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2007 – 2008 Academic Year
Background
The Commonweal Foundation’s mission is to support educational programs and projects assisting disadvantaged youth. The Foundation focuses on secondary and, to a lesser extent, elementary education. The foundation also considers grants for educational research and , to a limited extent, health care.
In an effort to effectively implement its mission, the foundation has a Grants Division and an operating division called Pathways to Success. Pathways operates three educational initiatives: A boarding school scholarship program for high school students, Partners in Learning and Reading Clubs and Learning Disabilities Support Program.
The Learning Disabilities Support Program is described below.
The Learning Disabilities Support Program
- Need
Public funding is available for learning disability services, but there may be significant constraints in adequately accessing them. There can be time delays in obtaining services, a reduced number of educational service or disagreement on appropriate programming.
In addition, a large number of families lack the resources to obtain private services. These services may be difficult to locate, they are very expensive and scholarships are usually nonexistent.
To assist those children who live in low income homes, demonstrate characteristics of a possible or diagnosed learning disability, and who may not be receiving appropriate evaluative or specialized tutorial services, the Pathways Division of the Commonweal Foundation created and operates the Learning Disabilities Support Program (LDSP)
- Concept
The mission of LDSP is to provide diagnostic evaluation, specialized tutoring and/or speech/language therapy for at-risk youth. In addition, limited support is available to assist families in understanding the impact and advocacy needs of their learning disabled students.
- Services
- Psycho-Educational Diagnostic Evaluations – may be funded if a student is exhibiting signs of a learning disability. The evaluations must be pre-approved and are provided by pre-approved diagnosticians with final reports sent to the Foundation. In some instances, qualified foundation staff will administer educational evaluations.
- Tutorial Service – are prescribed for reading, written language, math remediation or study skills. There is no subject matter or SAT prep tutoring. Tutoring is provided by Learning Disabilities Specialists who are foundation employees. Each student is approved for and receives two to four hours of tutoring per week during the academic year. Approval for summer sessions is determined on a case-by-case basis. Tutoring usually takes place at our Partner Schools or private rooms in public libraries.
- Occasional Support Meetings – for families to assist them in understanding learning disabilities and advocacy strategies will be offered by foundation staff.
- Student Qualifications
Service are available for students who:
- Live in families with documented incomes at or below 200% of the federal Poverty levels[income chart available]
- Live in the Washington area [specifically – the District of Columbia] or one of the following Maryland Counties: Montgomery or Prince George’s or attend a Pathways Partner Boarding School.
- Are in 1st through 12th grades.
- Exhibit signs of learning disability and are in need of a diagnostic evaluation to identify learning deficits, academic potential or appropriate educational programming OR have a current, documented learning disability, reading disability, dyslexia or attention deficit disorder.
- Demonstrate average or above average intelligence, are experiencing educational difficulties and who would benefit from specialized tutoring.
- Are able to regularly attend tutoring sessions at partner sites.
- Staff
- The program is led by a Program Director with administrative and educational expertise in special education and program administration.
- The tutorial staff, who are foundation employees, are comprised of educational professionals with specific training and experience in the remediation of students with learning disabilities.
- Student Application/Acceptance Process
- Prospective clients complete a two-page application and provide financial information [taxes and supporting documents], report cards, plus previous Psycho-Educational testing and Individual Educational Plans [if available].
- The Foundation review committee considers completed applications and financial documents. It then recommends acceptance or rejection plus specific guidelines on the extent that type of services to be provided.
- Requirements to Accept Tutorial Services
- Students must attend regularly
- Transportation must be provided by the families to and from the tutoring site.
- Families must communicate with program staff and provide current school records [report cards, new IEPs] when asked.
- Students must willingly participate in the evaluation or tutoring process.
- Evaluation Component
- Tutors will complete pre and post – academic evaluations for each student using specific standardized evaluation tools [ such as Woodcock Johnson III ]
- School progress will be monitored through grades, attendance and behavior.
- Costs to The Families
If a student is accepted into the tutorial program, a designated number of sessions will be fully funded as long as the family adheres to the requirements previously explained.
- Conclusion
It is the goal of LDSP to provide tutoring and/or evaluations to high risk students in order to enable each of them to reach their potential. Tutorial services will focus on giving structured, sequential remediation that is targeted to the identified needs of each student.
For more information, contact Ken McAuliffe by phone at 240-450-0037 or by email at LDSP@cweal.org.
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