Carmel Academy - A Unique Program in Connecticut

Earlier this week, Dr. and Mrs. Yellin had the opportunity to visit Carmel Academy, a private K-8 school located on a lovely 17 acre campus in Greenwich, Connecticut. Carmel is a Jewish day school, and religious instruction and Hebrew language lessons are part of its curriculum.

But what makes Carmel Academy unique is the way it integrates a special education program - Providing Alternative Learning Strategies (PALS) - with the general curriculum in which most Carmel students participate. As Jonathan Holub, the Head of the PALS program, explained during his informative tour of the campus, there is a great deal of fluidity between the regular and the PALS classes. Students in the general education track who need some additional support in a particular subject may become part of a PALS class in that subject. Likewise, PALS students who can handle a more advanced class in one or more subjects may spend part of their day with typically learning students. The class schedule for each grade makes this flexible arrangement possible. Students in the PALS program thus feel very much a part of their grade and typical learners interact with the PALS students in class and across other school activities.

The PALS program notes that its basic tenet is that their students are not expected to to meet the demands of the curriculum; the curriculum is expected to adapt to the needs of the student.

Other notable features of PALS include:

• Small classes, capped at ten students with two teachers in each class, provide hands-on, multi-sensory instruction. Notably, both general and Judaics teachers have special education training.
• Instruction is thematic and interdisciplinary, so that subjects are connected across all academic areas. 
• All students are involved in general and Judaic instruction, but the depth of Judaic instruction is individually determined for each student. 
• On site professionals include occupational therapy (and a sensory gym), speech and language therapy, Orton-Gillingham and Lindamood-Bell reading specialists, a school psychologist and full time nurse. Outside consultants are brought in when needed. 

Clearly, Carmel is not for every student, even for every student seeking a Jewish day school. The PALS program focuses its curriculum on students with language based learning disabilities and would not a good fit for a student with significant emotional difficulties.

For families seeking a Jewish religious school with integration between special education and regular curriculums, Carmel is definitely worth exploring.

A Visit to The Gateway Schools

Last Friday your blogger and Dr. Yellin paid a visit to The Gateway Schools, where the lower school (for ages 5-9) and middle school (ages 10-14) work with students who struggle with language-based learning disabilities.

We had the opportunity to meet with Ellen Grayson, the Director of Admissions, who took us on a tour of the terrific school building, the top two floors of  a former parking garage on West 61st Street in Manhattan, near Lincoln Center, which is now a LEED certified  and welcoming environment, with lots of light, a spacious feel, and which features a full gym, an open atrium for meetings and performances, and quiet niches for one-on-one instruction, in addition to classroom space and rooms devoted to the arts and technology.

We visited a variety of classes, most with lessons in progress, and had the chance to observe students of all levels at work. We spoke about the profile of the students at Gateway, which Ms. Grayson noted includes students with difficulties in processing language or attention, who struggle in a mainstream classroom despite the fact that they have average or above-average intellectual abilities. She noted that the admissions process is designed not just to determine whether a particular student fits the Gateway "profile", but also to look at whether the Gateway Schools have a good classroom fit for that student, something that varies from grade to grade and from year to year. She did note that Gateway does not accept students with diagnoses of Developmental Delay, PPD, Nonverbal Learning Disabilities, or Autism Spectrum Disorders.

We then had a chance to sit down and speak at some length with Carolyn Salzman, Head of School at The Gateway Schools. Her pride in her faculty and students was evident throughout our conversation, which covered such subjects as how to best help particularly challenging students, how Gateway students do once they move on to high school (quite well, she noted), and the features that make Gateway an excellent program for students who need language-based academic supports - small classes, lots of opportunities for working with the arts and building skills in executive function and social interaction, and a faculty with both the academic credentials and the personal skills to help the students achieve. We look forward to continuing our conversation with Ms. Salzman and her staff.

School Visit: The Forman School

Yesterday was one of those perfect fall days we in the Northeast seem to spend all summer waiting for. Luckily for me, I got to spend it driving to and exploring The Forman School, a co-educational boarding and day school in Connecticut. Forman serves students with learning differences in grades 9-12+. 

The Forman campus is intentionally designed to resemble a small New England town, and there is a real sense of community among the students I had the chance to meet. They clearly thrive on the rich esprit de corps on campus; students have a dress code, actively participate in sports, and have a rich extracurricular life on campus.

I had the opportunity to meet with Head of School Adam Man and Associate Head of School Helen Waldron, along with Kelly Caldwell Miller, the school's psychologist. We discussed how Forman was actively connected to the field of Mind, Brain, and Education in that they were constantly seeking new ways to integrate evolving knowledge with academic experience. They noted that the Forman leadership has made it their mission to focus primarily on college-bound students with language based learning differences and ADHD.

