III. Characteristics of a High Quality Alternative Educational Placement
• Accepts mission appropriate students: Good programs only admit students they can serve and refer to professionals or other programs when a student’s needs fall outside of their expertise
• Collaborates with constituents: With permission, staff eagerly interact with the family, professionals, faculty from the former school or setting, and anyone else immediately involved to support the success of the student; they see themselves as part of a system of resources available to families in need of services
• Respects and nurtures the student: This informs every aspect of the setting from teacher attitude to administrative policy
• Establishes skill levels via assessment (for academic services): Programs that do not assess students at intake lack diagnostic-prescriptive precision and waste time attempting to discover student levels along the way
•Draws on professional recommendations (if shared with staff): Professional recommendations provide invaluable direction for student programs by outlining strengths, weaknesses, accommodations, and modifications
• Accommodates the student’s level: This forms the basis of a solid intervention whether it is behavioral or academic: options that group students of various levels cannot adequately meet individual student needs
• Leverages student strengths and interests: The focus on a struggling student’s education tends to be negative (“he can’t”, “she doesn’t”) but each student has intellectual strengths and interests: a sound program will use these to promote student success
• Allows staff to monitor and adjust daily: Robust programs have a well-defined structure that builds in daily monitoring but retains a degree of flexibility to adjust for emerging issues
• Includes multiple approaches and materials: All learners differ: an effective program respects this by allowing for alterations to delivery and content: staff should have the ability to implement from a range of resources and to innovate where necessary
• Communicates student progress: Staff communicate progress formally and informally to the student, the family, and where requested, to professionals: ideally, the student offers daily input to the teacher and a point of contact exists to address parent questions in a timely manner
• Deals frankly with issues: A student does not outgrow dyslexia or ADHD: a successful program teaches coping skills and self-awareness, whatever the issue at hand: beware of guarantees and simple gimmicks claiming to solve complex problems
• Recommends the next step: A good program makes recommendations to the family concerning the continuation or cessation of services after the initial enrollment
A high quality program:
• Accepts mission appropriate students: Good programs only admit students they can serve and refer to professionals or other programs when a student’s needs fall outside of their expertise
• Collaborates with constituents: With permission, staff eagerly interact with the family, professionals, faculty from the former school or setting, and anyone else immediately involved to support the success of the student; they see themselves as part of a system of resources available to families in need of services
• Respects and nurtures the student: This informs every aspect of the setting from teacher attitude to administrative policy
• Establishes skill levels via assessment (for academic services): Programs that do not assess students at intake lack diagnostic-prescriptive precision and waste time attempting to discover student levels along the way
•Draws on professional recommendations (if shared with staff): Professional recommendations provide invaluable direction for student programs by outlining strengths, weaknesses, accommodations, and modifications
• Accommodates the student’s level: This forms the basis of a solid intervention whether it is behavioral or academic: options that group students of various levels cannot adequately meet individual student needs
• Leverages student strengths and interests: The focus on a struggling student’s education tends to be negative (“he can’t”, “she doesn’t”) but each student has intellectual strengths and interests: a sound program will use these to promote student success
• Allows staff to monitor and adjust daily: Robust programs have a well-defined structure that builds in daily monitoring but retains a degree of flexibility to adjust for emerging issues
• Includes multiple approaches and materials: All learners differ: an effective program respects this by allowing for alterations to delivery and content: staff should have the ability to implement from a range of resources and to innovate where necessary
• Communicates student progress: Staff communicate progress formally and informally to the student, the family, and where requested, to professionals: ideally, the student offers daily input to the teacher and a point of contact exists to address parent questions in a timely manner
• Deals frankly with issues: A student does not outgrow dyslexia or ADHD: a successful program teaches coping skills and self-awareness, whatever the issue at hand: beware of guarantees and simple gimmicks claiming to solve complex problems
• Recommends the next step: A good program makes recommendations to the family concerning the continuation or cessation of services after the initial enrollment
No comments:
Post a Comment