|
We feel so thankful that we found Chartwell, thanks to Judy Lewis, our neighbor at the time, when we did. Tommy is able to advocate for himself, is very independent, and faces challenges with confidence. I am not saying it has been all smooth sailing but without the knowledge we all found at Chartwell, life today would be very different. |
-Joyce George, Alumni Parent |
 |
|
News & Press
July 30, 2006 --- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Coastal Grower Treasure: Chartwell School
Treasure: Chartwell School by Lorri Koster
(for article as it appeared in Coastal Grower magazine, click here)
Two decades ago, the federal government commissioned a major study of literacy and education in America. The resulting report, A Nation at Risk, painted a sobering picture. A record number of high school seniors were functionally illiterate and educators were severely challenged in addressing this issue. At Chartwell it’s mission: possible Unlike the acquisition of language, the ability to read is not innate. It must be learned. For at least one in every seven people, reading is made especially challenging by the fact that their brains process visual and auditory information in a different way than their peers.
Learning differences, including dyslexia, are unrelated to intelligence or gender. They appear to have a genetic component, and they do not disappear over time. With proper understanding and specialized education, learning differences do not limit potential or success.
For more than 20 years, the mission of Chartwell School has been to educate children with a wide range of language related visual and auditory learning challenges in a way that provides them with the learning skills and self-esteem necessary to return successfully to mainstream education. One of the most damaging consequences of learning difficulties is the loss of a child’s self-esteem. Even though Chartwell is justly recognized as a leader in teaching the vital skill of reading, the institution is just as focused on the whole of each individual child: mind and body, character and emotions, heart and soul. Douglas Atkins, Ed., M., executive director at Chartwell, comments, “We believe in them and consequently, they start believing, in themselves.” Instruction is individualized so they teach in the way each child learns best. Founded in educational and neuroscience research, the Chartwell process begins with understanding the sounds of language and progresses to spelling, decoding words, building vocabulary, reading fluently, comprehending the material, integrating knowledge and communicating in writing. Michel Camara, a Chartwell alumna, comments, “I still remember that rush of hope when I realized I wasn’t stupid. This special school was a place where I could be myself and learn. Chartwell’s philosophy of kindness, loyalty, self-expression and humor has been an important value in my life.”
A conversation with DouglasAtkins, Ed., M.,
Executive Director of ChartwellSchool
Where does your student population come from?
Our students come from as far as a 90 minute, one-way trip. We get students from Santa Cruz, north into Bonny Doon, San Benito County up through Gilroy and Morgan Hill. Hollister, Salinas and down as far south as King City and Big Sur.
That’s quite a commitment.
Families that have this touch their lives move heaven and earth to find solutions. A community is fortunate to have a school like this. Families mortgage their homes. Single income households become two.
Where does the root of these learning disabilities come from?
It tends to run in families. There is a hereditary connection. If one parent has dyslexia then any given child would have something like a 65 percent of having it. It is one in seven, in the general population, across all cultures, all countries, all races. So that’s somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of the population. Most folks familiar with the issue say 10 percent is conservative.
Why is that?
Some would say “Well, ten percent would have this but only one-third of them would ‘need’ a program like this”. Well what does “need” mean? Survive? Is that the standard? We think not. We think those for whom this would make a substantial change in the quality of their educational experience, the difference of going to college or not, which has a great deal to say about options going forward and income levels derived over a lifetime, personal satisfaction, contributions back to society. Once you start extrapolating those the numbers go beyond nominal. For 30 or 40 percent of all of school age children, acquiring literacy skills, especially reading, will be the single most difficult thing they will undertake. That’s huge. That’s bigger than dyslexia. Reading disorders do not allow them to engage the educational experience. What is being understood increasingly is this type of approach, the diagnostic instruction, a child-centered look at what the educational needs are and what the potential is could turn around that whole chunk of those who are struggling. And that’s a large minority of the general population.
What can the public schools do differently?
We understand that given those kinds of numbers, economically that’s devastating for any department of education to undertake. Models like ours understand that their mission really extends beyond the population that is able to physically enroll. The type of expertise the teachers acquire in these types of programs such as ongoing professional development, a will to follow the research, constantly having to think about what you are doing. We call this a “Culture of Inquiry” that we try to develop among the faculty and we find it is a growing level of interest in both public and private sector schools. Instead of throwing out the student that presents a problem we throw out our learning theory and build a better one. There are always at least six people that can be brought around a table to analyze the research and the situation and see how we can better it. It’s what our senses tell us to do but we are always ready for new encounters. Kids have avoidance mechanisms. We ask ourselves what we have to knock down in order to get in there. Some times it can take months. Our first effort is to deconstruct what they’ve learned or what they think they’ve learned on how to avoid what’s hard for them or how to deflect away from it by being the class clown or the bad kid because they’d rather be bad than dumb. How they’ve gotten their parent to run interference for them or secretly doing their homework for them. We see all types of stuff. Sometimes it’s not apparent up front so we spend a lot of time building trust. They have had to leave their school and friends. The families are going through an emotional time so we work with the entire family unit. That’s what it takes to be successful. The family needs to be educated on how to handle this learner.