My tour of the campus included a new, state-of-the-art science building. The student dorms all have resident faculty members and most of the faculty live on campus. The goal is to create a community in which students can build their independence with the care and supervision of adults.

Images courtesy The Forman School

A highlight of my visit was a lunch with students, all of whom spoke frankly to me about their learning differences. They were reflective, self-aware, and had strong self-esteem, and were mindful of both their challenges and their strengths. A newer student pointed out that although he had not been at Forman very long, he felt totally included in every aspect of the school.

Adam Man described a rich transition program for students preparing for college, focusing not just on academics, but on building the skills students will need in college and the wider world. This transition curriculum includes such skills as how to self-advocate, how to manage in large lectures (a big difference for students who have had the benefit of classes averaging eight students while at Forman), and how to obtain accommodations in college. Man noted that although Forman has a one-year post-graduate program, most of the students who attend are from other schools, where they did not get the kind of preparation for college that Forman provides its own students.

School Visit: Bay Ridge Preparatory School

Last week your blogger had the opportunity to visit Bay Ridge Prep, a unique learning environment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and to speak with Wendy Freeburn, the Admissions Coordinator, and with Dr. Charles Fasano, the Head of the Lower School.

Bay Ridge Prep is an independent, college preparatory school founded in 1998, serving approximately 400 students in grades K-12. The Lower School (through Grade 8) is located in a spacious former parochial school and the high school is in a newer location several blocks away. Both programs were founded by psychologists, who brought an awareness of individual learning styles and differentiated instruction to the school they created. The result is an unusual integration of academic challenge with support for those who learn differently.

We were particularly interested in learning about two programs at Bay Ridge Prep that were created for students with learning and related difficulties. The Achieve Program is designed for students who need academic support in areas such as organization, reading, and writing, and provides such support -- along with academic accommodations such as extended time on tests -- through a combination of small group work and regular support in the mainstream classroom. The Bridge Program, available at the middle and high school levels for students with more significant learning challenges, has separate classes within the setting of this mainstream school. Both programs will implement IEP's for students who have been classified as needing special education services by the New York City Department of Education.

As we toured the school and had the chance to visit classrooms, it was clear that this is a school where creativity, the arts, and hands-on learning experiences enrich the learning environment. Sports are an important part of the school culture and the school sponsors interscholastic teams in most major sports.

We have visited many schools throughout the Metropolitan area, but the mix of academic challenge, support for those who learn differently, creative learning, and a wide range of student activities make Bay Ridge Prep something special indeed.

Hitting the Mid-Atlantic College Trail

As the school year comes to an end and families finalize their summer plans, high school students and their parents will often take time to visit college campuses. We've written before about these trips and have come across an excellent guide in the New York Times The Choice Blog that should be required reading for every student who embarks upon this journey. There's also a chapter in my book, Life After High School: A Guide for Students with Disabilities and Their Families entitled "The Campus Visit" with lots of advice on how to get the most from your time on campus.

Your blogger is planning a college trip of her own this summer, to check out some of the schools in the mid-Atlantic region that may be of interest to some of the students with whom we work. I'm heading off with a friend who is a guidance counselor at a suburban Maryland high school. We plan to visit Fairleigh Dickinson University's Florham Campus in Madison, New Jersey, and to check out its well-regarded Regional Center for Students with Learning Disabilities. We will then stop at Rider College in Lawrenceville, NJ before heading south to stop at the University of Delaware where we will visit their Academic Services Center. 

Our trip will then move on to Maryland, where we plan to visit Frostburg State University, McDaniel College in Westminster, and the University of Maryland campuses in both College Park and Baltimore. We'd welcome any of your suggestions for other places to visit along the way. Just drop a note or suggestion in the comments below. I'll be reporting back on this blog about what we learn later in the summer.

Photo of UMD-College Park campus: Arianrivan via Flickr Creative Commons

The Scoop on Schools: Resources for School Selection

Some families, especially those who are well settled in suburban school districts, don't give much thought to school selection. But for others, including families in large cities with numerous school options, or those who are considering moving or enrolling their child in a private school, solid information on schools is of critical importance.

For New York City families who can have choices of public schools available at every level, an excellent starting point is the school search feature on the website InsideSchools. Located on the home page of the site, this feature allows you to search by school name, number, or geographic location. The individual reports on each school are generally the results of visits to the school by members of the InsideSchools staff, sometimes multiple visits over a period of time. In addition, comments by parents and others often highlight issues that can be important to families trying to decide if a particular school would be a good fit for their child. The site also includes news and information on the often complex process of applying to New York City public schools.

