ACCESS School Proposal, DRAFT 2
November
19, 2001
DRAFT 2
To:
Board Subcommittee on Options
Fr:
TAG Office - Amy Welch, 916-3358
RE:
ACCESS School
I.
DEFINITION OF PROGRAM
The
ACCESS School is a Gr 1-12 educational option operating as a Portland Public
Schools alternative program. The
ACCESS School is designed to meet the unique needs of highly capable students
to reach their personal best. A
highly capable student is defined here as one who has scored in, or
demonstrated ability to score in, the exceeded range in multiple areas. These
highly capable students necessitate an accelerated curriculum and instruction
at a faster rate with fewer repetitions than is appropriate for other
students. Highly Capable (highly
gifted) is defined here as a child who generally scores at 145 or above (99+%)
on a nationally-normed academic or cognitive assessment.
581-022-1350(5)
(b) "Placement of a student
in a public or private alternative education program may be made only if the
program has been determined....to best serve the student's educational needs
and interests, within district and state academic standards;..."
The
ACCESS School complies with ORS 336.615; 335.635; 336.655; ORS 339.250(9) and
OAR 581-022-1110(5); 581-022-1350. These
statutes and regulations define alternative education programs and the student
needs served. 581-022-1350(5)(a)
states that, "Students placed in alternative education programs are those
whose educational needs and interests are best served by participation in such
programs..." and will include but not be limited to students identified
under student discipline and "exceeding all standards" laws.
There
is growing national and local awareness that the needs of highly capable
students is in large part unmet. "For
parents, it is a journey radically different, and far more chaotic than the
well-worn paths that have been smoothed for gifted athletes, musicians or
artists." By law, special
education students must be tested, transported and closely monitored.
No such standards apply to the highly gifted. (LA Times,
'Westside Charter School for the Highly Gifted')
Gifted
education researcher Stephanie Toulan states that, "The difficulty with
highly gifted children in school may be summarized in three words: they
don't fit. The highly gifted
child is many ages. In addition,
highly gifted children may have trouble establishing fulfilling friendships
with people of their own age when there are few or no other highly gifted
children with whom to interact. For
most highly gifted children, social relationships with age peers necessitate a
constant monitoring of thoughts, words and behavior.
One of the greatest benefits for a highly gifted child is the chance
for them to spend time with others like themselves.
Rather than feeling like oddballs, they suddenly feel normal."
Boston
College psychology professor Ellen Winner, Gifted Children: Myths and
Realities (1996), suggests that "moderately gifted" (130-140 or
97-98%) children belong in regular classes.
Highly gifted children, by contrast, "are at risk."
A number of these children get bored or teased in school and they tune
out or become disinterested in their abilities and end up underachievers.
Winner, goes on to say that "they need to be in classes with other
kids who are like them."
Why
not fast-track these highly capable students through elementary, middle- and
high school, directly to college?
Johns Hopkins professor (and founder of the Center for Talented Youth)
Julian Stanley said he no longer supports radical early entrance to college
because he believes that it stifles a child's social and emotional
development.
Gifted
Development Center chair Linda Silverman agrees that gifted children are wired
to desire knowledge, not necessarily to desire success, to be famous, to
produce, to be rich. But to
learn. Silverman goes on to say
that education is really about learning, and that's what leads to happy,
healthy children.
Michael
Kearney, an Alabama student who graduated from college at 10, understands the
feelings of isolation that often accompanies intelligence at this level.
"The intelligence part, the college part, comes easy.
But the social part, the emotional part, is what is difficult.
You don't realize how hard you have to work to make friends.
However intelligent we may be, we are still emotionally children.
And if we don't get that emotional development, we grow up
lopsided."
II.
GOALS OF PROGRAM
The
ACCESS School allows highly capable children to thrive socially, emotionally
and academically. The ACCESS
School helps children develop a lifelong love of learning, and encourages them
to become full and productive participants in our rapidly changing global
community.
The
ACCESS School provides a challenging, open-ended arts and academics program
that elicits the full potential from highly capable students by supporting
both intellectual and personal growth. The
rigorous, highly individualized program recognizes different learning styles
and talents within a nurturing environment that emphasizes integrated studies,
creative arts and social-emotional learning.
