A LW AY S IMPROVING
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It’s about improvement
not change, change can be for the worse.
Dr. Viviane Robinson Centre for Educational Leadership The University of Auckland 2
INTRODUCTION The purpose of this booklet is to share information about professional learning opportunities available during the coming school year.
We want to share an overall guide as to the direction, purpose, and rationale for these plans. We are not intending for this to serve as an all-encompassing manifesto of what will happen. Each month, each day, or in each meeting.
We also know that there may be additions that we could share as we move into the winter/ summer break—especially with the addition of a learning management system. That is a benefit of this booklet being online; we can update the information in the coming weeks.
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Learning is differentiated, flexible in pacing and informed by what the learners have and have not mastered.
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BIG IDEAS Planning is a key theme for T&L in the coming school year. We need to focus on MSA’s Sustaining Excellence protocol, which means concentrating on our emphasis with Personalized Competency-Based Education (PCBE). We need to continue to focus on our schoolwide curriculum and we need to focus on our students’ holistic growth. One of the big drivers for the school has to be our ongoing exploration and preparation for the Middle States Association reaccreditation. The “Sustaining Excellence” protocol we are using is designed for leading schools who believe they should control their future direction and that they should not be bound to action plans necessitated by an accrediting organization. Our ‘big idea’ for Sustaining Excellence was developed by teachers who volunteered to participate in generative discussions about where the school has made progress and where the school could continue to develop. Their thoughts, reflections, and ideas were shared with MSA; they in turn helped us further refocus and suggested that we return to our Strategic Plan to use one of our existing objectives—Personalized Learning Objective 2: Learning is differentiated, flexible in pacing and informed by what the learners have and have not mastered. This personifies PCBE. This booklet is not the platform to delve into specific aspects of PCBE—we will spend considerable time this year in that area—but for now, you could think about competencies using the four base questions that drive professional learning communities: what do we want students to learn, how will we know if they have learned it, what do we do if they do not learn it, and what do we do if they have already learned it? A key aspect to keep in mind is that PCBE does not asks those questions in reference to a single unit, but rather about the school’s entire curriculum. Our schoolwide curriculum documentation and planning needs to be emphasized during the coming school year. The units in Atlas vary greatly in their depth and focus—and over the several years, the variability between what should be included and what has been documented has become noticeable. I recognize Atlas is not organized in a user-friendly format, nor does its set-up encourage teachers to access it for ongoing planning. A group of our teachers, representing each division, explored alternatives and we will transition to Chalk over the next school year—more information to follow once the agreements are all finalized. I also know that effective and efficient planning takes time and we have not always provided that to you throughout the year. That will also change. But our work cannot be limited to rousing student’s intellectual curiosity and thinking. We have a moral imperative to help them develop other dispositions, which is why we need to return to our Portrait of a Learner and engage in ongoing conversations about how to move its elements and attributes forward. Dr. Robert Evans
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How can you tell if a teacher requires improvement?
I think there is a very simple test actually—one simple question you can ask—do they teach actual children?
Because if they do, then they need to be better. They need to be better next year than they were this year, and better this year than they were last year.
And you might be the best teacher in the world…
you still need to be better…there is no excuse for not improving if you are a professional. That’s my view.
Dr. Robert Coe Director of Research & Evaluation Evidence Based Education 6
We would like to introduce you to the CONSULTANTS we will be working with in 2020-2021. Again, this is just a general introduction to who they are and the scope of our collaboration with them—this is not intended to be more than that. Specific details about their consultation work will be shared as we get closer to each beginning their time with us. When we began our conversations with these consultants, we certainly had not anticipated the impact of COVID-19. We have had to make adjustments and are appreciative that we were able to make most of our original plans work. To that end, we have consultants who will… …work with us remotely, with the hope that we will be able to bring them to South Africa in the near future. o Katherine Casey & Chris Sturgis o Nancy Akhavan …unfortunately, not be able to join us. That said, we still wanted you to know who they are—and to get a sense of why we were interested in working with them. o Paul Anderson o Bill Roberts o Blake Sims
We have also included references to the specific Leading School Indicators and current Strategic Plan that are aligned with each consultant’s work with AISJ.
