Blog-Post Archives

Finding the Perfect Fit for Education

May 31, 2022

By Jacqueline Renfrow
Original Source: Washington Family
Originally posted in the May 2022 edition, pages 22-23

Parents want the best education possible for their children. But when you parent a child with special needs, deciding which school will best support their unique needs is not easy. We spoke with educational planning experts who specialize in understanding the academic and social-emotional needs of neurodiverse children and they had some tips to help parents find that perfect fit for a child at any age.

First, it’s about matching a school to your learner, not the learner to the school, according to Brad Hoffman (M.S.Ed), a board-certified educational planner at My Learning Springboard Inc. Hoffman’s company serves students around the country, but primarily in the greater Washington and New York City areas. The boutique, multidisciplinary educational consulting firm works with learners of all ages—from preschool through young adults—with diverse learning goals.

“A school can have a phenomenal reputation without necessarily being the right fit for your child,” Hoffman says. “Many families we work with send their multiple children to different schools. It certainly presents an added challenge logistically, but for a variety of reasons, one particular school may not be well suited to the individual needs of each of your children.”

Before diving in, parents need to keep in mind that making educational placement decisions mean putting the child’s current and potential schools under a microscope. And before the process can begin, parents need to make a list of their top priorities for a school environment since some tradeoffs may be likely.

“All choices come with opportunity costs, and school selection is not exempt from this reality,” Hoffman says. “Academic programming and perceived rigor, learning support, athletics, clubs, activities, facilities, geography, and costs are all important factors to consider.”

Taking the first step

Whether a parent chooses to work with an education consultant or look into school choices, the first step is to assess the child’s current school environment and experience.

When determining if the child is currently in the proper school setting, Hoffman’s team typically starts by reviewing all of the academic records and previous assessments and speak to any of the child’s relevant service providers. They ask parents to think about what their child needs in order to succeed academically, socially, and emotionally in school.

Hoffman recommends that parents make a pros and cons list of what is working and what is not working in their child’s current school setting.

“It is imperative to determine if the student is appropriately challenged and making academic progress as well as determining if their social and emotional needs are being met,” he says. “This comprehensive overview helps to more clearly identify the parents’ concerns with a variety of data points.”

Laura Rup, director of Admissions at AIM Academy, a school for grades 1 through 12 in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, says that the admissions committee at a school should be asking similar questions about what a child will need when considering an applicant. Rup works to place children at AIM Academy who will fit the school’s niche—educating children with language-based learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia.

“When the school and child are a match, that is where ‘magic’ can happen,” Rup says.

If you plan to look outside of your child’s current educational institution, Rup recommends starting with school websites. They are “chock full of information, but sometimes it can feel like drinking from a fire hose!” Try zeroing in on the “at-a-glance” or snapshot information. This strategy will usually provide parents answers to a majority of factors such as the size of the school or type of applicants the school seeks.

“If the profile does not seem like a fit, you can quickly move on. You want to focus your time on those schools that are best able to support your child,” she says.

Before the COVID-19, pandemic, Hoffman would recommend that parents spend some time in their child’s classroom in order to gain an up-close look at what is happening. If you are working with an education consultant, ideally, this individual would observe the child in the classroom as well. Hoffman notes that whether parents get to see inside the classroom or not, working closely with the child’s teacher is paramount to gathering needed information.

The more data, the better

Other vital pieces of data can contribute to making the best school decision for your child. First, if the child has undergone a neuropsychological assessment, the evaluating psychologist can help to identify qualities and supports that are critical for your child’s success. Additionally, other related service professionals, such as a speech therapist or occupational therapist, can valuable insights. Also consult with any current service providers in the classroom, such as a school counselor or a special education teacher.

Parents should bring their own information about their child to the table as well. Ask a lot of questions about a potential school when meeting with admissions staff or faculty members.

“At AIM, many of our applicant families are learning about a newly diagnosed learning difference at the same time they are looking for a new school to support their child. It’s natural to have questions,” she says. “Admissions folks are not there to judge. They are there to educate, and chances are that they have answered any question you have a number of times before. A positive home-school relationship is critical to student success, and asking for clarification is a great way to feel involved and informed.”

Public vs. Private

When debating public versus private schools, don’t automatically assume that one is a better fit for your child than the other without looking over their individual services.

Obviously, the student to teacher ratio is usually smaller at a private school, and the facilities and enrichment activities are often more robust. However, that does not mean that the private school necessarily offers the emotional and educational services that are best for your child.

Some private schools offer learning specialists on faculty to consult with teachers to address the identified needs for specific students or work directly with identified students. However, these learning specialists may not be certified special educators—as it is not required.

