Support isn't an add-on. It's the structure.

Structures for Meeting Student Needs

Our school mission focuses on creating an inclusive environment where all students feel valued and like an active participant in their learning. To do this there are structures in place to support student needs across the board. First off our school prides itself in providing top tier in-house special education services, for example we follow a co-teaching model where every classroom has a general education teacher as well as a special education teacher. This way our students who receive special education services can be integrated into classrooms while still being in the least restrictive environment. We also have in-house occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech therapists that work directly for the school. These service providers push into classrooms as well as pull out depending on the needs of the student. Also, all students (not just special education students) will have access to resource rooms where they can receive support from their teachers. Along with this our school strives to have as many bilingual staff in the school to support ELL students as well as individual ELL teachers to support these students in their classes.

Our school also prides itself in working very closely with the community and community resources to provide support to students and their families who may be struggling with poverty, homelessness, food scarcity, or domestic issues. We have social workers in the building who stay in contact with community resources and regularly check in with students and families to make sure that they are receiving all the resources and support we are able to provide. For example we have close relations with the regional food bank and food pantries for the capital region so we can help families access food when they need it. We also have a community garden on our school campus that the students are responsible for tending to as a team, where they grow fruits and vegetables in abundance. Students are able to take some of these foods home for their families. Additionally we are in the works of converting some of the old student-housing buildings on the campus into affordable housing for students and families experiencing homelessness. Finally, we also work very closely with local colleges such as UAlbany, Siena, and Hudson Valley Community College to provide students with opportunities to prepare them for college. This can be through college courses offered in the school, career fairs or informational meetings.

How We Support Inclusion

As mentioned our school places heavy emphasis on the importance of providing accessible and effective special education services, this is accomplished by having special education teachers co-teaching alongside general education teachers for every class. This way our students who receive special education services can be integrated with their peers while still receiving the services they need in the least restrictive environment. This will also include having service providers push-in whenever possible. It will be the norm for our students to have two teachers in their classrooms and they will be explicitly taught what special education is and what their SPED teachers do, and why it is important to have them both present in the classroom. This way we remove the stigma from special education and integrate students who receive services into the general education classroom as much as possible while still providing them with their necessary services. Additionally we have open resource rooms for all students who are interested in using them, not just for students receiving special education services. Finally, the school will have two 15:1:1 and two 12:1:4 Life Skills classrooms for ages 14-21 years-old, with a focus on developing vocational/life skills with access to the PAES system; these students will be eligible for the New York State Alternate Assessment (NYSAA) and will fulfill requirements to earn a Skills Achievement Commencement Credential (SACC). This model is based on an existing structure at Albany High School.

Ensuring Accessibility

As previously stated, it is a priority of our school that all students, no matter their abilities receive the best quality of services and education that we can provide. For us this means ensuring that the school is physically accessible for students (and staff) with physical disabilities, which includes ramps, elevators, and chair lifts wherever is necessary. Along with this to ensure that our school is accessible to all students and serving them as effectively as we can, we will have a team of social workers who will have regular check-ins with all students and keep close contact with families as much as possible. By having these regular check-ins social workers can ensure that students are receiving all the necessary services they need as well as provide resources to students and their families to ensure their success. Social workers will also be responsible for supporting students who are young parents in making accommodations and modifications for them to succeed in school as well as connecting them with resources to support them outside of school.

Student Participation in the School Community

As a student-centered school, in order to actively combat oppression and work towards social justice in our school community, our students need to be active participants who understand what our school vision is and how we work towards that vision every day. To ensure that our students are active participants in the school community there will be formal student groups where the student members will be responsible for connecting with their peers and getting feedback from them about how the resources in the school are helping them and how they can be better. Along with school personnel these students will work together to improve the systems within the school to ensure that all students feel like valued members of the community whose needs are being met. This system ensures that students and administration have a direct line of communication and are able to work together to solve the problems the community faces. This will foster student agency and independence by teaching them effective communication and problem solving skills. It will also create an environment where students feel valued and like their voices are actively being heard by the school personnel.

Teacher Collaboration

Teachers within our school will work together through interdisciplinary teams, co-teaching partnerships, and planning time within the school day to ensure that all students experience high-quality and rigorous learning within the school. Rather than focusing on pacing guides for curriculum, teachers will use Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to examine student work, analyze formative assessment data, and identify students' areas of support to determine teaching strategies and therefore better accommodate students' individual strengths and needs. Research has shown that PLCs can help improve both the teachers and the students when they are engaged in sustained inquiry, collective problem-solving, and shared responsibility for student success (Vescio et al., 2008).

Another way that the teachers and staff at our school will collaborate will be through cross-role collaboration between general education teachers, special education teachers, English Language specialists, counselors, and service providers, so that supports are thoroughly integrated across disciplines. This model aligns with our mission and vision statements in that collaboration among teachers will ensure that the learning experience for students is joyful, meaningful, and responsive to each student's individual strengths, needs, and goals. By creating a structure within the school that allows teachers to collaborate and design flexible instruction with one another, students will be able to learn in a manner that allows them to be active learners rather than passive recipients of knowledge (Monte-Sano et al., 2014).

Furthermore, the collaboration between teachers will allow for each teacher to create individual lesson plans or units that honor student voice, foster critical thinking, and ensure that students, regardless of their exceptionalities, have equitable access to meaningful educational opportunities. Through this collaborative structure, teachers can ensure that the classroom reflects the values of the school community, that is inclusive of all students, and is student-centered to support each student in purposeful learning to prepare them to contribute meaningfully to an ever-evolving world.

Culturally Sustaining, Asset-Based Learning

To engage with students' cultural funds of knowledge, our schools will recognize and value the knowledge that students bring with them as assets rather than deficits. The cultural finds of knowledge students bring may include language practices, family histories, lived experiences, and community knowledge. This framework is based on research into funds of knowledge that demonstrated the importance of using the knowledge students have from their homes and communities to make content within the classroom more relevant and affirming (Moll et al., 1992). The curriculum will be built around the students' cultural identities, interests, and experiences through project-based learning, and will allow the students to have a voice in the topics to be learned in the classroom.

We will use culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogies that connect to the students' cultures, experiences, and knowledge while also sustaining their own cultural languages, literacies, and practices within the classroom (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris, 2012). This also means valuing multilingualism, which involves translanguaging practices, and incorporating texts and perspectives that affirm student identities and create opportunities for students to critically think about language, power, and equity (Hamman-Ortiz et al., 2024; Paris & Alim, 2017). Additionally, teachers should not view the students as individuals who need to be "fixed." Rather, the teachers should value prior knowledge, resilience, and cultural ways of meaning-making that students already employ to learn as a foundation for their education.

References

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Monte-Sano, C., De La Paz, S., & Felton, M. (2014). Reading, thinking, and writing about history: Teaching argument writing to diverse learners in the Common Core classroom. Teachers College Press.

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Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93-97.

Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press.

Test, D. W., Mazzotti, V. L., Mustian, A. L., Fowler, C. H., Kortering, L., & Kohler, P. (2009). Evidence-based secondary transition predictors for improving postschool outcomes for students with disabilities. Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, 32(3), 160-181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885728809346960

Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 80-91.