2016 At-risk Youth National Forum

2016 At-risk Youth National Forum February 2016 Linda L. Meloy, Ph.D., NCSP, PE

Washington Post’s Style Invitational • Cashtration (n.) the act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period. • Arachnoleptic fit (n.) the frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web. • Beelzebug (n.) Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at 3 a.m. and cannot be cast out.

Subgroups with the highest dropout rates: • Students who identify as • Native American • Hispanic/Latino(a) • and • Students receiving services due to a disability

Critical nature of the Middle School • More than 50% of 6th graders who • Attend school less than 80% of the time; • Receive a low marks in behavior; and • Fail either math or English • WILL LEAVE SCHOOL WHEN THEY LEGALLY CAN!

Putting Middle [School] Students on the Graduation Path (Robert Balfanz, Johns Hopkins) • Providing high engagement activities, such as quality instruction in academics, i.e. reading skills, and through career tech. courses, • along with • “extra help”, such as that which can be provided by special education teachers

Blakemore’s TED Talk 06/2012 – “The Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent Brain” – www.ted.com • Puberty = the time between childhood and and a “stable, independent role in society”, which takes some time to develop – for some well into their 20s – so that the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, the CEO of the brain, is fully developed

Developing pre-frontal lobe of the brain in normal adolescents; they all look a bit ADHD!

Thus, Pat Wolfe states that this kind of immature brain does a lot better with • active, project-based instruction with lots of hands on and role playing and teaching others (such as in the reciprocal teaching reading methodology) and incorporation of visuals

The most likely students in special education to dropout out and thus the ones to INTERVENE with EARLY… • Students identified as LD, learning disabled – conservatively 5-6% - WHY? • Students identified as E/BD – 6-10%, though only 1% are currently served – WHY? • Students identified as ADD/ADHD – 3-7% with the disorder but not all needing SPED – WHY?

AND, what about the 14%ers??? • Fourteen percent of students are in what can be called the “slow learner” range, i.e. below the average range in intellect but above the level that would be called IDD, who are sometimes labeled “chronic underachievers”. • These individuals usually top out at an achievement level in basic skills at the 4th to 5th grade level, after a lot of good quality instruction and a school environment of support and caring. There are employment opportunities for them as adults and they can be productive members of a community. BUT, college-bound academics IS NOT what they need and what will lead them into frustration, low self-esteem, and leaving school.

The Power of the IEP • GOALS Setting/content area Culinary arts …will read independently the ingredients for a recipe and collect same with 90% accuracy… …will read independently the steps for the preparation of a recipe and follow same with 90% accuracy…

Woodworking …read independently the tools needed for a project and collect same with 90% accuracy… …write a description of the wood product to be included in the marketing brochure with 100% spelling accuracy and 100% content accuracy…

CNA class …will read independently a procedural chapter and perform the procedure with 100% accuracy …will complete a nursing note for a demo patient with 100% accuracy…

TRANSITION PLAN Has to be done by age 14.5, but can be started at an earlier age/year, such as in middle school Teacher-directed and not independent Course- and experience-based Can include a work mentor as an involved person with the student Great opportunity to involve the family as well

The Fifteen Strategies – which ones fit the best with the special education population? • MAKING THE MOST OF INSTRUCTION • Reading instruction“until they walk across the stage”, which incorporates active learning and individualized instruction, along with professional development of staff for said delivery and may require systemic change in curriculum and credits • Career Technical Education(CTE), which has to be done with community collaboration • (And if you are counting strategies, don’t forget family engagement from the Transition slide!)

Daggett & Hasselbring What We KnowAbout Adolescent Reading (2007) • 1. Reading is THE key enable of learning for academic proficienty across all subject areas and over all grades. • 2. Reading requirements for the workplace are at a higher level than and different from the requirements for higher education. • 3. Adolescent literacy remains a critical problem and a major contributor to low achievement in high school. • 4. Not every student’s ability to read will develop in the same way, but all of our students need equal access to effective reading instruction. • 5.Prose literacy continues to be an important part of a student’s education, but other forms of literacy also need to be taught. • 6. A persistent gap exists in students’ reading abilities along the racial and poverty divide. • [Four areas of reading – phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary, so interventions need to be targeted to the area(s) that a particular student is deficit in]

Career and technical education (CTE) • High-risk students are eight to ten times less likely to drop out in the 11th and 12th grades if they are enrolled in a CTE program instead of a general high school curriculum, i.e. a college-preparation type program.

The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts (2006) • One significant reason students drop out of school is that they lose interest and motivation in education because the curriculum does not seem to have a real-world application, i.e. low student engagement

Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc. (2006) • Six of 10 at-risk CA 9th and 10th graders indicated they were not motivated to succeed in school; more than 90% of them said they would be more engaged in their education if classes helped them acquire skills and knowledge relevant to future careers.

2016 At-risk Youth National Forum