COOPERATE - July 2022

COOPERATE JULY

2022

|

VOL.

1

The Community Newsletter from the DC Special Education Cooperative

Students and staff from our Spring 2022 Career Prep Program (CPP)

Welcome from the Executive Director Engage with the Co-op

On behalf of the DC Special Education Cooperative, I am pleased to introduce "COOPERATE" - our community stakeholder newsletter.

Our hope is to share highlights and calls to action with our AMAZING supporters and stakeholders throughout the District of Columbia.

In this issue, we are excited to spotlight our student-facing DC3C program that employed sixteen students with disabilities during Spring 2022. Next, we'll provide insight into our evidence-based intervention program, the Intervention District, which launched this year and was implemented in nine schools. Finally, we're thrilled to welcome 3 new team members. You'll meet them on page 4!

Highlights from this issue: DC3C's Career Prep Program - pg.2

We look forward to engaging with you in school year 2022-2023!

Intervention District - pg.3

With gratitude,

Visit our new website - pg.4

Julie Camerata Executive Director

Meet our staff - pg.4

28 volunteers engaged with 16 students with disabilities during Spring 2022

Thriving Despite The Odds: DC3C Spring 2022

An amazing group of sixteen students with disabilities came together, representing all four quadrants of the city and hailing from traditional and

Despite the many challenges faced

charter schools. This diverse group of

worldwide due to the COVID-19

students was made up of mostly

pandemic, our students with

juniors and seniors, many of whom

disabilities have faced barriers and

were undecided about their post-

restrictions that have been almost

high school plans. Numerous

insurmountable. However daunting

students expressed their desire to

these obstacles have been, when given

“experience and learn something

the opportunity, many of the Co-op’s

new.” After all the obstacles our

DC3C students have thrived. DC3C is

students faced during the pandemic,

the Co-op’s program that is

our DC3C program took action and

committed to closing the employment

created a program to connect these

and education gaps after high school

students to work-based learning

for students with disabilities in DC,

experiences based on industry-

gaps that have widened during the

recognized certifications from the

pandemic.

National Retail Foundation (NRF) and from LinkedIn Learning.

This Spring, we hosted our Career Preparation Program (CPP) virtually,

Our Retail class was able to record a

ensuring that this often overlooked

100% completion percentage on the

population of students was able to gain

RISE Up exam, which is the NRF

a paid work-based experience. This is

Foundation training and

incredibly important given the fact

credentialing program that provides

that students with disabilities who

foundational employability skills to

participate in paid work-based

help people land jobs and get

learning experiences during high

promoted in retail and beyond.

school are more likely to obtain and maintain employment after school.

Read more here!

Using Evidencebased Interventions for Recovery DC’s model Intervention District

Supporting students who are significantly behind grade level expectations is not new to special educators. The pandemic has certainly expanded the number of students who are behind and thrown into sharp relief systemic inequities that have disadvantaged certain students. Good news is that a small part of the solution remains the same. Students who have gaps in learning must have access to high quality, evidence-based interventions delivered with fidelity.

However, due to their smaller size, which limits funding and staffing, many charters find implementing highly successful, evidence-based intervention programs challenging. The Co-op’s solution? An “Intervention District '' piloted pre pandemic and launched this school year,

One of our partners, Thurgood Marshall PCS (TMA) recognized the need to mitigate learning loss for their most vulnerable students in early 2020. TMA is a single-site charter located in Washington, DC’s Ward 8, serving 367 students in grades 9-12, where 18% are students with disabilities and 62% are atrisk, and 100% of SWD are African American.

According to Executive Director Raymond Weeden, “for years, schools in the District have grappled with how to serve students with disabilities. Often, the strategies were the ‘popular’ tool of the day but did not necessarily support students' growth. TMA wanted to step back and address needs head-on. Working with the Co-op, we could align our current needs with an evidence-based tool that would support growth. We prioritize evidence-based interventions because our students do not have time to wait for us to guess and hope something will work. Each [student] needs positive outcomes right now.”

that maximizes access to costly programming by bringing multiple small charters together.

Read more here!

Students who have gaps in learning must have access to high quality, evidencebased interventions delivered with fidelity.

JULY 2022 | VOLUME NO. 1

Visit our new and improved website!

The DC Special Education Cooperative is SUPER EXCITED to launch our new and improved website!! Our primary goal during the redesign process was to create a more valuable, user-centric, and responsive resource across all platforms and devices.

Created with the member experience in mind, the site includes many new features to help users quickly and easily navigate the site. We hope you enjoy our new look!

Visit our website today!

Connect and Engage with Us Today!

Connect and Engage with Us! Twitter/FaceBook: @SpecialEdCoop Twitter: @SpecialEdCoop

Get involved

Donate Today!

FaceBook: @SpecialEdCoop

Donate Today!

Meet our new staff!today!

Please meet our newest team members.

For more information, please visit our staff bio page on our website.

Visit

Paula Almond Secondary Transition Specialist

Abeo Venzor Senior Program Coordinator

Samantha Walukonis Program Quality Specialist