However, specialized private schools exist. At these schools, all or most of the faculty includes skillful learning specialists and special educators engaged in regular professional development and implementation of evidence-based interventions. In these specialized school settings, related services are generally integrated into the daily schedule. Specialized schools will differ depending on their mission and target population.

Public schools offer a variety of levels of service within the general education setting. Services can range from plug-in and pull-out services to a self-contained classroom. All teachers, both general and special educators, in a public school setting have to be certified by the state in which they teach. Public schools are required to follow the procedures set forth in the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and Section 504. Hoffman notes that any school, public or private, that takes federal funding is required to participate in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process under IDEA.

Don’t forget the power of emotions

Hoffman notes that while data plays a large factor in choosing a school, an undeniable emotional factor behind school placement. Therefore, visit a school you are considering whenever possible and talk with faculty such as the admissions team, learning specialist, or head of school. When an in-person visit is not possible, arrange for digital meet-and-greets and tours of the physical space. In addition, talk with currently enrolled families to get a better sense of the school culture.

Plus, allow your children to have a voice in the decision.

“This means letting them know you are considering having them look at new schools and responding to their questions about it,” Rup says. “You get to make the decision, but your child has to live the choice on a daily basis. Establishing open communication will make the transition experience better for them and for you.”

Writing Process: Down Draft, UP Draft, and Dental Draft

May 2, 2022

The best way to write effective papers is a three-step writing process we like to call the 1) DOWN draft, 2) the UP draft, and 3) the DENTAL draft.

In a separate blog post, we talked about all the ways to get a first draft finished. Remember a first draft is just a draft, it can be riddled with mistakes! All you need is to finish it. The first of three steps in the writing process is the DOWN draft.

Again, it’s important to emphasize DOWN because many students edit while they write and get derailed. They start and stop and start and then never finish. The goal here is only to get words on the page and it is the most difficult stage for most.

The next step in the writing process is the UP draft which is when you fix up the DOWN draft with vertical editing and make sure the thesis is clear and supports the content. This stage is more involved. A common pitfall for many students is they meticulously go through their writing line by line only to later delete entire paragraphs because they are not relevant to the paper. Before you look at things at the sentence level (Horizontal Editing), it’s best to first make sure everything makes sense vertically. Vertical Editing means reading the thesis, then looking at the topic sentences and evidence presented in the paper along with the eventual conclusion to make sure whatever point needs to be made is made and every point is presented in the correct order. This is the most important step in the writing process because the point of writing is communicating an idea clearly to another person, and you need to make sure that there is a clear message for the reader.

The final stage is the DENTAL draft. Usually grammar and punctuation are the first things marked up by a teacher, but the most important priority is writing a coherent paper. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation can get in the way of this goal, so here is where you fix it.

The DENTAL draft is named after getting a cleaning at the dentist office. You go tooth by tooth and make each one perfect and then polish it. The DENTAL draft is important to come last because (and it is worth repeating because it happens so often) many students focus on their paper line by line but need to delete entire edited paragraphs if the thesis is not clearly supported. It saves SO MUCH TIME to start editing at the line level ONLY AFTER making sure the thesis and support for the points are present. Use this writing process to make sure there are no issues with your writing that could distract the reader from your message.

Write with passion and your reader will feel your interest and keep turning the pages. The UP draft, DOWN draft, and DENTAL draft are the keys in this writing process to polishing your writing. Write your first draft as fast as possible. Edit your second draft with a focus on logic and the reader understanding your points, whatever they are. Make your final draft have the best grammar, spelling, citations, and presentation. Three steps to really say something on the page. Now, go make it happen. Speak from your heart. Edit with your mind. Your reader is waiting!

My Learning Springboard is here to support you throughout the writing process. To organize writing coaching for yourself or your student, please contact Brad Hoffman or Faya Hoffman.

By Grant Bergland, MFA and Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed. and Learning Specialist.

Drafting Process: Just Get Your Ideas Down

April 29, 2022

The hardest part of writing an essay for most students is beginning the drafting process. Once the first draft is done, it’s relatively easier to fix up the paper, refine a thesis, and put the final polish on it.

The best advice on getting drafts finished is from Stephen King. No one can deny that Stephen King is very good at finishing first drafts. Sixty-three novels, 5 nonfiction books, and 11 short story collections comprise an opus of several hundred thousand pages that many people have loved. And, next to J.K. Rowling, he’s the best-selling author of all time. It’s fair to say that Stephen King knows a thing or two about beginning and completing the drafting process.

According to Stephen King, the first draft is supposed to come out as fast as possible, so fast you never stop writing:

“I write as fast as I can and still remain comfortable. If I write rapidly… I find that I can keep up with my original enthusiasm and at the same time outrun the self-doubt that’s always waiting to settle in.” – Stephen King On Writing

King explains that the thing that slows him down the most is editing (and self-doubt) while writing. He asserts it is impossible to edit while writing because writing is the process of getting your ideas out and reflecting and refining them happens during editing.