The
ACCESS School curriculum is enhanced by:
Accelerated
curriculum
Cultivation
and development of skills, abilities and creativity
Character
and social development
Exploration
and personal discovery
Self-directed,
self-paced challenges toward excellence
Service
to the community and society with tolerance and wisdom
Learner
outcomes for gifted students differs from the typical learner.
The William & Mary College professor Joyce Van Tassel-Baska,
explains that typically the major differences lie in the scope of the outcome,
the stage of development at which it is expected, and the implicit
proficiencies necessary to achieve it at an exemplary level.
Below is a set of sixth-grade English curriculum outcomes for all
learners juxtaposed with outcomes that were developed specifically for gifted
students at the same grade level.
Generic
1. Comprehends a variety
of materials.
2. Is familiar with the
structural elements of literature.
3. Develops an
understanding of the chronology of American literature.
Gifted
1. Evaluates diverse
materials according to a set of criteria or standards.
2. Creates a literary work
in self-selected form, using appropriate structural elements.
3.
Analyzes and interprets key social, cultural, and economic ideas as
expressed in the
literature,
art and music of America at 40-year intervals.
The examples in the gifted set are consistently more challenging,
broader in scope, and more focused on specific higher level thinking tasks.
They imply that students have mastered the basic underlying skills
necessary to undertake required tasks (e.g., that students can basically
comprehend what they read), and demand the development of multiple
perspectives within and across areas of knowledge.
These aspects of differentiation are central in comparing generic and
gifted outcome statements. ("Developing
Learner Outcomes for Gifted Students," Joyce Van Tassel-Baska
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/learner_outcomes.html)
III.
ACCOUNTABLE ACTIVITIES AND ALLOWABLE CREDIT
The
ACCESS School is organized to include grades 1 through 12.
Students are organized into grade level or mixed age classrooms with
flexible grouping within those grade levels in order to provide for
appropriate curricular needs. The
criteria for grading, conferencing, curriculum, and credit are consistent with
Portland Public Schools.
The
ACCESS School will use choose core texts from the State-adopted Instructional
Materials List (http://www.ode.state.or.us/cifs/instmatls/text-seg.htm) with
supplemental materials coming from a variety of sources; e.g., Singapore Math
(http://www.singaporemath.com), Getty Museum's Discipline Based Art Education
(http://www.getty.edu/education) and Great Books (http://www.greatbooks.org/).
As
per 581-022-1350(4)(a) "All students receive instruction in the state
content standards at appropriate benchmark levels providing the opportunity to
receive Certificates of Initial and/or Advanced Mastery;
(b)
All Oregon Statewide Assessments are administered;
(c)
The results of student performance on state assessments are reported annually
to students, parents and the school district;..."
IV.
NOTIFICATION AND ENROLLMENT IN PROGRAM
Overall,
the ACCESS School best serves highly capable students who
·
are
willing to take academic risk;
·
are
intellectually and academically capable;
·
value
and are willing to learn from the opinions of others;
·
choose
the challenging rather than the easiest path;
·
value
a multicultural community of learners.
The
ACCESS Admissions Committee will take into account both abilities and the
needs of the applicant. Test
scores will not be the sole criterion for admission, although applicants are
expected to have test scores in the 99+% in either:
general intellectual ability, mathematics, or reading.
The Committee will consider other evidence of giftedness that
demonstrates the applicant's need for modified curriculum instruction at this
level; including, but not limited to: early
reading, teacher observations, advanced mathematical skills, sophisticated
work, depth of thought, or unusual creativity.
The admissions process will comply with all federal and state statutes
and regulations.
The
application package will include:
·
evidence
that the student meets the criterion for TAG identification
(Oregon Administrative
Rules 581-022-1310);
·
evidence
of accelerated performance;
·
a
statement of student and family commitment to the program;
·
teacher
recommendations;
·
work
samples or portfolio;
·
school
transcripts or evaluations.
The
Admissions Committee may also consider and/or request:
·
tests
or assessments administered by licensed professionals;
·
interviews
of both applicant and family;
·
observations
of applicant;
·
a
classroom visit.
In
the event the number of qualified applicants exceeds the number of available
spaces, other factors may be taken into account:
·
preference
for applicants currently residing in the Portland Public Schools district;
·
need
of the classrooms for population diversity;
·
other
alternatives or support available to the applicant.
V.