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Dr. Katherine Casey & Chris Sturgis Targeted Leading School Indicators: 1, 3, 4, 5 Aligned to current Strategic Plan: Personalized Learning MSA Sustaining Excellence Protocol
Introducing Katherine
Katherine specializes in innovation, school design, personalized and competency-based learning, and research and development. As a founding member of the “Imaginarium Innovation Lab” in Denver Public Schools, she worked to ensure that innovation could grow and thrive by cultivating new ideas and innovators across the city, developing new systems and methods to study, evaluate, and understand promising innovations, and disseminating actionable knowledge to scale transformational practices. Katherine was a founding design team member at the “Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design”, Denver’s first open enrollment competency-based high school, where she supported school design, launch, and growth. Prior to her work in Denver, Katherine worked in leadership development, educational philanthropy, and public policy at Education Pioneers, the Silver Giving Foundation, the Coro Center for Civic Leadership, and the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University.
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Introducing Chris
Chris Sturgis is principal of MetisNet, a consulting firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, specializing in education, youth issues and community engagement. Chris’ approach begins with drawing on local knowledge (metis) early in the design process. Chris is recognized for her leadership in competency-based education as a co-founder of CompetencyWorks. She is a prolific writer and facilitator on competency-based education based on knowledge gained through visits to schools and interviews with leaders in the field. Chris has developed a deep understanding of competency-based education by visiting over 100 schools that are leading the way in the United States and New Zealand. In 2018, she was awarded Outstanding Individual Contribution to Personalized Learning Award by iNACOL (The Aurora Institute).
Our Work with Katherine & Chris: Katherine and Chris are leading voices in competency-based education. Both have worked extensively with public and private schools as well as school districts making the transition towards PCBE. They will work with our school to help frame our journey towards PCBE through ongoing interviews and planning with the Leadership Team and Teaching & Learning, assisting in the development of a modern (usable/user-friendly) literature review for our next MSA submission, and assist in developing an effective time-table for our transition to PCBE. Katherine and Chris have written multiple briefs for CompetencyWorks including:
Moving Towards Mastery: Growing, Developing and Sustaining Educators for Competency-Based Education. (2018)
Levers & Logic Models: A Framework to Guide Research and Design of High-Quality Competency-Based Education Systems. (2018)
Implementing Competency Education in K-12 Systems: Insights from Local Leaders. (2015)
You can access these briefs by clicking on the covers.
The Center for Teaching & Learning will provide ongoing follow-up throughout the school year based on advice from Kathleen and Chris What is PCBE? What does it look like? How does PCBE work? Why has PCBE gained momentum? What are some of the major challenges? What will it mean for me and my students? What have other schools had to say about it?
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Dr. Nancy Akhavan Targeted Leading School Indicator: 4.2.A Supporting Leading School Indicators: 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 4.1 Aligned to current Strategic Plan: Conceptual and Personalized Learning
INTRODUCING NANCY Nancy works with teachers directly on literacy and pedagogical practices in all content areas. She routinely speaks on the topics of literacy, early literacy, nonfiction reading and writing, content area reading, teaching writing and reading in workshop and non-workshop settings, vocabulary development and also speaks on how to help students ‘at-promise’ or those who need additional support to succeed and English language development for students learning English. Nancy provides training across the nation to teachers in grades K-12. Nancy has written a number of professional books on best practices in literacy instruction, teaching struggling readers, and high-quality instruction for English learners. Her books are published by Corwin Press, Heinemann and Scholastic publishers. OUR WORK WITH NANCY We will use the book she co-authored with Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey to kickstart our efforts to improve literacy instruction in our elementary division. We will also take advantage of her extensive background working with multi-lingual student populations. This is Balanced Literacy, Grades K-6 (Corwin Literacy) First Edition Students learn to read and write best when their teachers balance literacy instruction. Best-selling authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nancy Akhavan help you strike the right balance of skills and knowledge, reading and writing, small and whole group instruction, and direct and dialogic instruction, so that all students can learn to their maximum potential. Using this essential guide, tap your intuition, collaborate with your peers, and put the research-based strategies embedded within to work in your classroom for a strong and successful balanced literacy program. Nancy will spend time throughout the school year collaborating with our teachers to help rebalance our approach to Balanced Literacy. In-between the sessions, team will be able to implement their ideas, share feedback, and work together to prepare future consultations.