How do you work with the family unit?
We do a lot of parent workshops. It’s something that helps siblings understand what their brother or sister is going through. The students here are somehow not fitting in and their parents are at odds. A huge percentage of these parents are getting divorced because of the stress factor in a family. It’s one of the hidden land mines.
What are some other traps?
Medication. It gets at the behavior dimension but it’s not impacting the learning. The problem is still there but it’s been masked. The teacher and the parents get worn down and sometimes go that route. We are generally interested in getting our students down to a medication-free state so we can get a baseline. If it turns out down the road they need it then we allow it but we find only about one-third do. Medication is being overprescribed three to five times. A pediatrician is not required to screen for learning problems in order to prescribe the medication.
How do you promote emotional well-being?
We have a class where we teach them about themselves. A Class called SELF (Social, Emotional and Leadership Fundamentals). We teach them about learning styles, how to be an effective advocate for themselves, how to communicate when they transition out of here. As a result there are a lot of life lessons in there. They’ll likely always be bad spellers. They know they will have to work twice as hard at some things but they know how to cope with that. They focus on their strengths and go with that. A lot of self-made millionaires are dyslexic. I think it’s that quality of having problem-solving skills that stand them outside the conventions. The agriculture world also has a high percentage. It’s success by doing. They thrive on concrete feedback and working with populations that aren’t always highly educated. They understand people skills and are intuitive. They lead by example and stick to the problem. They just don’t sit back and complain about the weather. They have to figure out what to do about it and make something happen. They don’t always end up in big corporate America. These types of learners tend to challenge the status quo.
How do students find you?
Usually a referral from their traditional school, also youth-serving agencies such as the Boys and Girls Clubs or foster families. Sometimes the students are more open or the question begins there instead of the classroom. They let their guard down a bit. We try to get out there and demystify and get rid of the fear factor of “oh, they can’t read, let’s put them off somewhere or pass them on to the next grade.” It’s a very notorious way of how our society historically dealt with these challenges.
Do you provide professional development?
We provide an outreach program that is only limited by our capacity to be out there. All we need is an invitation.
So is early detection key?
The smart money to invest in programs going forward is early intervention—hands down. It was almost set up in the school code that you could not evaluate students for this type of difficulty until they have failed a certain number of years. So you are getting kids in third grade where risk factors were screaming from kindergarten but it’s “Oh, they’ll grow out of it” or “they just need to mature” or “this teacher is better at teaching that.” Meanwhile their selfesteem has really diminished. Between third and fourth grade reading shifts from learning to read to reading to learn. So you are almost putting a child that has demonstrated they have trouble learning to read in a position of not being able to learn other things. That is a cruel irony for those with a fragile self-concept because they’ve been struggling already. To be put into higher expectations with weaker skills. We just don’t get it. Now there are ways with preschool, kindergarten, first grade kids to be able to administer non-invasive evaluations. Just sitting down and doing some puzzles, stuff like that.
Where does the diagnosis come from? Where can parents turn to?
We don’t do diagnosis here. We can do screening to help someone determine if they should be doing a full evaluation. Every school district has someone on staff that can. A parent can petition, for free, to have an evaluation completed. It’s not a resource parents are always aware of, of, but it’s there. Parents need to be curious and aggressive and find out these are options are available. The federal law mandates that once a child is identified as meeting the credibility for special services, the district is obliged to provide those services or fund them if they need to outsource. It’s well-known but in small circles. The best approach to not test that is to not identify it.
So how do you decide which kids you accept?
There are school psychologists who operate independently, just like you would go see a pediatrician. They can assess outside of any affiliation, this is what the data tells us about your needs and where to go. We tell families to maintain a long-term relationship with that person. It provides consistent measurement and feedback. We have 101 students enrolled now and we are maxed out. There are probably 8,000 kids in Monterey County that could use our programs. Even if you took one-third of that you’re looking at more than 2,000 kids and that’s only one county—we are working in three. We could never get big enough to directly impact those kinds of numbers. So our role has to be one of learning laboratory. Our tuition is going to be $24,000 this Fall and that still doesn’t allow us to get to all the research and information that is out there. Some programs in the country run $35,000 to $40,000 per year.
Tell me about the new campus.
Phase I will be complete by next year and we’re targeting an enrollment of 125. Phase II with a third building would get us up to 160. It’s a “green” campus where we use design principles that enhance learning and are healthy for children. The building practices respect and conserve energy, water, and other natural resources. The need for this type of education continues to grow and we will be able to educate more students and be a stronger resource for children and families throughout the region with the expanded campus.
Back to News & Press
|
Return to Top
|