Outside of New York City, an excellent option for researching schools is Great Schools, a national nonprofit whose funders include the Gates, Walton, and Robertson foundations. The site lists over 200,000 schools and allows families to search using a variety of parameters. This site includes all kinds of schools -- public, private, and charter. There is guidance on how to choose a school, including such issues as how to choose a school when moving from a distance. The site also has sections for homework help and parenting issues.

For families who want a private school setting, the website of the National Association of Independent Schools has a Parents' Guide that includes a school search feature that allows searches by such parameters as specialized sports programs (equestrian and crew among several dozen others) and schools that offer International Baccalaureate programs.

Visiting a New NYC High School

There has been much news of late about the state of education in New York City’s public high schools. We had an extraordinary opportunity to see one of the new, small high schools in action last week and were impressed with both the students and staff we encountered.

Hillside Arts and Letters Academy (HALA) is a small school, in its second year of operation, located in the Jamaica High School building in Queens. HALA has approximately 200 students, divided between 9th and 10th graders, and will eventually grow to a four-year student population of roughly 400. The principal, Matthew Ritter, was previously Assistant Principal at Bushwick High School for Social Justice in Brooklyn, and has recruited a team of teachers who share his vision of an arts based curriculum for college bound students. For full disclosure, one of the HALA teachers is Matt Yellin, who has been a guest writer and a featured subject of this blog.

Our visit came on Portfolio Day, when each of the students presented several pieces of their work to their classmates and outside adults – parents, community members, and volunteers. These presentations were part of the project based learning that is a key part of the school’s approach. Each student shared a letter about themselves, their learning experiences, and their plans for the future. They then presented their selected work – a packet of math problems, an essay about the development of different religious beliefs in Asian cultures, a work of art, a poem. They explained why they selected a particular project to represent their work over the past semester and responded to questions from both their classmates and adult visitors.

We were struck by the insight even the shyest students had developed about themselves as learners and what they would need to do to meet their academic and future goals. We thought the quality of the work they presented was strong, but it was the informal interactions we had during the day that were, perhaps, the most impressive aspect of our visit. The administrators we met were aware of every aspect of the school and their commitment to excellence was clear from their focus on how the students were doing and what the school could do better. The teachers we spoke to were serious about their dedication to their students and to project based learning. Students were lively, but unfailingly respectful to each other and to adults. They spoke about how they were glad to be there and how they had come to understand what they needed to do to succeed in school and in life.

You can read a terrific blog post about how the HALA students and faculty collaborated with artist Ryan Seslow to create a logo for their school. 

Our visit to HALA was a snapshot of one day in the building of a school, and we know that creating a new school is a complex process, one that is complicated by co-location in a large building which has other new schools, the number of English Language Learners, and the reliance on testing as a measure of a program which seeks to build a real understanding of learning concepts. Still, we came away with a sense of optimism about what can be accomplished by a dedicated team in a small public high school, and look forward to returning to HALA next year to see their progress.

The Parkside School

I recently had a chance to visit the Parkside School, which enrolls 84 students with language based learning differences in its townhouse setting on New York City's Upper West Side.

Parkside is an ungraded program for students from five to ten years of age. With a staff of 80 teachers, speech and occupational therapists, and social workers, Parkside has a broader view of what constitutes a language based learning problem than many other schools. As Leslie Thorne, one of its founders and presently its Educational Director, noted, "There is no such thing as just a language problem".

That philosophy is reflected in the extensive use of symbols and symbolic play to help students understand tasks, schedules, and expectations. As Ms. Thorne explained, the children need to have language skills to advance socially and to get ready to learn. In addition to programs developed by the Parkside staff, the students use such proven methods as "Handwriting without Tears" and "Stern

Math", as well as other math and reading programs.

The Parkside program is ungraded; students are placed with others of similar ability, with consideration for their age. Parkside is on the New York State "Approved" List, which means that students can be sent there by their home districts without cost to their families. It also accepts students privately enrolled by their parents.

When asked to describe what disabilities Parkside students might face, Ms. Thorne indicated that they would include: "speech, language, primary communication difficulties, students who have a hard time thinking flexibly or who have difficulty regulating their bodies." She also indicated that Parkside would enroll students with "high functioning autism".

As we visited classes ranging from the youngest students to those who will be leaving Parkside this spring, we saw significant growth and progress from class to class. Parkside students move on to both mainstream and specialized schools when they leave this strong and supportive program.