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Paul Anderson (January 2021) Aligned to current Strategic Plan: Conceptual, Connected, Personalized Learning
INTRODUCING PAUL Paul Andersen is an educational consultant and YouTube creator living in Bozeman, Montana. Paul is an experienced educator having taught science in Montana for 20 years. Paul was the 2011 Montana Teacher of the Year and was also one of four finalists for the 2011 National Teacher of the Year. In addition to teaching, Paul has created hundreds of YouTube science tutorials that have been viewed millions of times by students around the world. In 2012 Paul was selected by YouTube as one of ten YouTube Edu Gurus. Paul has provided training for thousands of students, teachers, administrators, and professors around the world. Paul’s specialties include the Next Generation Science Standards, educational technology, the flipped classroom, and effective classroom design. Paul enjoys providing meaningful professional development that can be applied immediately in the classroom.
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Dr. Bill Roberts
(Postponed due to COVID-19)
Targeted Leading School Indicator: 4.1.D Aligned to Strategic Plan: Conceptual Learning
Targeted Leading School Indicator: LSI 3.1.B, 5.1 Aligned to Strategic Plan: Connected Learning
INTRODUCING BILL
INTRODUCING BLAKE
Bill Roberts has been involved with the IB for 25 years in a variety of ways. He has taught Theory of Knowledge, Mathematics and Further Mathematics around the world including in Cairo, Egypt and most recently in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He has extensive experience as a DP Coordinator and Administrator. Alongside this, he has worked as a team leader for verification visits, he has been involved in reviewing five-year evaluations, has worked on curriculum reviews for both Mathematics and ToK, and has significant examining experience.
Blake Sims is a dynamic educator and entrepreneur dedicated to providing unique learning experiences in innovation, entrepreneurship and design. Her career began as a middle school teacher, both in Chicago Public and at the International School of Kenya in Nairobi.
He has led over sixty workshops for the IB in ToK, Mathematics HL, DP Coordination and for Administrators. He spends a lot of time advising schools on teaching ToK, integrating ToK into subject areas and the role of international mindedness in schools; he has conducted over one hundred and fifty in-school workshops. He also works with the delivery of ToK and Mathematics in an online context both as a developer of courses and as a teacher.
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Blake Sims
(Postponed due to COVID-19)
Blake earned her Master’s in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education which catalyzed her into a career that instills 21st century skills into the next generations of leaders and thinkers. Blake works with students, schools, business leaders, and startups creating researched-based design thinking experiences that help transform ideas into impact. She is the Program Director of Social Innovation for Innovate@BU, a Boston University initiative to empower all Terriers with innovation skills and an entrepreneurial mindset and the Founder & CEO of Epiic Solutions. Blake is passionate about inspiring students of all ages and helping them connect their passions with innovation, design and entrepreneurship.
The stimulus for
intentional learning is the
desire to improve: to know more, to understand more deeply, to develop
competence and expertise.
Dr. Guy Glaxton The Learning Power Approach 13
IT’S THE 2597 Your Individualized Professional Learning Account
Due to COVID-19, there will a few changes to how teachers will be able to access and use their professional development account, which I refer to as your 2597 (a reference to its budget line). Your 2597 account will continue to have the same amount credited during the 2020-2021 school year; that amount remains $1500 for teachers and $750 for teaching partners. The three-year rollover continues as well, which means that account could top out at $4500 for teachers and $2250 for teaching partners.
As you look to use your 2597, there are a few caveats that you will need to keep in mind as you consider options.
- Through December 2020, I am not signing off on travel requests for professional learning. - We hope to open up to travel again in January 2021 but that is not guaranteed. - Online professional learning opportunities will be accessible and are the preferred method during the 2020-2021 school year.
As always, if you have any questions about your 2597 options, please ask.
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Other Promoted Professional Learning Opportunities We have also partnered with a number of external sources that offer high-quality, affordable professional learning opportunities for our teachers. Each organization believes teachers should be able to personalize their professional development and that this is best done through competency-based frameworks. BloomBoard, Digital Promise, and Neuroteach Global offer multiple micro-credentials and/or micro-endorsements. The Global Online Academy provides both short and intensive professional development experiences for teachers. Each of the icons below is linked to their website and I encourage you to take a look at what they have to offer. Click on these:
- Intervention Specialist micro-endorsement - Giftedness Knows No Bounds - See Me! - Understand Me! - Teach Me! - Challenge Me!
- Multiple, affordable micro-credentials for teachers to choose from - Competency-based, research-backed, personalized, on-demand, and sharable - Verifiable, portable and controllable
- Design Bootcamp: - August 3-7 - LSI 1, 2, 4 - CBL: From Theory to Practice: - July 27-August 21 - LSI 1, 2, 4
- Track 1: Learning Environments - Track 2: Curriculum Design - Track 3: Pedagogy & Assessment - Track 4: Student Success & Well-Being - Targeted Leading School Indicator: LSI 5.3.A
The AISA (Association of International Schools in Africa) 2020 Conference has been cancelled. An online conference is currently in the works—more information to follow.
