Executive Summary. Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes Santa Barbara. Janelle Ashby, Director 925 De La Vina St Santa Barbara, CA

Transcription

1 Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes Santa Barbara Janelle Ashby, Director 925 De La Vina St Santa Barbara, CA Document Generated On March 10, 2014

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 4 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 5 Additional Information 6

3 Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning. <br><br> The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1

4 Description of the School Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves? Santa Barbara (Description of School) The Lindamood-Bell Santa Barbara Learning Center (LC) is located one block from the downtown area in a beautiful building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We occupy the entire lower floor of the building, which is approximately 5,000 square feet. Our administrative offices consist of a welcoming lobby and reception area, three spacious offices for the Center Director, Associate Center Director, and Consultant, and an evaluation room also used for student instruction and videoconferencing. Our instructional space is a large room that is divided into smaller individual spaces for the students. We are able to see approximately 12 students at a time for individualized instruction. Santa Barbara, a small community, is comprised of a diverse demographic population including very affluent families, middle class, and a high percentage of working class families. Santa Barbara is fortunate enough to have several higher education institutions right in our backyard, including but not limited to: Santa Barbara City College, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Westmont College. We work with individuals from age 4 to adult. In addition to a variety of academic settings, Santa Barbara clients come to us with various backgrounds and previous third-party diagnoses such as autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, and attention deficit disorder. We have students attend from neighboring communities such as Goleta, the Santa Ynez Valley, Montecito, Carpinteria, and Ventura, which all fall within a 25 mile radius of the LC. Over the past three years the Santa Barbara LC has extended our business hours (7am-7pm) to accommodate more of our students' schedules, which has resulted in increased student numbers. We have also provided more offerings for students for after school instruction, including online instruction, where the students are able to do instruction from their computers at home. This allows for a more flexible schedule for the families. In the past year, our Office Managers became exempt staff, creating a strong management team with the Center Director and Associate Center Director. Finally, the Santa Barbara LC underwent a large change recently when the Seasonal Learning Clinic (SLC) it began in 2009 became its own LC in The Santa Barbara LC is no longer responsible for overseeing the management of it. One of our biggest challenges to signing students for instruction is the cost, however we are able to offer payment options that allow for more individuals to take advantage of our wonderful instructional services. Since the cost of living is undeniably high in this community, there are simply some families who either do not qualify for loans or cannot work out the financial logistics in order to sign up for our services. Lindamood-Bell instruction is intensive in nature, requiring the students to attend daily, from 1-6 hours a day, five days per week. The majority of our students attend school from 8-3pm every day, making it a challenge for them to meet that intensive requirement. After school may not always be the best time for instruction due to fatigue, leaving the summer as their only option for instruction. In 2010, school district personnel were trained in the Lindamood-Bell methods which eliminated school referrals and contract students to our LC thus decreasing our student numbers significantly. Page 2

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6 School's Purpose Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. Santa Barbara (School's Purpose) Lindamood-Bell believes that everyone can learn to their potential. We believe, passionately, that children and adults can be taught to read and comprehend. We believe that sensory-cognitive factors are the first dominoes in language and literacy skills. We believe that imagery is the primary sensory-cognitive domino in language and literacy development. The Lindamood-Bell Santa Barbara Learning Center (LC) embodies this statement of purpose and uses it to guide us in our everyday decision-making. There is a by-design process that is implemented from the initial information call to the completion of instruction. It begins with an initial Learning Ability Evaluation for all students that provides insight into their specific strengths and weaknesses in the underlying sensory-cognitive functions that are necessary for all students to reach their potential. The standardized testing battery helps us to identify the specific areas of need for each student. This information is then used to recommend a course of instruction, differentiated to each student's needs. The parents are then educated with the findings from the evaluation and what the course of instruction will look like for their child. Goals are set for each student, based on his or her overall potential. "We are only as good as our instruction" is a motto that we state regularly. Our individualized instruction aligns with this statement as our students, from preschoolers through adults, are intensively engaged in learning experiences that will support real-life learning. The programs are designed to support the underlying processes needed for literacy and language comprehension--skills undeniably necessary at any age and for any life task. The Lindamood-Bell programs are all aligned with Alan Paivio's theory of cognition, Dual Coding Theory, which has the sensory-cognitive function of imagery at its core. The goal of our instruction is to change the way the brain is processing information so that our students can become independent learners, with all of the necessary sensory-cognitive functions intact. During instruction, which is focused on developing that first domino of imagery, individualized lesson plans are designed for each student based on the initial assessment given. These lesson plans are regularly updated with new levels/tasks to constantly meet the student's needs. As part of the process, all students are given a retest at the end of the instructional period. This allows us to measure the changes in the student's sensory processing and to gauge the student's level of independence. We use this data to help guide us in the following steps. We have a variety of services that we offer for follow-up and for application to school content. We also offer our past students a complimentary yearly checkup to see how these skills have been maintained and how they are being applied in the school setting. At these yearly checkups, we have the opportunity to hear about the successes that our students are now having and how we have helped them to reach their potential. Our actions and systems are based on our statement of purpose, which has allowed us to teach a 40-year-old how to read for the first time, help a student on the autism spectrum to speak in complete sentences, and also enhance a gifted student's ability to take tests. We all feel very lucky every day that we get to do this with our lives. Page 4

7 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years. Santa Barbara (Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement) The Lindamood-Bell mission statement, "Lindamood-Bell enhances learning for all people for all ages for life," fuels our Learning Center's (LC) energy, passion, and commitment to creating a successful learning environment for our clients and staff. While reviewing our teaching and assessment practices during the self-assessment process, the Santa Barbara LC found that we are highly effective and successful at consistently implementing effective instructional practices that are differentiated for each student. Our comprehensive assessment process allows us to determine the specific needs for each student, thus guiding our instructional recommendations. During instruction, individualized lesson plans are designed for each student and implemented effectively, with fidelity. With this strong support system in place, we are ensuring that all students reach their potential. In addition to our quality, student-focused instruction, we also concluded that we effectively and sufficiently communicate our practices and progress not only to our students directly in session, but also with their parents/guardians. We follow the by-design procedures of an initial consultation, explaining the assessment results and recommendations for every family, formal progress updates every 20 hours to discuss the student's progress, next goals, and other details concerning instruction, and informal meetings that happen regularly. We make sure that all families are informed of student success and updated on goals every step of the way. We also found that we keep clear documentation regarding a student's progress. Our student files contain documentation from the initial evaluation, instruction and consultation notes, weekly goals, lesson plans, instructional records, and notes from meetings with parents and professionals. These documents are accessed frequently by the Center Director and Associate Center Director to ensure teacher effectiveness and student learning. We determined that increased professional development for Clinicians was an area to improve. Though there are several occasions for development for managers, we do not have a systematic method for including instructional staff in these meetings. We want to develop a schedule that allows Clinicians to be included in relevant meetings either by allowing them to view a recording of our weekly corporate-wide videoconference or to simply attend the scheduled meeting with other available staff. We would also like to increase the amount of communication we have with the Clinicians in order to support their continued development by holding regularly scheduled staff meetings. We also noted that, while we feel that we do a good job mentoring seasonal Clinicians when they begin employment with us, we would like to provide more consistent mentoring to our regular core staff throughout the year. With our energy, commitment to learning, and implementation of company procedures, the Santa Barbara LC excels in providing the highest quality instruction possible. We are determined to continue improving by refining the areas described above. Page 5

8 Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. There is no additional information to be provided at this time. Page 6