Supporting the Educational Success Of Students with Disabilities: A Holistic Approach

Supporting the Educational Success

Of Students with Disabilities:

A Holistic Approach

The Boston Arts Academy is one of eleven Boston Pilot Schools, within the Boston Public Schools. The Pilot Schools originated as a result of the 1994 Boston Teachers Union approved contract to provide models of educational excellence that help to foster widespread educational reform in all Boston public schools.

Of the 389 students enrolled in the 2003-04 school year, approximately 55% were eligible to receive a free or reduced price lunch. Three percent (3%) of the students were Asian, 50% Black, 25% Hispanic, 21% Caucasian, and 0.5% Native American.

The Boston Arts Academy is a member of the Coalition for Essential Schools, is the first full-inclusion (that is, all categories of students with disabilities are enrolled) high school in Boston, and is a recipient of the National Association of Secondary School Principal’s Breakthrough High School Award.

In the 2003-04 school year, 47 (12% of the student enrollment) received special education services. During this same year, the student transiency rate was 13.1%; the dropout rate was 7.5%; and 98.7% of the students were promoted to the next grade.

Admission to the Boston Arts Academy is determined by the student’s potential to train in dance, music, theater or visual arts. The admission process involves: preparing a application that includes a written statement of reasons for wanting to attend the school; participating in a city-wide lottery of students who receive a positive review of their application; and, auditioning or presenting a portfolio of work during the spring of their 8th grade year to a panel of Boston Arts faculty and administrators. The audition is the major determinate of whether a student is accepted. Student records and previous academic achievement are reviewed only after the student has been admitted.

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The Student Support Team at Boston Arts Academy was originally established to provide support and crisis intervention for students. As the school has evolved and student needs have become clearer, the Student Support Team has moved from a focus on crisis intervention to a student wellness model that is designed to be holistic, preventative, and pro-active. The Student Support Team focuses on each Boston Arts Academy student as an individual; it does not restrict its work to students with disabilities, or students who might have disabilities. The Student Support Team at Boston Arts Academy is designed to address each and every student’s academic, social, or emotional needs. Working from a holistic approach, the Student Support Team focuses on identifying a student’s particular needs and then mobilizing whatever resources are necessary to help the

student. Support services include: connecting a student with a support group of other students facing similar issues; family mediation; a clinical referral; involving the Massachusetts Department of Social Services; and health-focused programs such as nutrition and smoking cessation.

Student Support Team Structure. The Director of Student Support Services heads the Student Support Team. The Director has been at the school in this role since the school’s inception and works closely with the Assistant Headmaster to coordinate all support initiatives. The Student Support Team is designed to be a dynamic group of people who can provide specific support that an individual student might need. However, not all members of the Student Support Team work with each student. For example, the Student Support Team for one student might include the School Nurse, an intern serving as a counselor and the student’s Science Teacher; for another student the Student Support Team might include the Director of Student Support Services, the Ninth Grade Coordinator, a Special Education teacher, and a Language Arts teacher.

The Student Support Team includes approximately 18 administrators, clinicians, interns and other staff. The full team membership originally met each week for about 4 hours, but is now divided into different sub-groups that meet at different times. One sub-group meets on Thursdays and is comprised of 8 administrators, including the Assistant Headmaster and the Director of Student Support Services. This sub-group is designed to look more at the “big picture” and assess more general issues of concern to the Student Support Team. Another sub-group of about 10 people meets on Monday. This group consists of the Director of Student Support Services, the Assistant Headmaster, the School Nurse, and interns working as social workers and counselors, and may include other teachers and/or arts instructors. This sub-group focuses on students who are having difficulty with physical or emotional health challenges and identifies resources that can be mobilized for a particular student. A point person (usually the student’s advisor) is assigned to start the support process and follow-up with the student. The special education staff also meets weekly as a Student Support Team sub-group to review and discuss issues related to students with Individual Education Plans (IEP). When necessary, this sub-group’s meetings also involve academic and/or arts teachers who are responsible for classroom-based implementation of a particular student’s IEP.

Members of the Student Support Team have also been assigned to each of the artistic departments; one member is assigned to dance, one to visual arts, one to music, etc. Assigned Student Support Team members meet once a week with their respective arts team or more frequently if there is an issue with one or more of the artistic department’s students. This provides members of the Student Support Team opportunities to connect with students in a context other than academics. Some students seem to be more comfortable bringing up challenges they are facing in school and out of school with one of the artistic department teachers and information and understandings from these meetings are then brought by the arts teachers to Student Support Team meeting or sent more immediately via email.

The Student Support Team is the point of contact for outside organizations involved with the Academy and individual students. Outside organizations include Department of Social Services, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Boston College of Graduate Education, and the Mary Lyon School. When appropriate, the Student Support Team strives to make student interventions successful by coordinating and facilitating communications between outside organizations and Boston Arts Academy academic and arts teachers involved with a particular student.

Student Support Team Outreach Activities. The Student Support Team’s work begins with a week of freshman orientation sessions held in August, before the school year begins. The Ninth Grade Coordinator, a certified school social worker, is responsible for organizing and leading the orientation which is attended by all in-coming freshmen and a few upper-classmen transferring into the academy. One day of orientation focuses on team-building exercises and is conducted at an “outward- bound” facility located on an island in Boston Harbor.

