LEAP program serves students, faculty
After two weeks into the 2010-11 school year, a group of 3-year-old children at Greathouse Elementary School are learning the letters T and W. Last week it was the letter W.
It might be pretty standard stuff for early childhood development education.
But in this classroom, nothing is typical because the program these 3-year-olds are enrolled in is a first of its kind for the Midland Independent School District.
The program is called LEAP, or Learning for Everyone at Preschool, and it aims to serve two different purposes. The program functions as a preschool for children of Midland ISD employees while also providing a learning environment for children with special needs.
"What we are talking about is a win-win situation," Dawn Miller, special education supervisor for Midland ISD, said. "The special education children are getting so much by being educated with their peers. It is invaluable."
A federal government mandate stipulates beginning at the age of 3, children eligible for special education services must be able to enroll in a public school setting.
Special education students must also be educated with their normally developing peers to the maximum extent possible, in cooperation with government mandates.
Midland ISD's LEAP program is in its early stages. It opened this school year at Greathouse Elementary and DeZavala Elementary.
It is a nonprofit program taught by certified teachers with a set curriculum in an inclusive environment. But teachers and administrators say the focus is on the individual student and meeting his or her specific needs.
"I really like the program," Greathouse Special Education teacher M'Lys Lloyd said. "You can take (the curriculum) and say okay I don't have the materials for that, but I can take that idea and change this, put this in place of this, and it all works out. This is a very loose program, and I like that I can put my own spin on it when I don't have the materials."
Lloyd says doing this allows her to see what slows learning down for each student and what speeds it up.
"I love it when that little light bulb goes off in their eyes and they figure out what it is you have been trying to teaching them," she said.
Another benefit for special education students is being able to interact with normally developing students.
"Our first concern is educating our special education students," Miller said. "We are bringing in other children to help us do that better."
Students rotate through different classroom centers daily. Among these are reading, activity, dramatic role playing and science. The classroom is also equipped with the Imagine Learning computer program.
Time is an issue, though, at each center.
"Kids this age have a really short attention span, and 15 minutes seems to be a good amount of time for them to look at what they are doing and play," Lloyd says. "If you do much more than 15 minutes, they get bored, and that can start some issues for you."
Special education students' successes and failures are measured by an Investing in Data Quality program. Special education teachers use the IDQ program to delineate what they will be teaching the students.
"(The students) have had an evaluation to access their strengths and weaknesses," Nancy Isaacs, director of special education for Midland ISD, said. "We have set up an educational plan that would address both those issues."
The IDQ program addresses all special education students, not just those enrolled in the LEAP program.
Planning for the LEAP program began during the 2009-10 school year. The program was based upon a similar model used by Northside ISD in San Antonio. Northside has been able to implement the program at a majority of their schools.
"They are a huge district," Isaacs said. "They have been very successful with this. We would love it if our program became like theirs."
Isaacs said she would also like to see the program expand to two more schools in the district. That possibility might depend on physical space. Miller states the district was fortunate to find the space they did for the two classrooms they have.
"We were thrilled to find two open rooms, but it was a job," she said.
Expanding the LEAP program outside of faculty and special needs children does not look feasible, according to Isaacs. Building space would become an issue, as well as the inability to fund enough teachers' salaries for such a huge project.
This district was able to fund the program on its own.
General education students have to pay a monthly tuition, which directly funds the salaries of the certified general education teachers in the classroom. Materials and supplies were paid for with federal stimulus money.
Isaacs and Miller said they will be doing a lot of talking with parents throughout the year to see how the program is working.
"My feeling is we've spent a lot of time and research to get everything in place in order to maximize the affect of this program," Miller said. "We've got great administrative staff support on both campuses. We've been blessed with great staff. The teachers are just really gifted individuals, and the team teaching process just works really well. If you have great kids, supportive parents, good administration and great teachers, you have high hopes for these classes."