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The most powerful method of improving education is to invest in the improvement of teaching and the status of great teachers. - Sir Ken Robinson
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PITCHES During the campus closure, we continued our planning and explored ways we could potentially improve aspects of our teaching and learning program. For each area that we want to target, we used a “one-page pitch” as brevity is usually appreciated. Each pitch includes a goal, the challenges we wanted to address, provides an alternative path, suggests advantages the alternatives offer, and other considerations worth noting. The pitches were shared with the Leadership Team for their “go ahead”. The following 2020-2021 pitches have been included in this booklet:
1. Learning Support Team & Micro-Endorsements 2. Social studies curriculum review 3. Balanced Literacy 4. Chalk 5. New teacher goal setting 6. Intensive learning support
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PITCH #1:
Micro-Endorsements for Learning Support Team
To build capacity among our Learning Support teachers across their team’s responsibilities: special education, English as an additional language, and highly capable learners. CHALLENGE While our LS teachers are absolutely devoted to assisting our students, not every team member has a formal background or training in all three responsibility areas, or in working with twice-exceptional students—and those with specific training may not have had an opportunity to continue to develop in a personalized, job-embedded mode. It is challenging to find professional learning opportunities that are convenient to attend that are not cost-prohibitive. A LT E R N AT I V E : B L O O M B O A R D / D I G I TA L P R O M I S E BloomBoard/Digital Promise is an online service provider that has worked with different state level departments of education, numerous school districts, independent private schools and teachers throughout the US. They are excited for the possibility of AISJ to be their first international school partnership. Their team of educators has developed professional learning opportunities that can lead to a micro-certification in each of the three areas we include in Learning Support. We would encourage all Learning Support teachers to participate and the T&L budget would be used to fund the professional development. If we are asking teachers to perform multiple roles, then it is incumbent on the school to provide avenues in which to: build capacity, properly support the goals and ambitions of the institution, and help LS students flourish.
A D V A N TA G E S O F B L O O M B O A R D / D I G I TA L P R O M I S E We would work in partnership with BloomBoard/Digital Promise to select the specific micro-credentials (courses) that would need to be successfully completed to earn the full micro-certification. Its micro-credentials are all self-paced, job-embedded, personalized, and competency based. These factors would allow us to tailor the work to our specific needs and context. While each teacher would focus on their chosen topics, BloomBoard/Digital Promise is designed to encourage teamwork and ongoing collaboration across the group. Teachers would select how they would enhance their practice to meet the micro-credential requirements. When the portfolio or artifacts are submitted, the work is reviewed by peers against the competencies—the reviewers are all highly experienced educators in that related specialty area. SUGGESTED NEXT STEPS We form a partnership with BloomBoard/Digital Promise and set-up the micro-certificates in Special Education, EAL, and Highly Capable Learners. Laura meets with all LS teachers (principals would be invited as well) to roll out the opportunity and encourage participation. The coursework could begin as early as September; time to complete the courses is set by the individual teachers and their team.
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OTHER POINTS We could open the EAL and G&T micro-credentials up to a wider audience if that met the specific needs of a division. We would need to review numbers to assess the funding options for this group.
PITCH #2:
Social Studies Curriculum Review
To update and improve the quality of our K-12 Social Studies curriculum and recommended scope and sequence. CHALLENGE The K12 Social Studies curriculum has not undergone a schoolwide review in a number of years. We (T&L) are also not confident that the current units are aligned across divisions, conceptually and content rich, and based on the most recent standards—AERO released an updated set in 2019, which includes the NCSS’ C3 Framework (college, career, and civic life), and other international standards may be available now that were not referenced during the last review.