COST OF PROGRAM
BUDGET
The
host school will provide the principal and secretarial support (Year 1 through
4), plus the normal and customary school infrastructure of telephones,
computers, basic texts and materials, cafeteria, janitors, maintenance,
library, PE, music, art, etc. In
Year 1, the extraordinary cost is for the TOSA (teacher on special assignment)
curriculum specialist. This cost
is estimated at $55,504. Discarded
or donated textbooks and additional library materials will be sought from
current schools in the district and the greater Portland area.
The school staffing allocation is established at normal district levels
(in 2001-02 this allocation is 28:1).
·
Salaries
are based on the district Budget Office average projections:
Principal
$
83,314
TOSA-Certified
including 18% for extended hours
55,504
Certified/Licensed
(Teacher, Counselor, Librarian, etc)
47,038
Secretary
25,059
·
Fringe
is 23.64% plus $9,541.2 per FTE for Health & Welfare.
(The
current H&W charges are $7,951 per FTE but this rate will show an increase
of $1,590 in February 2002.)
·
For
normal cost comparison purposes, fringe and H&W are not included in the
salaries listed below.
Year
1
$188,152 + 55,504
= $
243,656
Year
2
282,228 + 55,504 + 12,529
= $ 350,261
Year
3
423,342 + 55,504 + 25,059
= $ 503,905
Year
4
564,456 + 55,504 + 25,059
= $ 645,019
Year
5
611,494 + 55,504 + 25,059
+ 83,314 = $
775,371
Year
6
611,494 + 55,504 + 25,059
+ 83,314
258,709 + 27,752 + 12,529
= $1,074,361
VI.
STAFFING OF PROGRAM
Portland
Public Schools staffs and budgets the ACCESS School as any other Portland
Public School alternative program, including but not limited to general fund
staffing, consolidated budget, TAG funds and Local Option Tax funds.
The
FTE is distributed as follows:
Year
1- 112 students (28:1 student
ratio)
5 staff (4 teachers and 1
TOSA)
Support
Instructional
1.0
Curriculum Specialist
2.0 Grades 1-3
(TOSA)
2.0 Grades 4-6
Year
2- 168 students (28:1 student
ratio)
8 staff (6 teachers + 1 TOSA, 1 secretary)
Support
Instructional
1.0
Curriculum Specialist
2.0 Grades 1-3
(TOSA)
2.0 Grades 4-6
2.0 Grades 7-8
.5
Secretary
Year
3- 252 students (28:1 student ratio)
11 staff (9 teachers + 1 TOSA, 1 secretary)
Support
Instructional
1.0
Curriculum Specialist
3.0 Grades 1-3
(TOSA)
3.0 Grades 4-6
3.0 Grades 7-8
1.0
Secretary
Year
4 - 308 students (28:1 student
ratio)
14
staff (11 teachers + 1 TOSA, 1 school counselor, 1 secretary)
Support
Instructional
1.0
Curriculum Specialist
3.0 Grades 1-3
1.0
School Counselor
4.0 Grades 4-6
4.0 Grades 7-8
1.0
Secretary
Year
5 - 336 students (28:1 student
ratio) MAXIMUM NUMBER OF STUDENTS
15.5 staff
(12 teachers + 1 Principal, 1 school counselor, 1 secretary, .5 Curriculum
Specialist)
Support
Instructional
1.0
Principal
.5 Curriculum Specialist
3.0 Grades 1-3
1.0
School Counselor
5.0 Grades 4-6
4.0 Grades 7-8
1.0
Secretary
and
Year
6 - 140 students (28:1 student ratio) - MAXIMUM NUMBER of Gr 9-12 -
residing
in a current PPS HS
Support
Instructional
.5 Curriculum Specialist
5.0 Grades 9-12
.5 School Counselor
.5 Secretary
The
criteria for hiring staff:
All
applicants must possess a valid Oregon Teaching Certificate and be approved by
Portland Public Schools - ORS 336.635(5).
Hiring priority is given to teachers with experience in gifted
education, a specific middle school- or high school-level specific subject
matter endorsement, have worked in an alternative education setting; and can
demonstrate an open, supportive and positive attitude toward students, who are
excited about performance-based and experience-based education, who like to
work in teams and who see the role of teacher as one of guide and facilitator.
