Issue link: https://fredparent.uberflip.com/i/1137514
www.FredericksburgParent.NET 49 Right now, there's a lot of pressure for stu- dents to be at these higher levels of math by a certain level of middle or high school. There's a great fear of "falling behind." A lot of this is based on comparing American students with scores from places like China, but we have to remember — China doesn't educate every child like the U.S. does. So we are comparing all of our students against something like the top 10 percent of Chinese students in math. At The Marshall School, we don't move our students into algebra or higher levels of math until they are ready for it. We also prioritize practical skills like personal finance. I really care about the kids going out and being able to be successful members of society, and not a burden because we spent their whole aca- demic career trying to teach them things they weren't ready to learn. Q: IF MY CHILD HAS AN INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PLAN (IEP) AT HIS OR HER SCHOOL, HOW ARE THE SERVICES YOU PROVIDE DIFFERENT FROM THE ACCOMMODA- TIONS THEY GET UNDER THAT PLAN? Public schools are mandated to get your child to pass the SOL tests. That goal is the driving force behind the services they will provide under an IEP. So they may offer accommo- dations like reading the test to the child, or showing a child the steps on a calculator to get the right answer to a problem. The problem is that these are all focused on specific aca- demic tasks, not the overall mechanics of how your child learns. Our goal at both Learning Enhancement Centers and The Marshall School is to see what the underlying problems are that are causing your child to have trouble with specific academic subjects. We work in a one-on-one setting on brain-training activities that go after those problems. Another way we are different is that in a typi- cal public school, you have to request accom- modations for your child. We automatically build many of these things into our school so that the kids can access the curriculum to be successful, whether that's having voice-to- text to be able to write a paper or listening to music to calm down. Q: HOW IMPORTANT IS ONE-ON-ONE WORK TO A CHILD'S SUCCESS IN OVERCOMING LEARNING DISABILITIES OR OTHER OBSTACLES? Learning is different for every person, right down to the pace that they can work at. We often use a metronome to work on attention or processing speed. Your rate of processing versus someone else's might be very different, so being one-on-one is critical to avoiding frustration. When we say "one-on-one" we literally mean person-to-person. In some tutoring centers, they may tell you they are doing one-on-one work, but it's really individualized packets of worksheets. It's individualized to the stu- dent, but it's all packaged. With "personalized learn- ing" being a buzzword in the educational community, you will see some schools relying on web-based pro- grams like Khan Academy to teach students. That is not what we mean by "one-on-one" learning. We are talking about a trained learning specialist in a room with your child working on brain-training activities to overcome the specific obstacles he or she faces. That kind of work helps the student understand his or her own learning style and helps them to be a better learner in the future. Q: WHEN A STUDENT COMES TO WORK WITH YOU AT THE LEARNING ENHANCEMENT CENTERS, WHAT DOES A TYPICAL PROGRAM LOOK LIKE? We always start with an evaluation to identify where the learning deficits are, and then we will do specific programs to train the brain to better process information and be more efficient. We usually see students twice a week, for an hour each time, one-on-one. It's all about the specific needs of the individual student. We retest every 20 hours and refine our goals based the student's progress. We want to make sure that we are doing exactly what is needed to get the best, most efficient results. Our average student gains about two years of reading competency in about 40 hours with us. Q: WHAT IS THE DIF- FERENCE BETWEEN THE WORK YOU DO AT THE MARSHALL SCHOOL AND THE TUTORING YOU DO AT LEARNING ENHANCEMENT CENTERS? At the school, all of the things we are doing after school hours in the tutoring center are part of our day. That includes the one-on- one tutoring. Students usu- ally do two hours a week of this during their first year, and then it decreases or ends after that depending on the student's progress. The approach is the same in both the tutoring center and the school. Our goal at both Learning Enhancement Centers and The Marshall School is to see what the underlying problems are that are causing your child to have trouble with specific academic subjects. [We have] a trained learn- ing specialist in a room with your child working on brain- training activities to over- come the specific obstacles he or she faces. sponsored material