District Profile: Spring Branch ISD, Houston, TX
Julie White is the Special Education facilitator for Spring Branch ISD in the greater Houston area. With a background as a reading teacher and elementary school teacher, White’s focus is especially on supporting language arts for special education students. Her students represent a diverse range of special education learners across all 25 elementary, seven middle, and four high schools. White’s role is equally broad and diverse, including, in-class support and ongoing resource in language arts and setting reading goals. Also, she trains teachers in writing individual education plans (IEPs) and helps schedule special education students in the resource intervention programs. Supporting teachers that run the resource rooms, White meets regularly with teachers. She strategizes how to ensure that MindPlay is implemented with fidelity every nine weeks.
Student Population Breakdown:
• 35,000 students
• 54.4% at-risk
• diverse, with a large percentage of English language learners
• socio-economic: wide range, from high to low
MindPlay Central to Language Arts Support
MindPlay has become a central feature in the district’s language arts literacy intervention program. Spring Branch, had previously used MindPlay only at the middle school and high school levels. Last year, they decided to expand MindPlay use to elementary schools. White said, “We had been using a different reading program, but it didn’t show the student growth we needed.”
At Spring Branch, MindPlay is used in the resource setting at the elementary level and in basic language arts/reading courses at the secondary level. White sends out usage data every two weeks to see where students measure with their reading goals. Every nine weeks, she also sits down with teachers to talk about MindPlay data and student growth.
MindPlay’s Positive Impact
Last year’s results were impressive. After implementing MindPlay with fourth and fifth graders last year in low-performing schools, Spring Branch saw increased growth in reading skills. Using MindPlay’s Universal Screener to establish benchmark skill levels in the fall, student growth was measured again in late spring. In one elementary school, 80% of special education students grew one full grade level in reading. The school with the lowest growth of the four elementary schools still saw 41% of students growing a full grade level in reading. At a lower-performing high school, 40% of students accomplished a half or full year’s growth in reading.
“We especially saw growth in students with autism,” says White, “and kids who began the program reading at a kindergarten level.”
Encouraging & Empowering Students
As a result of last year’s dramatic growth, Spring Branch expanded their reach this year into seven of their lowest-performing elementary schools’ special education programs this year. They are also using MindPlay with ninth and tenth graders in the district’s four high schools’ special education and literacy intervention programs.
White also observes that success breeds more success. “The best motivation for students to continue working on their reading skills with MindPlay is the growth they’re seeing. Once students see that they’ve made a year’s growth, that’s a major incentive.”
Spring Branch has a clear goal for its special education student population. They want to get all students back into general education classrooms with their grade-level peers. And, according to White, the key to literacy intervention and reading goals is making sure that everybody thinks about every child first.
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