As the number of applicants with diagnosed learning differences has grown, it has become increasingly tempting for schools to promise support they may not be able to provide. One solution is to build the learning support system that’s necessary to serve students with learning issues. In 2010, we set out to do just that at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School (Tennessee), a coed boarding and day school serving grades 7–12.
Prior to the creation of the Learning Resource Center (LRC), our students with academic challenges relied on paid tutors, an expense passed along to parents in addition to their substantial tuition bill. (Tuition is $43,725 for boarding students in the 2015–16 school year.) Because of the added expense, we could only make the support available to the school’s wealthier families, an especially difficult moral dilemma for a church school that provides financial aid to more than half of its population.
The tutor-based program was also problematic because the support tended to be subject-based, not holistic. While tutors were helpful to the students in the immediate term, they were not as effective in helping to provide feedback to classroom teachers and had little financial incentive to transition students to independence. Unintentionally, the involvement of a tutor sometimes undermined the classroom experience, as students would justify inattentiveness or lack of productivity with an explanation that “It’s OK. I’ll go over it with my tutor later.”
Our policy statement on tutors now describes them as the last resource after a student has worked with teachers and the Learning Resource Center. This is also our acknowledgement that any child whom we accept should be capable of making it through our program with the resources we provide to them.
How We Built Our Support Program
In 2010, we set out to create a program that would centralize learning support and offer study and organizational skills training for all students. The academic support program would provide teachers and parents with the information necessary to address student needs across courses. The services would be available to all students and be supportive, dynamic, and free from stigma.
We determined that the success of the program would depend on several factors:
- the commitment of school administrators;
- a willingness to invest in professional development;
- a greater understanding among faculty of brain science and learning differences; and
- the creation of time in the school schedule for students to be able to seek and find academic support without having to sacrifice participation in afternoon programs and school activities.
First, we created a new schedule for the upper school that provided daily work periods for students, time when they could seek help from a classroom teacher or a learning assistant. We determined the scope of services we could reasonably provide (organizational skills training, study skills training, subject tutoring) and those we could not provide (support for students with significant cognitive impairment or with psychological issues coupled with learning differences).
In Years 1 and 2, we reassigned underused space to create a physical home for academic support and hired a learning resource coordinator. In addition, we introduced organization, time management, and study skills training into our ninth-grade Life Issues course. Students explored their learning styles, strengths, and deficits and acquired the vocabulary to describe their learning needs. The office compiled a study skills guide and exam study schedules that we made available to all students. We also created Individual Student Action Plans, based on psych-ed testing, for children.
In the first two years, 17 percent of our student body made use of the Learning Resource Center. We received positive feedback from teachers and parents and the gratitude of students.
With this success, going into the third year, we lobbied the head of school and administration for improvements to the space and additional personnel to provide middle school student support. A 7 percent drop in our average annual upper school attrition rate (from 19 percent in 1996–2011 to 12 percent in 2012–2014)* helped to prove the value in our endeavors. An expansion of the program was written into the school’s five-year strategic plan by the head of school and adopted by the board of trustees.
We have since added two part-time additional personnel to provide specialized assistance for international students, a peer-tutoring program, and writing help. All ninth-graders now participate in academic career mapping, helping them to more clearly envision the opportunities and possible paths available to them.
The center currently serves 30 percent of the student body. For some students, the Learning Resource Center provides organizational and study skills training. For others, the LRC is an important resource when there has been a disruption to the student’s usual study habits because of an illness or a particularly busy week of athletic or theater commitments. A few students benefit from more intense interaction with the learning resource coordinator through weekly check-ins and weekly or daily monitoring of homework assignments and assessments.
Students understand that the program is fluid, they are not “tracked” to the LRC, and they can avail themselves of the services as needed.
Students Rachel Alvarez (l.) and Cooper Nickels with Learning Resource Center Coordinator Malia Carlos (center). Credit: Sherri Bergman
What Our Experience Has Taught Us
We have learned several lessons as we have established this program:
- It is important that students associate these services with support, not punishment. In our first year, the space used for the Learning Resource Center was the same space used for in-school suspensions. We quickly realized how that stigmatized the space, and we physically separated these functions.
- The use of work periods is critically important in helping students to take responsibility for their learning and to prepare them to transition out of the program. In showing up during work periods (time that can be used at their discretion), students are showing us that they are committed to their own success.
- More closely coordinated academic monitoring has had benefits for our discipline and wellness systems. Missed homework assignments or a sudden academic decline is often the canary in the coal mine for other issues. Because teachers now have a place to turn to report sudden academic changes, the learning resource coordinator, director of academics, and dean of students can be in timely contact with one another to note when there is a need for intervention.
- The LRC helps to keep students from getting overwhelmed with work, which helps to minimize the behavioral and psychological fallout from too much academic stress.
Our learning resources coordinator provides important support for our classroom teachers. She interprets psych-ed testing for teachers who may not be familiar with the language and helps them implement accommodations. She coordinates the peer tutoring program, helping students to find additional help without overburdening the teachers and without causing additional expense to the families. The peer tutors themselves benefit from the sense of mastery and service they enjoy through the program.
Educating our families and teachers on how they can be partners in our efforts goes hand in hand with providing additional services to our students. Throughout the year we make sure that our parents and teachers understand the types of support available and how to refer a student to the LRC for help. We provide frequent communication on student progress. We help our teachers and parents to understand learning differences and how to support Student Action Plans.
“Weekly check-ins about assignments, work period schedules, and action plans have helped my sons to hold themselves accountable,” says parent Kathy Lindlau. “Each week I receive status reports from all their teachers compiled by the LRC coordinator. It is so much better than receiving separate messages from each teacher. And, since the emails are shared with teachers and advisors, they keep everyone informed of my child’s status in class. The LRC has provided referrals for tutors and a quiet place to study or take exams. I have especially appreciated that there was a person at school acting as a liaison and advocate between my sons and the faculty and staff when needed.”
Summing Up: Benefits and Advice
The Learning Resource Center offers a variety of benefits.
- Students learn important study skills.
- Students and families are less reliant on paid tutors.
- Administrators, teachers, and parents are aware of struggling students earlier.
- Intervention is swifter.
- Parents and teachers receive more frequent and coordinated communication.
- Teachers receive additional support and training.
- The school can accept and retain students with a wider set of needs.
A final note if your school is thinking about an academic support program: In coordination with your marketing and admissions team, you must consider what your Learning Resource Center’s ability and capacity would be and how many students with additional needs you can absorb into a mainstream classroom without overburdening teachers or affecting the quality of the classroom experience.
If your school is like most, your admissions office is already accepting some students whose success will be uncertain without support in place. We believe we have a moral obligation not to expect students to sink or swim but to coach them and provide them with life vests until they are ready to set out on their own.
*The average attrition rate for the years 1995–96 to 2010–11 is 19 percent, ranging from a low of 13 percent to a high of 24 percent. Since we began the Learning Resource Center, our attrition rates are as follows, with the lowest being last year:
2011–12: 12 percent
2012–13: 13 percent
2013–14: 11 percent
2012–13: 13 percent
2013–14: 11 percent