The SOAR Program

Students Overcoming Academic Restrictions

Faith Christian School

Mission

In order to produce authentic Christian leaders who are successful, autonomous learners, the SOAR program exists to support students with learning differences, in conjunction with the regular classroom environment, by taking them from where they are in their Christian and educational experiences and moving them in the direction of reaching their God given potential.

“Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” Ephesians 3:20

Programs

SOAR offers eight areas of service:

• Advanced Learning Program (ALP) 1^st-5^th grades
• Mainstream Support Services Program (MSSP) K-12^th grades  
• NILD Educational Therapy (National Institute for Learning Development) K-12^th grades
• Search and Teach K-1^st grades
• Language Therapy K-12^th grades
• Content Mastery 1^st-5^th grades
• Learning Lab 6^th-12^th grades
• Diagnostic Educational Testing/Assessment K-12^th grades
• Speech and Language Therapy K-12^th grades

Detailed Program Description

Advanced Learning Program (ALP)

ALP is a program designed to identify and challenge students who are capable of scholastic performance in the 95^th percentile as measured by standardized testing and innate ability.  These students typically represent high performance in the following:

• General intellectual ability
• Specific subject matter aptitude
• Creative/critical thinking skills

Students are nominated by classroom teachers for the Advanced Learning Program.  Three instruments are used in the screening process to identify students who qualify for ALP.  These include classroom teacher input, ability tests, and achievement tests. The program is designed to challenge and expand critical and creative thinking skills.  ALP students will meet with the SOAR teacher, in a small group setting, to differentiate their instruction.  The objective is to augment and enrich regular classroom learning in the areas of content, product and process.  The SOAR teacher will provide a portfolio of student products.

Mainstream Support Services Program (MSSP)

The purpose of MSSP is to ensure academic success for students by providing learning strategies to the students and strategic intervention for the students.  This is accomplished through a variety of differentiated instruction, in coordination with the regular classroom teacher.

Students are considered for placement into this program by an educational diagnostic assessment of skills that identifies a learning disability.  Students served through MSSP are provided a variety of strategies to accommodate learning in coordination with the regular classroom teacher.  The strategies are defined by the Individual Education Plan (IEP).  The IEP is developed by the Admission/Review/Dismissal (ARD) committee.  The IEP is completed at the beginning of each school year during an ARD meeting that is attended by teachers, parents and an administrator.  Some of the strategies of an IEP include, but are not limited to the following:

·        Tiered assignments/tests (varying the degree of difficulty)

·        Modified assignments

·        Opportunity to test orally

·        Change of test location

·        Reduced length of exams

·        Altered format of materials

NILD Educational Therapy (National Institute of Learning Development)

NILD Educational Therapy is an affective intervention program designed to individually meet the learning needs of students with cognitive and perceptual deficits.  Weaknesses are addressed through two 80-minute sessions per week that include interactive language, strategic thinking and mediated learning.  The goals of Educational Therapy are to create a work ethic of perseverance and diligence, develop fluency in the academic skills of reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics, train reasoning skills for problem solving, improve verbal and written expression, strengthen auditory and visual processing skills and the establish attention skills.  NILD Educational Therapy is a three-year program for most students.

A student is qualified for this program after a formal diagnosis by a qualified educational assessment specialist.  NILD differs from tutoring in that cognitive and perceptual weaknesses are strengthened to support independent learning.  This regimen was established to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities through an intense, individualized program of education therapy.  This is accomplished through cross-modal integration.  The parallel processing (the right and left hemisphere working together), cause new multi-pathways to grow.  This, in turn, stimulates the brain.  Since students with learning disabilities cannot do some things simultaneously, this multi-modal approach causes inter-hemispheric collaboration.  Information storage and retrieval is improved.  If a student is weak in any area of visual, auditory memory, or abstract/logical thinking, academic skills are affected.  NILD strengthens the areas of neurological vulnerability, like physical therapy or speech therapy would, so that a student can become an independent learner.  NILD is offered in an individualized therapy session two times a week for 60-80 minutes, by a certified therapist.  NILD replaces a student’s elective class for those two days and typically requires a three year commitment. 

Search & Teach

Search & Teach is an early intervention program developed to identify the educational needs of young learners (K-1^st grade) before they experience frustration in the classroom.  The purpose of the program is to prevent defeat and its emotional consequences through early identification.

