Copyright 2014© LRP Publications
by Mark W. Sherman, a Washington bureau correspondent, covers special education issues for LRP Publications.
Key points:
- Postsecondary institutions resemble K-12 schools for children with certain disabilities
- School leaders offer no apologies for taking noninclusive approach
- Leaders of schools say students with disabilities are central to mission, not distraction
Specialized colleges offer haven for students who prefer segregated program
In theory, a student who had an IEP in high school can get the support she needs in college by invoking her rights under Section 504 and the ADA.
Indeed, efforts are under way at various colleges and universities to make sure such students get those services and any necessary accommodations.
But at Landmark College in Putney, Vt., those efforts aren't ancillary to the school's regular program: they are the program. That's because enrollment at Landmark, which was founded in 1985, is limited to students with a formal diagnosis of LD, ADHD, or autism.
The result is a community whose entire focus is on helping such students thrive and eventually graduate, according to President Peter Eden.
"Many colleges and universities do a good job [of serving students with LD], but at the end of the day, it's almost always a resource or a program, and there can still be stigma associated with that," said Eden, who is scheduled to testify Sept. 18 at a hearing on dyslexia. "Here, they don't have to be part of a small program or optional resource."
A similar program exists in Leesburg, Fla., where George Hagerty is president of Beacon College.
"Many of our students come to this institution because they can pursue their undergraduate preparation in a safe environment -- safe for them," he said.
Indeed, taking the post has brought his life full circle, said Hagerty, who began his career in 1978 as a postdoctoral fellow for the Bureau for the Education of the Handicapped, where he helped write the regulations for P.L. 94-142, the precursor to the IDEA.
"I can remember the conversations with respect to students with LD and other disabling conditions," he said. The rules might help such students get through high school, he and his colleagues agreed, but "when they age out, then what? Because we know that some of the students are capable of pursuing an undergraduate curriculum."
In short, just as some students attend specialized K-12 schools, such as charter schools for students with autism or the long-standing schools for the deaf and the blind, some students may prefer a college or university that, while not as diverse as a regular school, offers them an experience that is tailored to their needs.
Having different conversations
At the hearing, which is before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Eden is likely to emphasize his school's new STEM programs, designed to tap the technical bent of many Landmark students.
Eden acknowledged, however, that it would be a mistake to typecast students with LD, ADHD, or autism as hidden geniuses just waiting to be discovered.
Rather, he said, such students are like all young people -- full of ideas, with ambitions and dreams. They simply need the right supports, he said. In particular, he said, such students need what he calls metacognition -- the ability to understand their own learning pitfalls.
At other colleges, he said, "I was always surprised to see students who did well in class, with participatory learning ... but when it came time for the test, they did not produce."
"Whoa, what happened?" he said he would ask himself. "I thought that student really understood it."
Even when he sat down with them and went over the material, such students often continued to do poorly on tests, he said.
"They could not understand why they weren't doing well," he said. "They couldn't understand their own weaknesses when it came to learning."
Such experiences can be demoralizing, he said; a student starts to doubt his own intelligence, and teachers may too.
But at Landmark, "students don't have to cross their fingers and hope they get the right professor who will understand their strengths and weaknesses," he said. "This is all we do."
Likewise, students at Beacon meet for an hour each week with a learning specialist, and during their first year they also meet every week with a life coach, Hagerty said. There's even occupational therapy at no additional cost for students who need it, he said.
The result, he said, are graduation rates not seen in other settings -- and for teachers, a chance to focus on students whose presence they once might have resented.
"I convict myself," he said, meaning he pleads guilty to thinking of students with disabilities as distractions in his teaching days at other schools. "How's your class?" a colleague would ask, to which he would say, "It's great, except I've got these two outliers -- one is just bouncing around, the other tells me he's got this learning disability and needs extra time."
That's not how it works at Beacon, he said.
"Here, you go to a faculty room, it's all about, 'How are we going to ensure that this student masters what we're trying to teach? What's the modality?'" he said. "So it's a very different conversation, and it's the kind of conversation that has to happen for these students to succeed."
---------------Landmark College will be at Berkley High School---------------
Nov. 19th at 8:45 am for an "Informational Meeting"
Landmark is one of almost 50 colleges/universities visiting BHS for an informational meeting- allowing juniors & seniors to have the opportunity to meet and speak with admissions representatives and to receive information/materials about the college or university they represent. Students need to sign-up in the Career Center, rm. 110 to be able to attend these meeting.