christmas behind bars - County Times - Southern Maryland Online

9 Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Calvert Gazette
Spotlight On
Transition Students Have More
Input Into Future Careers
By Corrin M. Howe
Staff Writer
Sara Wagner, a teacher at Calvert High
School, is excited her students have an opportunity
to experiment with various skills in different career
fields so they can provide input into the types of
jobs they want when they transition out of school.
She has seven students in ISLE – Intensive
Structured Learning Environment, which according
to Board of Education documents, “is designed
to meet the needs of students who exhibit
characteristics of autism spectrum disorders and
whose needs cannot be met in lesser restrictive
environments.”
In an email inviting the Calvert Gazette to
come see what her students are doing, Wagner
wrote: “My students have special needs, primarily
autism, and we go to the a pre-vocational work
lab weekly. The [Practical Assessment Exploration
System] PAES Lab is housed at the Country
School and my students have been working very
hard over there. The lab gives them an opportunity
to try and become familiar with jobs in all types of
fields. So often our special needs people are told
what kind of a job they would be good at and told
to do it.”
According to Transition Specialist Zakia
Lindsey, the school system purchased a program
with grant money last year for students in the high
school and functional students at Calvert Country
School.
The program takes skills from the career areas
(consumer/service, construction/industrial, business/marketing,
processing/production and computer tech)
and breaks them down into smaller manageable tasks and
then walks the students through learning the skill.
For example, student John Kirby worked on a skill in
processing/production. He pulled a large plastic bucket from
the shelf and started sorting various shapes and sizes of pipes.
Charts labeled from A to G had images in exact sizes that
Kirby matched from pieces stored in the container.
The program has him start a small timer to see how long
it takes him to finish the task. Once he’s finished with the task,
Wagner goes over a checklist with him to self evaluate how he
did on his task. First students must decide if they finished the
Victor Stew works on following instructions. His teacher says he is always happy
and very quick and efficient with his tasks.
John Kirby matches pipe sizes and shapes to charts.
task correctly and whether they sought assistance. Next they
compare their times with a chart to see if their performance
fell in the category of slow, medium or fast. Finally, the students
evaluate their personal interest in the task as high, medium
or low. All this data is entered into a computer program
which helps Wagner know the student's interests and abilities.
Lindsey likes the program because the students learn
real life work skills such as punching a time card. During the
demonstration another real world scenario played out. Students
discovered they weren't always able to locate the materials
and supplies necessary to perform their tasks. In one
case the box was misfiled. In another, the item wasn't in the
room.
“They are students now, but they will be adults
in the community,” said Lindsey. And they want to be
productive members of society.
Wagner likes the data collection. It helps her to
individualize her instruction to the student’s interests
and needs.
“What I’m finding is they might have a high interest
level in a task, but they don’t perform it well. Now
I know what I need to do to help them get good at the
job.”
Being organized, staying on task, following instructions,
self evaluating and correcting are all “executive
function” skills that many children with special
needs lack. The lab also helps her to write better goals
and objectives for the student’s annual educational
plan. She can identify skills that need to be “generalized”
or taken from one environment to another.
The program is open to all the high schools but so
far Calvert High and Patuxent are the only ISLE programs
taking advantage of it. According to Lindsey
having to travel by bus to Calvert County School in
Prince Frederick is a limiting factor.
Lindsey said the program has a middle school
component where teachers start talking about jobs,
introducing them to vocabulary and work scenarios so
that they are familiarized with the lab when the students
enter high school.
corrin@somdpublishing.net
Maryland Earns Race
to the Top Grant
By Corrin M. Howe
Staff Writer
As other states continued to slash education funding, the
Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) reports that intense
activism on their part led to the General Assembly restoring
a large chunk of the governor’s proposed education budget cuts
during legislators’ last session.
As it stands, the current total of state aid to public schools
is roughly $5.8 million for FY2012, with additional funding for
school construction projects totaling nearly $300 million. About
$47.5 million worth of those projects are funded out of appropriated
funds from the new alcohol tax, with another $15 million
going to the Developmental Disabilities Administration, as originally
intended.
The state will provide $92.7 million in education funding
to St. Mary’s County for FY 2012 and $82.9 million to Calvert
County, according to MSEA. Both figures are less than those for
the current year.
At the county level, education officials’ worry rests on local
government funding, which averages at 46 percent statewide but
has been under intense scrutiny by commissioners as they work
through local budgets.
Gaining a leg up through the federal government, Maryland
was announced as one of nine states to receive a multi-million
dollar grant for the Race To The Top Early Learning Challenge,
reports Maryland State Department of Education. While hard
numbers are unavailable, MSDE stated Maryland was eligible
for $50 million over four years and these funds are targeted at
narrowing the school readiness gap for disabled children, English
language learners and children living in poverty.
According to an MSDE press release, over the past decade,
children in Maryland have improved their school readiness assessments,
upon entering kindergarten, from 49 to 81 percent.
Congressman Steny Hoyer (MD-5) said, “In applying for
this grant, Maryland created a plan to increase access to highquality
programs for children from low-income families, providing
more children from birth to ages 5 with a strong foundation
necessary for success in school and beyond.”
Senators Mikulski and Cardin also issued statements highlighting
the state’s strong support for and accomplishments in
early childhood education.
“As Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Children and
Families, I believe that early childhood education and care has
one of the most profound impacts on a child’s future,” Mikulski
stated. The funds will be channeled into comprehensive education
reform that will improve academic standards and assessments,
support staff and enhance achievements at the lowest
performing schools.
carriemunn@countytimes.net
Until Behavior
Improves, Patuxent
High Lunch Period
Shortened
Patuxent High School administration has suspended student’s
one-hour lunch program indefinitely.
Instead, students will have a half hour lunch period either
at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of their fifth period.
According to the school’s website, in order to have one hour
lunch reinstated, the administration will expect students to be
on time to their classes, improve their behavior in the cafeteria
and have a hall passes when out of class. The administration also
expects public displays of affection to stop.
When contacted for more information, Patuxent High
School principal Nancy Highsmith said she has no comment.