R E C O M M E N D AT I O N T&L convenes a curriculum review committee of teachers across all divisions. The group would be facilitated by Tammy and would follow a process similar to how the World Languages team operated in 2016-2017. The group would meet multiple times throughout the school year, at times as a whole group and other times in sub-committees, with the goal of having curricular recommendations ready by the end of the 2020-2021 school year. A D V A N TA G E S As we begin to intentionally transition more into personalized competency-based education, the recent updates to AERO Social Studies standards lends itself to starting a review. This would also give the school a chance to intentionally embed the Portrait of a Learner throughout K-12 units using a subject area that easily lends itself to the 6 elements. The AERO/C3 Framework is becoming a preferred model at a number of international schools as it seeks to ensure rigor and relevance for students throughout all grade levels. We are likely hiring teachers with familiarity with these frameworks and would be better positioning our teachers and students for their next international school through intentionally incorporating these into our curriculum. SUGGESTED NEXT STEPS Following approval by the Leadership Team for the review, T&L (Tammy) will develop an invitation letter and a suggested timeline for the committee’s work. The committee could begin its work in August (or the first month of school). We would need to decide if all teachers would participate or if there would be divisional representation. OTHER POINTS Results from internal assessments indicate 80% of students are at or above benchmarks. (LSI 4 Measure 2A)
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PITCH #3: Balanced Literacy
Our internal data has remained consistent for the past several years and it indicates that onethird of our students are reading below-grade level. MAP data supports this finding; based on RIT scores, one-third of our students in grades 3-5 would likely be below-proficient if they were to take a state administered reading assessment. An audit of units in KG, Grade 1, and Grade 2 revealed that explicit/systematic phonics and phonemic awareness were mostly absent—these are essential elements when learning to read. Reading comprehension occurs when there is accurate word recognition and sufficient language comprehension. Efficient word recognition occurs when phonological awareness and decoding skills are mastered to automaticity. A review of units and classroom observations indicates that our pedagogy is heavily tipped in favor of language comprehension without sufficient attention to the equally essential skills needed to develop fluent word recognition. It is out of balance. T H E A LT E R N AT I V E : B A L A N C E D L I T E R A C Y We will refocus our literacy instruction around a Balanced Literacy approach—using This is Balanced Literacy: K-6 as a resource. We will be guided by the science of reading and what cognitive science has contributed to the field in the past generation—”Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition from Novice to Expert” and LETRS would be strong resources that could be used. We will adopt an evidence-based systematic phonics program. SUGGESTED NEXT STEPS Training will be provided to elementary teachers to re-center our program using a Balanced Literacy approach. The sessions will be based on the recent publication This is Balanced Literacy by Fisher, Frey, and Akhavan—each elementary teacher will receive a copy in August. We have already been in communication with both Dr. Fisher and Dr. Akhavan. Nancy Akhavan has agreed in principle to work with AISJ through supporting a book study, remote conferencing with teams, and spending at least three days on-site in early 2021. Based on learnings from the book and the consultancy, units will be updated accordingly. Units in KG, G1, and G2 will be revised to ensure inclusion of phonics and phonemic awareness— as part of our instruction and not as an intervention. Elementary principals, working in conjunction with the K12 Learning Support Coordinator, selected four models that will be explored: Sounds Write, Fundations, Sound Waves, and Puzzle Piece Phonics. A final decision will be made in time for ordering and arranging any on-site consultant work needed for the 2021-2022 school year. OTHER POINTS The information in the “Problem” and “Next Steps” has already been shared and approved by the Board of Trustees as part of the LSI Action Plan.
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PITCH #4: Chalk It Up
To improve the use, quality, and implementation of unit and curriculum planning. T H E C H A L L E N G E : T H E R U B I C O N AT L A S P A I N Rubicon ATLAS, without question, performs the basics of curriculum planning and mapping. However, ATLAS is not user friendly. It is not visually appealing. For many teachers, it is not the “go-to” for their planning. Unit resources and assessments are often housed in an individual teacher’s OneNote or Google Drive rather than in ATLAS. Currently, ATLAS does not allow for multiple teachers to edit the same unit simultaneously during a planning session. Within unit searching in ATLAS is difficult; i.e. if a teacher had a student ready for off-grade-level standards, it is not easy to find and review learning targets and resources in other grade levels or divisions. If we were to only think about our curriculum at the individual unit level, there would be no need to discuss shortcomings in ATLAS or explore other options as it can work well for an individual unit. When we move beyond the individual unit and start to look at scope and sequence across grade levels, or at competencies across a spectrum of learning objectives, ATLAS is limited.