A student starts with an idea and then doesn’t like the way they phrased their sentence. They stop and edit, and edit, and rewrite that clever phrase. By the time they finish, most students have lost the thread that inspired them and have a hard time getting started again. The flow of the drafting process is lost.

The fastest way to finish papers is to simply get your ideas down without stopping. It seems like an oversimplification, but to get those drafts you need to say something like: “don’t worry about who is reading it, don’t worry about how it sounds, just explain it to me.”

This part of the writing process is kind of magical because whatever a student is most interested in or passionate about comes out in their own words. There’s so much life and character in an honest opinion or a thoughtful explanation and you really get to know a person by how they write. No judgements, no critique, just speak.

The dictation option on Google Docs (it’s under the TOOLS menu) can really help get those ideas down and enhance your drafting process. You can even try having your child explain what they want to write about to you and just let the dictation tools in your smartphone convert their words to text. You can help your kids compose those pesky first drafts anywhere.

Don’t worry about the details, the grammar, the order, the citations — all of that comes later. Start with passion and don’t stop until you’ve gotten it all down! Once it’s “down” on the page, your drafting process can progress to further refinement via the UP draft and then the DENTAL draft.

My Learning Springboard is here to support you throughout the drafting process. To organize writing coaching for yourself or your student, please contact Brad Hoffman or Faya Hoffman.

By Grant Bergland, MFA and Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed. and Learning Specialist.

Start Your College Essays Early

March 29, 2022

The process of applying to colleges is an arduous one. Standardized tests, campus visits, alumni interviews, and navigating the complexities of Naviance and SCIOR all add up to hours of work, on top of the time students must spend actually doing their schoolwork. The biggest task, however, is writing the many essays universities require for admission – not just the Common App, but the countless supplemental essays and short answers, each with their own twists on “Why us?” Most students, when faced with the yawning chasm of work and the high stakes of completing it “perfectly,” choose to put off this part of the college admissions process until the fall of their senior year, or the summer before it. This is a mistake. Start your college essays early!

While these essays are meant to persuade the admissions committee to accept a student into their school, they are not driven by argument so much as feeling, tone of voice, and narrative. Students trained in the craft of building a sturdy five-paragraph essay or writing a research paper are not well prepared to do this kind of writing, and they won’t learn it formally in school.

The earlier a student starts the process of ideation, composition, and revision, the better off they will be. Because this writing is both uncharted and high stakes, students need time to experiment, possibly fail, and begin again. Often, ideas that don’t work for a Common App essay can be recycled into supplemental essays. The lesson being that the effort of writing, no matter the result, is rarely wasted.

Some students may object to the idea of writing their college essays before the summer of their senior year, banking on the hope that they will do something really interesting in July and August that will provide them with just the right material for an essay. Others will spin their wheels in an effort to find a dramatic tale of hardship overcome or lives radically altered. None of this is necessary to begin writing. As my colleague, Liz Walters says, the best college essays are “vivid, memorable, and a pleasure to read.”

To arrive at such an essay requires work, beginning with students choosing prompts that interest them from the Common App website. Though the portal doesn’t typically become available for rising seniors until early August, the prompts for 2022-2023 are already confirmed and posted. Year to year, the prompts don’t change much, and the final, open-ended prompt means that if a student has an idea that doesn’t fit into any of the boxes offered, they shouldn’t reject it. For 2021-2022 applications, we’ve noted a change to #4. Remember that prompts are not assignments; they are springboards meant to help students craft essays that will tell the admissions committee something interesting about this person that isn’t reflected in grades, test scores, recommendation letters, or a CV.

During this initial period, it can be helpful to read examples of past students’ essays, which are usually available on a college or university’s admissions page. They may reveal unconventional approaches to familiar subjects, offer a model of pacing and structure, or show a student that it’s OK to be funny on the page (if that’s their inclination). More importantly, careful reading and analysis will show that these texts did not spring wholly formed from their authors’ minds. Many drafts will be required.

Once a prompt has been selected, students should just start writing. Sometimes a brainstorming session is useful to come up with a list of potential ideas, but don’t let too much time elapse between ideation and composition. It’s best to run with an idea while it’s still fresh. Some students will find they can write through to a completed first draft without help, but others will need prompting after the first or second paragraph. This is where a skillful writing coach can help a student turn a topic into a story, finding ways to dramatize a change that might otherwise seem internal. Always, students should expect to write at least two or three drafts, ideally with some amount of time between rounds to give them a fresh perspective.

