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Private School Using Educational Therapy Wants to Open Public One

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 September 2005, 06:00 CDT

By Lindsay Kastner

At Park Place School, Morse code is transmitting students such as Rovonte George to the head of the class.

When instructor Kenneth Dahm uses a hand-held buzzer to make long and short sounds, 11-year-old Rovonte and his classmates point to different alphabet letters until they've spelled a complete word.

Rovonte said it has helped him become a better reader.

Park Place students also practice "rhythmic writing" - tracing a shape repeatedly in different directions while simultaneously calling out the answers to math problems.

"It makes the two halves of the brain talk to each other," one student explains.

It's all part of the educational therapy that folks at Park Place say creates learners out of students who were once all chutes and no ladders.

The private Judeo-Christian academy plans to submit a charter application to open a similar school in Richmond. If approved, Leading Edge Academy would be Richmond's first charter school.

Organizers have received a $150,000 federal grant to help establish a charter school in Richmond. The city School Board must approve applications before a charter school may open.

Charter schools, which must be secular, are eligible for public funds.

They are independently run public schools that operate under a charter with the local school board.

The schools typically have their own boards. Though they must meet certain state standards, they have leeway in establishing policy and curriculum.

Leading Edge would be modeled after Park Place, which enrolls students who have been retained for one or more grades and may have also failed their third grade Standards of Learning tests. It aims to help children who are falling behind but aren't eligible for special-education services.

Students attend Park Place for grades three through five. The goal is to have them leave Park Place ready for middle school and working at grade level.

Officials say the school's success hinges on educational therapy developed by the National Institute for Learning Disabilities, also in Norfolk. The therapy includes rhythmic writing, lessons with the buzzer and other techniques to improve short-term memory, posture and penmanship.

"This just helps us fix things that aren't quite working right," said Dahm, who likens educational therapy to physical therapy.

"Therapy is a lot like working out in a gym. You'll never see a football player doing push-ups or lifting weights out in the middle of the football field," Dahm said. "What they do in the therapy room helps them ... in the classroom."

NILD-certified therapists work one-on-one with children in schools around the world, but those at Park Place say the school is the first to use a group approach to the therapy sessions. At the school, four students and one therapist work together for two 80- minute sessions each week.

Other classes at the school, which enrolls 28 students, are also kept small. In a language-arts class, students worked on writing prompts. Science and social-studies lessons are conducted mostly on computers.

Last Tuesday, some Richmond School Board members, a City Council member and the president of the Richmond Education Association visited Park Place.

Wade Ellegood, REA president, said he was impressed with the school and would like to see a Leading Edge charter established in Richmond, but he added that he doesn't want to see public money diverted from traditional public schools.

"Richmond needs every penny it gets," he said.

School Board Chairman Stephen B. Johnson said he thought the educational therapy at Park Place was "amazing."

"It's almost a given that it's going to come here," he said.

The charter school could open as early as next fall. It could be located at Patrick Henry Elementary School, which will close as a city elementary school after this school year.

Richmond Waldorf School representatives also visited Park Place on Tuesday. They are interested in sharing a building with the proposed Leading Edge Academy. Richmond Waldorf is a private school, now housed in Westover Baptist Church. It would remain private.

Rovonte George, the 11-year-old student, says Park Place School has worked wonders for him.

Before Park Place, he attended Norfolk's Norview Elementary.

"It was difficult in spots," he said.

But "Park Place helped me a lot. I can read better," he added.

He doesn't even mind the uniforms.

"I like wearing a uniform because you can represent," Rovonte said. "You can let people know that Park Place School teaches you a lot."

On the Web

Sounds: To hear audio of the Richmond School Board's impression of the charter school, visit TimesDispatch.com

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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