SEARCH is a 20-minute individual test designed to identify strengths and weaknesses in readiness skills necessary for reading success.  TEACH is a program of 55 learning activities called ‘tasks’, carefully designed to address needs revealed by SEARCH.  The tasks are ordered from simple to complex and organized into visual, visual-motor, auditory, body-image, and intermodal skill clusters which correspond to the elements of the SEARCH test.

Search & Teach was developed by psychologist, Archie Silver, M.D. (child psychiatrist) and Rosa A. Hagin, Ph.D. (psychologist) from the New York University School of Medicine.  This exceptional program was unanimously approved by the Joint Dissemination and Review Panel of the US Office of Education of its: 1) Educational impact 2) Cost-effectiveness 3) Replicability.  SEARCH & TEACH is cited since 1980 in the USOE publication Educational Programs that Work.

Language Therapy

The commonly accepted definition of dyslexia is “difficulty learning to read and spell despite adequate intelligence and instruction.”  The purpose of Language Therapy is to remediate problems with reading, spelling, and writing due to dyslexia. 

Students with specific developmental dyslexia cannot utilize the analytic/deductive approach because they lack the ability to retain the visual images of whole words. Language Therapy is a multi-sensory structured language approach to the teaching of the secondary language functions of writing, spelling, reading, reading comprehension and oral and written expression.  The central emphasis is on the alphabet and phonics, with the student simultaneously using the visual, auditory and kinesthetic-tactile channels. The dyslexia program used at Faith is based on the extensive research of Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham.   Early training emphasizes the reliable phoneme-grapheme relationships, which occur in English and thus encourages students to automatically use their knowledge of phonics when reading or spelling 85% of English words.  Students learn to blend each new letter or sound only with those they have previously learned.  The graphemes, which are arranged in order of difficulty and frequency, provide the essential elements needed for at least a seventh-grade level of literacy for those students who successfully complete the curriculum and develop automaticity. Students are scheduled daily for 45-60 minutes with completion of the program typically taking 2-3 years. This program serves students in 1^st-12^th grade and replaces an elective class in the upper school. A complete battery of tests by a qualified educational assessment specialist, identifying the characteristics of dyslexia, is needed to qualify for Language Therapy.

Content Mastery

The purpose of Content Mastery is to assist lower school students in learning the concepts of a specific subject area.  Content Mastery supports instruction from the regular classroom teacher.

Placement in this program is determined by educational diagnostic testing that has identified a learning disability. Students meet for a minimum of 90 minutes per week in a small group setting. The Content Mastery teacher supports learning from the regular classroom teacher by remediation and re-teaching concepts of a given subject. The regular classroom teacher supports Content Mastery students through accommodations defined in the IEP that is completed annually in an ARD meeting.

Learning Lab

The purpose of Learning Lab is to help students master the concepts of a specific subject area.  This program supports instruction from the regular classroom teacher in a small group setting.  This is a scheduled class that students attend daily.  The focus of Learning Lab is to reinforce mastery of concepts through remediation and re-teaching in a given subject.  The primary goal is to assist students in becoming more self-confident as independent learners.

Placement in this program is determined by educational diagnostic testing that has identified a learning disability.  Students meet each day for one class period in a small group setting with the Learning Lab teacher.  The class replaces an elective class for SOAR students. The Learning Lab teacher supports learning from the regular classroom teacher by remediation techniques and the re-teaching of skills and concepts for a given subject. Students are also supported by the regular classroom teacher through accommodations defined in the students IEP.  The IEP is completed annually in an ARD meeting that is attended by teachers, parents and an administrator.

Contract Services

Speech and Language Therapy

The goal of speech therapy is to provide services for students with speech and language disorders.  Speech therapy can be provided by contract during school hours. Speech and language therapy addresses a wide variety of ages and disorders including:

• Articulation disorders (speech)
• Oral-Motor and feeding issues
• Sensory integration issues
• Dyslexia
• Auditory processing disorders
• Apraxia (sensori-motor impairment-uncoordinated speech)
• Language disorders (expressive and receptive)
• Autism and related disorders

Services, including speech and language evaluations and one-on-one or group therapy, are provided twelve months of the year.  All Pathway Speech and Language pathologists hold at least a Master’s degree, have been awarded the Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC), are licensed by the State of Texas and are ASHA certified.

Diagnostic Testing/Assessment

The purpose of Diagnostic Testing is to identify specific learning differences through a comprehensive battery of tests.  The assessment results provide important insight into the student’s current skills in math, reading, and writing and are required for placement in the SOAR program.  Information from this evaluation assists the student’s academic team in developing and writing an individual education plan tailored for the success of the student.