Self Study Report on Student Support Program
Learning Support Program Overview Levine Academy's Learning Support Specialists are available to provide recommendations and interventions for students with learning differences. They assist students in fulfilling their academic success of the School's curriculum. The sole purpose of Levine's Learning Support team is to ensure that each individual student’s learning needs are addressed to help meet the unique and vigorous challenges of the Levine curriculum with success and a sense of competence. Academic assistance is available to any student portraying academic difficulty at Levine, with a particular focus on identifying and serving students with learning differences. In some instances, the Learning Specialist will need to investigate a student’s academic challenges through a more detailed process. The learning specialists will conduct student observations, retrieve teacher information, possibly administer academic screeners, and receive parent input. If the results indicate a need for additional intervention, the Learning Specialist will provide recommendations for outside services, which may include a psychoeducational evaluation, and/or an evaluation from a speech language pathologist, occupational therapist, or physical therapist. Students with diagnosed learning differences may qualify for accommodations in their academic program. The learning specialist will refer to the evaluation report to create an accommodation plan for the teachers to utilize for that particular student. In addition, learning specialists may work with students both in and out of the classroom. The learning specialists will partner with the classroom teachers to provide support and interventions to the students. Recent Expansion of Levine’s Learning Support Services Levine has provided reading intervention by one of its reading specialists since 2013 for students in Kindergarten through Third grade. In 2014, the school added a middle school learning support specialist to solely work on modifying the curriculum and providing intervention to students who needed scaffolding which could not be instructed in the classroom. A few years later, in 2016, Levine hired another lower school learning support specialist to aid in math and also added a Dean of Learning Support to the administrative team. The Dean of Learning Support developed an accommodation plan template for the school and a Student Support Team referral process, which was introduced and explained to the entire faculty. The learning support team also introduced weekly grade level meetings referred to as Kid Talks for the sole purpose of talking about students who display difficulties either academically or emotionally. The general studies teachers, Judaic studies teachers, counselors, and learning support specialists are all present at these meetings to discuss strategies to help those students. If an accommodation plan is needed for a student, the learning support specialist will create a specific plan for that child and share it with parents and all the students’ teachers. These accommodation plans are reviewed yearly.
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