics and assessment procedures, examine strengths and weaknesses of measures used, and identify problems in the assessment of the hearing impaired. Results of multivariate analyses revealed that language, particularly expressive language, was the major determinant orf academic achievement although visual processing also contributed significantly to academic performance. In contrast, hearing level, speech intelligibility, and short-term memory for linguistic material contributed relatively little to academic achievement. Part I addresses the population description and includes chapters on medical, genetic, audiological, vestibular, speech, and intellectual evaluation. Part II reports on the sample's language and learning skills and includes chapters on receptive language, expressive language, academic, visual processing, short-term memory, and visual motor coordination skills. The final two chapters provide a summary and conclusions and identify factors related to academic achievement and their implications for research and educational management. Appendices include detailed descriptions of the tests used in the study. (Author/DB)