OVERVIEW, GOALS, PHILOSOPHY

Colebrook High School, a CASE Collaborative program, is located in the Administration Building of the Acton and Acton/Boxborough Public Schools.  Colebrook provides a highly structured academic and therapeutic milieu for students with average to above average ability who have difficulty benefiting from the typical general education environment.

The Colebrook High School program serves adolescents who have experienced difficulties and/or failures in general education settings. The intent of the program is to serve as a catalyst in breaking a negative cycle for these students. It also functions as a stepping-stone for students returning to school from a hospitalization or residential placement, before their return to their district high school or other post-graduate educational program. The program provides academic programming and remediation, therapeutic intervention, vocational programming, and inclusion opportunities in general education settings when students are ready to access aspects of the general education program.

Four basic programming components comprise the infrastructure of the high school:

Academics
Challenging academics are the top program priority. A core belief is that, as a school, the primary way to positively impact a student’s self-esteem is through the experience of academic success. Appropriate accommodations and specialized instruction are utilized to address disabilities, learning styles, and emotional issues that may interfere with student learning. Academic credits earned are directly transferred to a sending district transcript. Students receive a diploma from their sending district.

A Therapeutic Milieu with Student and Family Therapeutic Services
A therapeutic milieu evolves from the implementation and infusion of all program components within the context of a set of collectively adopted school-based values. Colebrook staff offers immediate feedback and provides necessary interventions in the milieu.  Students also receive 1:1 therapy, a variety of therapy groups, and parent support services, including family therapy.

Community Building
It is important for students to feel a sense of community and school spirit at Colebrook, while remaining connected to the home school community.  Students are encouraged and empowered to take the responsibility to create the type of school they desire based on commonly accepted school-based values.

A Level System and Behavior Management System
The Level System provides a self-monitoring system for students to track their own progress in all skill sets leading to overall success in one's school performance. The Level system also provides for students who may be functioning at varying school performance levels, recognizing and rewarding those functioning at a high level and providing additional supports for those who may be struggling.
 

These program components provide the operating structure within the therapeutic context of a "Relationship Model of Intervention." The goal is to use relationships with students to guide them through an exploration of their attitudes, values, and behaviors, and to encourage and reinforce developmentally appropriate academic, emotional and social growth. Through this process students are consistently recognized and supported for their progress, while at the same time held accountable for their behaviors by taking responsibility for their choices and any resulting consequences.

There is immeasurable value of working as a team with families. It is understood that many families may experience considerable stress and isolation. Thus, Colebrook staff is committed to finding opportunities to support parents and encourage them to be active participants in the school community.

Students are given opportunities to take on leadership roles. There is a culture in which students can become role models for each other. Students need to feel safe and comfortable to explore and develop their strengths and skills, re-channeling them in more productive, constructive and self-affirming ways.

Students gain peer status by working within the program systems, their progress being recognized through weekly awards, increased privileges and responsibilities, participation in work-study opportunities, and inclusion in the general education program.

POPULATION SERVED
 

Students served in the Colebrook High School Program may have one or more of the following characteristics:

• Low self-esteem
• Poor relationships with peers and/or adults
• Immature and/or maladaptive social skills
• Difficulty reading social cues
• Difficulty with authority figures;
• Maladaptive coping mechanisms for anxiety, frustration, or stressors 
• Dependence on adults and/or external controls to manage behavior
• Poor impulse control
• Low frustration tolerance
• Difficulty modulating moods
• Difficulty with transitions
• Lack of flexibility
• Oppositional behavior
• Poor decision-making skills
• Poor judgement

Students must demonstrate a level of self-control that ensures they will not endanger themselves or others. The facility, the program design, and the staffing are not adequate to manage a student who is in need of physical restraint. Maintaining an environment in which students feel safe is an important aspect of the program. If a student needs adults to impose physical constraints to provide that safety, s/he is in need of a more restrictive setting.

Intelligence and Children’s Capacity to Learn

A student’s learning is primarily determined by their effort and use of effective strategies. “Intelligence is not a fixed inborn limit on learning capacity. All children can do rigorous academic material at high standards.” (Howard, 1993)

Teaching and Learning

Learning is constructed as learners assimilate new experiences with prior knowledge. Learners must be active, applying knowledge and reflecting on its meaning orally and/or in writing. Learning occurs based on the degree to which learners' needs are met. Therefore, at Colebrook, a psychological and cognitive milieu is created that is characterized by community, mutual support, risk-taking, and higher level thinking for all. Teachers are not only teachers of their disciplines, but most importantly, teachers of students.

Teachers and Teaching

A teacher's learning is never complete. Teachers must constantly expand their repertoire, stretch their comfort zones, and develop their abilities to match students' styles and needs. The professional capacity of a teacher requires systematic and continual study of diverse knowledge bases, including content, pedagogy, content-specific pedagogy, child development and differential learning needs.

Schools and Schooling

The total environment of a school has a powerful effect on students’ learning. Each teacher must see him/her self as a shaper of the school as a learning environment. Teachers play a role beyond the classroom and are responsible for the “system“ of the school. Collegiality and interdependence are built into the fabric of their working relationships. This interdependence requires that each teacher function as a leader and all teachers function as team players.

Students must feel safe. They must feel that they belong and are seen as important agents of change in the school culture. Students will not succeed if they feel "invisible". (Adapted from the work of Saphier and Gower, 1997).

Students' Special Needs

Colebrook staff is acutely aware that learning is a social and emotional activity and is mindful of this while working on the cognitive strategies and skills required to meet students' learning needs. An important goal for every student is to develop awareness of his/her own learning strengths, preferences and weaknesses.