A LT E R N AT I V E : C H A L K Chalk and ATLAS have numerous similarities. At the basic unit planning level, these two are structured the same; both use backwards design as the default template model. That said, Chalk’s user experience and design differences lend themselves to an improved user interaction. A D V A N TA G E S - W H AT ’ S U N I Q U E T O C H A L K Chalk was designed to mirror the look and feel of Google Docs. Multiple teachers can edit the same unit, the same section, the same sentence at the same time. Teachers can search for a standard/ competency across multiple grade levels and see all results in one screen. Chalk allows for multiple standard set to be used at the same time (CCSS, AERO, NZ, etc.). SUGGESTED NEXT STEPS We would like to form an advisory group of teachers from all divisions to explore this with T&L. Teachers could volunteer or be selected by their principals. The ideal member for the group would be a teacher who understands curriculum and unit development within ATLAS—and has a good grasp of Google and or Office365. Chalk’s CEO, William Zhou, will host another online walk-through of the software for the group and answer teacher questions; this would take place before the end of April or in early May. The advisory group could then make an informed recommendation to pursue further or to remain with current systems. OTHER POINTS Overall cost is variable based on numbers (teachers and school size) and work required to migrate units. There will also have to agreements and follow-up to ensure that units are fully developed and all elements (materials, additional resources, assessments, reflection) are included.
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PITCH #5:
New Teachers & Goal Setting
To support our new teachers as they assimilate to our goal-setting process. OUR PAINLESS PROBLEM The AISJ goal-setting process could be a novel experience for some teachers. We want to support teachers and invite them into the growth and coaching culture of our school. R E C O M M E N D AT I O N Introduce a year-long relationship with the new teachers as they engage with our goal-setting process. This would include an introduction to the teacher rubrics and how these are used to propose a year-long goal, meeting individually with a coach to develop the draft goal (in advance of meeting with their supervisor), interactive follow-up sessions with their coach throughout the school year (i.e. planning, coteaching, classroom observations, reviewing artifacts), and another individual meeting prior to the end of year conversation with their supervisor.
A D V A N TA G E S The one-on-one relationship between coaches and new teachers could be an asset in helping their transition to AISJ. The preplanning conversations could also be beneficial for the principals as the proposed goal would have been co-crafted with an experienced coach. As we begin to intentionally transition more into personalized competency-based education, we also want to support teachers’ professional growth in this manner as well. The ongoing professional relationship SUGGESTED NEXT STEPS Following approval by the Leadership Team for their review, T&L will develop an invitation letter and a suggested timeframe for the yearlong work. OTHER POINTS We could open this up to teachers beyond the new cohort and principals could encourage teachers who they feel might need the support to participate as well.
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PITCH #6:
An Intensive Learning Support Pilot
To provide a personalized learning program that is more instructionally relevant to the current levels of performance and learning goals of several high-needs Learning Support Students. THE CHALLENGE We currently have a small number of students who will be in the Johannesburg Middle School next year (about 4 across grades 6-8), for whom our program of support does not adequately address their unique learning needs. Their reading, writing, and math skills are multiple levels below grade level expectations and our current support program does not provide the intensity of intervention required to close the identified gaps. The low skill levels make it very challenging for them to access and engage with curriculum content.
T H E A LT E R N AT I V E A daily Learning Support Class that provides a scientifically based, intensive literacy and math tier 3 intervention program with a focus on developing functional literacy and math skills. The K12 Learning Support Coordinator and the MS Learning Support Teaching Partner will collaborate to create and implement this program. The class will occur every day and depending on the needs and strengths of the individual students will replace either their English, Math, and/or Learning Support or English Language Class. Depending on the progress made and the learning profile of the individual students, there is the opportunity to re-join the general curriculum in these areas. This would be the goal for all the students as we strive for the Least Restrictive Educational Environment. SUGGESTED NEXT STEPS: This pilot intervention program would be explained in detail to the relevant families and detailed planning for the curriculum, progress monitoring and program evaluation would continue. OTHER POINTS Historically, when students have had this type of profile, we have asked the families to pay for an assistant or have counselled them out of our school. We have an opportunity to address the needs of a small cluster of students (not just an individual student) with resources that had not been available before, i.e. the Learning Support Coordinator and Coach and the Learning Support Teaching Partner. Given the intensive nature of the program, it would need 3 or 4 students, and not more than 5 to be successful and viable. Parents would have little option to say no to this program as without it, we would likely say that we do not have the ability to adequately support their child’s needs. This is an attempt to avoid having to counsel these families out. We are trying this at the Johannesburg Middle School next year, as opposed to Pretoria or another division, because currently there is not the same level of need in any other division. The experience of this pilot might provide insight for how we could expand the tier 3 intervention services provided at AISJ.
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