The Calhoun School

As the fall open houses for New York City private schools continue, I had a chance to visit The Calhoun School on Manhattan's Upper West Side this past week. Calhoun has a large building housing grades 3-12 where it has about 725 students and a smaller building several blocks south for its pre-school (3 year olds) through first grade program.

Calhoun describes itself as a "progressive" school, and the school philosophy recognizes the importance of learning through experience and understanding that students have multiple intelligences and a variety of learning styles. As the Head of School, Steve Nelson, describes it, Calhoun believes that "Schools should not be stressful... making students sit still in a classroom shuts down the neural pathways that lead to learning. "

The physical setting of Calhoun mirrors its mission. Classrooms are designed as open pods, separated by walls but open to the center of each floor. Teachers and students who were asked about this arrangement noted that the noise from adjacent classes didn't pose a problem and the open system was something "you get used to". Classes are small, consisting of 12-15 students.

The student body is diverse, and the school involves its Director of Diversity in the admissions process to sustain this diversity. The students greeting visitors were articulate and clearly enthusiastic about their school. Unlike many schools which carefully guide prospective parents on tours, Calhoun invited visitors to wander the building and speak to students and staff. Only once they had a chance to do so did a more formal information program commence.

There was a good deal of space in the upper school dedicated to the arts, including state of the art theatre facilities, and students have numerous opportunities to take electives in such areas as music, painting, pottery, and improvisation.

Calhoun would not be a good fit for most students with learning disabilities or signicant attention issues. It is not a "specialized" school as are some other schools we have visited. But for students who would not be comfortable in a highly competitive setting or who "march to their own drummer", its progressive philosophy, appreciation of individual learning styles, and rich program in the arts, could make this a good choice for a private school setting in Manhattan.

Windward School

I had the chance to visit the Windward School in White Plains, New York last week and spend some time with Maureen A. Sweeny, the Director of Admissions.

Windward is located on two campuses -- The Lower School for grades 1-4 and the upper school for grades 5-9. The settings are impressive, with spacious facilities, and attractive grounds. Windward limits its student body to very specific students, those with language based learning disabilities (such as dyslexia) who are of average to superior intelligence, and who do not have behavioral issues that would interfere with their instruction. The Windward program is not designed to be a long-term educational setting. Students stay at Windward for an average of 2-5 years, at which point most students have had gained the skills necessary to succeed in a mainstream school. Windward works with families to find the right next school setting for their students.

The instructional program used at Windward is based on the Orton-Gillingham multisensory reading method and there is a strong emphasis on developing effective research based techniques for teaching and on training Windward faculty in the most effective ways to help these students. Windward has a Teacher Training Institute to share this knowledge with other professionals. Students are taught in small groups geared to their reading skills and learning needs and a visit to several classes showed them to be enthusiastic and engaged in the learning process.

Ms. Sweeney told me that Windward was working to create a more diverse student body and is committed to helping families who are unable to obtain funding for tuition from their public school system (by means of a "Carter" proceeding). Families interested in Windward should begin by arranging to visit the appropriate campus.

Disclosing Differences

We recently had the opportunity to meet with Helen McDonald, the Director of Admissions at the Threshold Program, a post-secondary program for students with learning differences and cognitive limitations at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We also had a chance to speak with Threshold students and take a tour of its compact urban campus.

The Threshold Program was founded in 1982 and serves students from all over the country in its two year curriculum and additional one year Bridge and Transition programs. More than half of the Threshold students have physical or psychological conditions in addition to their learning difficulties and the average student enters with the reading and mathematical skills of a 4th or 5th grader. Clearly, this program is for students with profound learning issues, well beyond the vast majority of students we see at the Yellin Center.

One thing we learned during our visit is that the Threshold faculty has undertaken extensive surveys of its past students, and their research both validates the value of their program for the students it targets, and provides an important lesson for all students -- even for those with relatively minor learning difficulties or other kinds of disabilities. In a 1996 study entitled Beyond Threshold, faculty members Fran Osten and Carole Noveck surveyed employers of workers known to have learning disabilities. They asked how the timing of the workers' disclosures of their learning difficulties related to the employers' assessment of their workers. Not only did employers rate employees who disclosed their disabilties early on higher than those employees who did not disclose, or disclosed later in their employment, but 79% of the employees who disclosed their learning disabilities during the hiring process received raises and/or promotions compared to those who did not disclose early on -- only 25% of who received raises and/or promotions.

We believe this remarkable difference should be considered by all students who struggle with learning as they complete their education and move into the workplace.