A very important part of the orientation is a pre-screening survey completed by each student for the purpose of identifying emotionally related challenges that could negatively impact her/his academic performance. The surveys are reviewed during orientation by members of the Student Support Team to identify particular student support need(s), and interviews are scheduled during orientation with students who indicate they might need some type of support service. If necessary, interviews with students take place during the orientation in an effort to set up support services as soon as possible. The Ninth Grade Coordinator conducts most of the initial interviews with incoming students to plan appropriate support services.

During orientation week, seminars on plagiarism and personal time management are conducted, and academic assessments in math and reading are administered to identify student achievement levels. Incoming students are also placed in small groups to cooperatively produce written summaries of their opinions about subjects such as: What is wellness? What is community? The small discussion groups provide Boston Arts Academy staff with an opportunity to less formally observe individual student social and emotional well-being and also secure an informal assessment of their collective writing ability.

Student Support Team members also facilitate and encourage the formation of student-centered support groups to help students deal with personal issues and also to secure support from others within the safety of an educational context. Student support groups meet with at least one Student Support Team member after school on Fridays when there is a shortened school day. The only group that meets during the school day is the HIV mentoring girls group. Many of these groups are formed by the Student Support Team as a direct outcome of the freshman orientation week.

Student support groups can also be formed by student initiative throughout the year. Membership in student support groups is voluntary and is not set or limited once formed. Some students self-identify for membership in a support group by indicating that they need to have some space to talk about problems or issues with others who understand what they are experiencing. Some students participate in support groups as mentors. Others are encouraged by their advisor or one of their teachers to join a particular student support group. Examples of student support groups are:

• The Family Stresses Group is for students of families that have multiple issues. The majority of students within this group are not living with biological parents, have parents who are involved with drugs, or difficult family situations.

• The HIV Girl's Mentoring Group is led by senior girls who have received training in an HIV prevention curriculum. The seniors are leading this group along with two adult supervisors.

• The No More Drama Group for girls meets to discuss friendships and relationships between female students.

• The Wellness Group is a group of boys who want to be mentors, and examines responsibilities and goals for achieving good grades while balancing wellness issues. For example: wanting to play video games and finding a balance in discussion about videos, music, and other things that they're interested in doing while still achieving good grades.

• The Extended Orientation Group is for students who have transferred to Boston Arts Academy from private schools who are having an exceptionally difficult experience in adjusting to the openness of the Boston Arts Academy. For example, one student came from an extremely rigid charter school and had a difficult time dealing with less overt rules. The group is a place to talk about what's bothering the student and what's different from their last school experience.

Student Support Team Interventions. The Student Support Team also connects with students through a Student Concern Form that is filled out by teachers. When a teacher identifies a concern through contact with a student, in or out of class, the teacher fills out the form and then works with a member of the Student Support team to determine a course of action. The Student Support Team formally considers several options and decides if the concern is best addressed by the teacher, should be handled between the teacher and student, whether the student’s parent(s) should be contacted, or whether the case should be turned entirely over to the Student Support Team.

When the decision is made to have the Student Support Team intervene in addressing the concern, careful consideration is given to whether the student is a potential referral for determination of special education eligibility. To help inform the decision about whether to make a formal referral of the student to determine eligibility for special education services, the Student Support Team secures written documentation related to the student’s behavior from all of the student’s teachers.

In addition to the Student Concern Form, the Student Support Team has worked to develop less formal avenues for connecting students with adults so the student is able to talk comfortably about challenges he/she is facing or support she/he might need. One of these less formal settings is the Advisory Period held during the regular school day, 4 days a week, for 15 minutes. Advisory Periods are sessions of 8-to-10 students and 1 advisor. Assignments of students and advisors are made by the Assistant Headmaster to intentionally maximize similarities in advisor and student interests and life experiences. Each advisor remains with the same group of students for four years. Advisors provide social and emotional support for students and are responsible for helping students stay on track academically. Advisors are the first point of contact for parents. Students with Individual Education Plans are assigned to special education teachers for Advisory Period. The only exception in advisory period assignments is made for three hearing impaired students who are assigned to a non-special education faculty member fluent in American Sign Language.

Another less formal avenue for the Student Support Team to connect with students is during the Support and Enrichment Period. This period is especially designed to provide time for students to participate in additional academic support activities and the wellness program. This period is scheduled at the end of the day for 9th and 10th grades and at the beginning of the day for 11th and 12th grades. Academic departments and the Student Support Team are responsible for specific Support and Enrichment periods. For example, the Support and Enrichment period on Tuesday might be organized by the Math Department and requires students with less than a B average in math to attend a tutorial. The Wednesday Support and Enrichment period might be the responsibility of the Student Support Team and used as a wellness class. Individual teachers determine who is required to attend this period and how the period is structured.

For more information contact: Peter McCaffery

Director of Student Support Services Email: [email protected]

Boston Arts Academy 174 Ipswich Street Boston, MA 02215