Students' self-awareness is nurtured in a variety of ways:

• Students complete learning style inventories;
• Students participate in interactive learning style and learning disability seminars taught by Colebrook teachers;
• Teachers create a comfortable, non-threatening climate/culture for learning;
• Teachers engage students personally so as to make learning meaningful, through journals, discussions, reflection, etc;
• Teachers match teaching methodologies with students’ learning styles and work toward helping students use strategies effectively.

Each student at Colebrook High School has an IEP that is developed by the special education Team from the student's home school district and also includes the Colebrook Program Administrator and staff. The IEP specifies the accommodations and modifications that are necessary for the student to make effective progress. For example, accommodations or modifications might include extension of time for tests/quizzes, alternative forms or methods of assessment, or specialized methodologies for delivery of instruction. Colebrook staff implement the program according to each student's IEP.

Students receive more individualized academic instruction and support than is possible in a general high school setting. At Colebrook, students receive intensive, individualized academic instruction and support. Class sizes range between 5-12 students. Each student also is assigned an Academic Advisor whose role is to oversee and monitor a student's educational program and progress. The Academic Advisor's responsibilities include:

1. Participating in the IEP development;
2. Writing quarterly progress reports, monitoring and updating transcripts, monitoring Level Status, and behavioral, academic and attendance statistics;
3. Monitoring and planning academic programming to ensure diploma coursework and credit requirements are being met; and
4. Communicating frequently with parents about academic issues and progress.
    

Academic Regroup

Many Colebrook students experience executive functioning difficulties. These difficulties manifest in the classroom in the students' difficulties in planning, organization, attention, and transitioning. Without appropriate support and structure, students may experience stress and anxiety as they attempt to compensate for these difficulties. Some students present as confused and anxious between classes given all the transition and preparation tasks for upcoming classes.

Academic Regroup is a structured and supportive initiative working toward students increasingly becoming more independent in executive functioning skills. Every two academic periods all students gather in the community room with a staff facilitator. The staff person checks in with students asking what their next two classes are, what materials they need, if they have a writing utensil (if not, one may be purchased), if they have their homework, etc. The goal of such intervention is to help students ritualize and internalize school preparation skills.

Following Academic Regroup, should a student arrive to class unprepared in any way, s/he will receive an Academic Regroup In-house Disciplinary Period. Students are then released 5-10 minutes before the end of the period to check in with the teacher about what was missed, get homework, and if needed, to schedule a meeting with a teacher during a study period to make up any work missed.

 

THERAPEUTIC COMPONENT

The therapeutic component provides clinical treatment and support to students. The staff understands that parents can experience significant stress and isolation in attempting to meet the needs and address the behaviors of their child. The family support services offered at Colebrook have evolved out of an awareness of the immeasurable value of working as a team with parents and families of students.

Student Services

Individual Therapy - Weekly individual therapy sessions provide an opportunity to work on students' individual social, behavioral, and emotional goals. Therapy helps students realize their full potential by addressing issues that undermine their success, deepening their self-awareness, supporting their strengths, and validating them.

Group therapy – Weekly group therapy is designed to give students a place to learn to be supportive to one another and to nurture the development of a positive peer culture. Group offerings include, but are not limited to:

• Anger Management
• Art therapy
• Dialectic behavioral therapy (DBT)
• Student directed/therapist facilitated discussion
• Self-esteem
• Substance use and abuse
• "Change Your Brain" - Teens and neuroscience
• Understanding bi-polar disorder
• Understanding ADD/ADHD
• Teen topics
• Dyad Therapy – When it is clinically indicated, students may receive therapy in pairs.

Case Management– The Colebrook therapist communicates and collaborates with other support systems on an ongoing basis,(i.e. DSS, DYS, etc.).

Crisis Intervention– Additional support is provided to students and families during particularly stressful times.

Therapists also attend student Team Meetings, progress meetings, reinstatement meetings (required following an out of school suspension), transition meetings, and meetings involving outside collateral agencies (i.e. DCF, DYS, etc.)
 

Family Support Services

The Colebrook High School Fathers and Mothers Meetings offer parents an opportunity to exchange ideas and give one another support. These meetings address issues such as managing behaviors at home, homework, planning for the future, etc.

Family therapy can be an important part of an integrated treatment approach to address the needs of families and students. The level of services is assessed on a case-by-case basis. In all cases, therapists maintain regular contact with parents.

Phone and Email Contact – Parents and clinical staff maintain regular phone and/or email contact. These contacts provide additional support and facilitate home/school collaboration.

Parent meetings provide support for parents in dealing with child-focused issues and other stressors that may impact their parenting.
Home visits may be arranged for families when appropriate.
 

BEHAVIOR INTERVENTION

The Colebrook High School Program is an academic and therapeutic milieu. By definition, milieu therapy utilizes every class and unstructured period, every conversation, every field trip, and every interaction as an opportunity to address behavior that both negatively and positively impact a student's progress, and provides for corrective learning experiences.

Designed to modify behavior, all students are on a school performance level system in which behavior and academic progress are monitored. They earn points for preparation, work performance, and behavioral expectations. There are a variety of rewards recognizing the work and progress students make on a daily and weekly basis. During the Weekly Community Meeting, one student is recognized as “Student of the Week” based on the nomination and selection by staff. Students are recognized for a variety of accomplishments, often honoring their efforts to make progress academically, demonstrate good decision making strategies, resolve a difficult social conflict, make gains pertinent to a personal issue, etc. Students receive a certificate and their photos are displayed on the “Student of the Week” Board.

REFERRAL PROCESS

The referral process is initiated by the Special Education Department of the child’s school district. For further information, contact Maureen Keegan at 978-264-3367.

COLEBROOK STAFF 2010-2011