Teachers with experience teaching Advanced Placement or International
Baccalaureate, and who fluently speak a second language, will be given first
priority in hiring. The curriculum specialist is a teacher-on-special
assignment (TOSA) who mirrors the hiring criteria listed above and who works
with teachers to adjust curriculum, coordinate instruction, and facilitates
communication between teachers and students.
The School Counselor is one with documented successful experience in
working with highly gifted students and their parents. The counselor is one
who counsels students and parents individually and in small group, during- and
after-regular school hours.
VII.
EVALUATION OF PROGRAM
Portland
Public Schools has internal accountability over its District-operated
alternative education programs, in part because enrollment in these programs
is tracked in the District's student database.
Student
curriculum and learning supports the Oregon statewide and national benchmark
goals, such as the National Council Teachers of Mathematics and the National
Standards for Gifted and Talented. Each
year, entering students are given an initial assessment in reading, math and
written language. Short- and
long-term goals for student learning are based on initial assessment, ongoing
assessment, and a work sample portfolio.
A
variety of standardized assessments are conducted yearly to measure academic
growth. Students may be given
grade level tests and/or out-of-grade level tests. These assessments include,
but are not limited to: Portland
Achievement Levels Tests, Oregon State Assessments, PSAT, SAT and PLUS.
The
Curriculum is aligned with the "common curriculum goals and
standards" from the state (http://www.ode.state.or.us/cifs/index.htm).
In addition, the College Board's Pre-Advanced Placement and Advanced
Placement programs (http://www.collegeboard.org/ap/index.html) will be
utilized to maximize learning and assessment.
Pre-Advanced
Placement (Pre-AP) is designed for use in Grades 5 though 10 and Advanced
Placement (AP) in Grades 9 through 12. AP,
rather than International Baccalaureate (IB), is preferred as there are no
grade level, seat time, site or certification encumbrances.
The
staff will seek a 2002 College Board Pre-AP Fellow Program Stipend of $7,000
to attend the annual July summer institute at Xavier University in New
Orleans. The stipend covers
tuition and basic materials for the institute.
Staff will be asked to use professional development funds to cover room
and board, and transportation.
The
Pre-AP Fellows program is funded by the Mellon Foundation and provides
stipends to teachers planning to teach AP courses in economically
disadvantaged areas. An AP
Vertical Team is a group of teachers from different grade levels, generally
grades 6 through 12 who work cooperatively to develop and implement a
vertically aligned program aimed at helping students acquire the academic
skills necessary for success in the AP program.
The workshop is for district and school administrators, curriculum
coordinators, counselors, department leaders, and groups of teachers
interested in forming discipline-based teams of teachers and administrators to
improve academic performance and participation in the College Board's Advanced
Placement program.
Additionally,
students will be encouraged to complete the AP Scholars program or the AP
International Diploma for Overseas Study (APID).
The latter is similar to the full IB program.
VIII.
EVALUATION OF SITE
Space
Requirement
Year
1
4 classrooms 1
office
1 library/conference room
Year
2
6 classrooms 1
office
1 library/conference room
Year
3
9 classrooms 1
office
1 library/conference room
Year
4 11
classrooms 2
offices
1 library/conference room
Year
5 12
classrooms
3 offices
1 library/conference room
Year
6
site 1:
12 classrooms
3 offices
1 library/conference room
and
site 2:
5 classrooms
3 offices
1 library/conference room
Enforcement
of Health Laws includes a routine inspection by a City of Portland health
inspector.
Disease
Control: Sanitation and indoor
air include routine inspections by Portland Public School Maintenance
personnel. Air quality and water quality are within acceptable limits.
Hazardous
Substances: The ACCESS School
complies with the mandated Portland Public Schools hazardous substance
program. Updated Material Safety
Data Sheets are maintained in the office.
Controlled
substances: As a public building,
no alcohol, tobacco or other drugs may be possessed, used, or transferred at
school. Student disciplinary
procedures comply with PPS regulations.
Protection
of buildings from fire: ACCESS
conducts regular fire drill and earthquake drill activities.
The building receives regularly scheduled visits and non-scheduled
visits from Portland Fire Bureau building inspectors.
If a deficiency is noted, it is corrected immediately.
IX.
DISCRIMINATION
ACCESS
does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, creed, disability, national
or ethnic origin, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.
The policy applies to all areas of student concerns, including but not
limited to admission and educational policies.