Conversely, other students may write a gripping story, but leave out any reflection on what the story means to them or how the event shaped their character or outlook. A common student objection is a fear of sounding “cheesy.” The capacity for self-reflection is a sign of maturity, and simply put, many high school students haven’t had to really examine themselves in a sustained and honest manner. Others may allow that this self-analysis is a necessary ingredient but show a resistance to the idea that they can apply knowledge retrospectively–hinting at things they only knew later.

What is central to all personal college essays is that the author allows themselves to think on the page, thoughts that Columbia professor Phillip Lopate calls “quicksilver and spontaneous” in his book on creative nonfiction To Show and To Tell. “There is nothing more exciting than following a live, candid mind thinking on the page, exploring uncharted waters,” writes Lopate. A great personal essay will exhibit this quality, giving readers insight into not just what the author has done, but how they think about the world and their place in it.

Written by Daniel Penny, an educator and writer with an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University, a BA in English from Grinnell College, and an AA in liberal arts from Bard High School Early College.

Why Take A Gap Year?

March 28, 2022

As universities around the country mail out their final round of admission decisions, many students and families may be feeling a mixture of excitement, dread, and burnout. The college application process is a grueling one, and senior year during these uncertain times can be particularly taxing. Even students who are receiving offers to their dream schools are deciding to take a gap year rather than start in the fall.

Why Take a Gap Year?

Given the stress adults have been under during the pandemic and the changes many are opting to make in their personal and professional lives, it’s no surprise that more students are rethinking their academic trajectories. For some, a year away from the classroom (or their desks at home) presents the opportunity to reassess, reflect, and learn experientially through work and internships, travel, or service. When they begin university the following fall, gap year students report being more focused, sure of themselves, and able to more easily handle the demands of college life. For parents, the idea of not attending university in the fall, after all of the effort put into getting accepted, may be difficult to comprehend. However, there can be real benefits to gap years, and with the right plan, your student may enter college with a fresh perspective, new skills, and a greater sense of what exactly they want to do at university–and beyond.

What Kinds of Students Do Gap Years?

From Malia Obama taking a year before Harvard to work in the film industry to Kate Middleton spending a year volunteering in Chile and crewing a boat in the Round the World Challenge before starting at St. Andrews–taking a gap year does not make your child an underachiever. In fact, the number of gap year students is growing exponentially. In a recent survey, research firm Foundry10 found that 16 percent of students took a gap year for 2020–21, up from just 3 percent in 2018. According to Nina Hoe Gallagher, director of research and evaluation of ImpactED at the University of Pennsylvania, there has been a 300 percent increase in incoming freshman electing to take gap years at UPenn. “These are all preprofessional, Ivy League kids,” she told Town and Country. “But with the pandemic there’s this big increase. It’s becoming more acceptable, even in more rigorous academic environments.”

First, Talk to Your College

The first step to taking a gap year is to make sure that your college allows deferred admission. Students who take gap years report getting more out of the experience when they have already been admitted to a university rather than waiting to apply once they’ve graduated high school. And while many universities are open to the idea of students taking a year off before their freshman year, some have strict policies around gap years and only permit them for extenuating circumstances. Before you begin planning a polar expedition or building a canoe in your garage, make sure your admissions office is aware of and supports your decision.

What Do You Want to Get Out of the Experience?

Gap year students should think of their time away from school as not just a break from the academic slog, but a chance to undertake a project or embark on a new adventure. According to a 2015 survey conducted by the American Gap Association in conjunction with Temple University, the two of the most common reasons for students to take a gap year were personal growth and experiencing new cultures. After completing their gap years, 98% of student respondents said their year fostered personal growth, 96% found it boosted their self-confidence, and 93% agreed that it had improved their communications skills. The vast majority also said their gap year helped them learn new skills relevant to their intended careers, develop cultural literacy, and helped them see themselves as global citizens.

Make a Plan (And Have a Backup)

Once you’ve figured out why you want to take a gap year, make a plan with your family and structure your time around that goal. For example, a student who has been studying Spanish for seven years may want to achieve fluency; a gap year in a Spanish-speaking country, or working with a Spanish speaking community in the US, may be the right fit. If you’re unsure about organizing a trip or volunteer experience yourself, there are dozens of reputable services who specialize in creating experiential learning trips for gap year students, including Outward Bound, The Year Out Group and J2Guides.

Volunteer options include City Year and the Student Conservation Corps, which offer gap year students opportunities to serve communities in their local community or around the country in a variety of fields and locations. Team-based or individual internships, urban or rural, students learn by doing and by giving back–working on projects related to climate change, food insecurity, habitat restoration, and education.

Some students do a combination of all these things: taking pre-college classes, traveling, and volunteering at different times over a 12-month period. There’s no one-size fits all, and by its nature, your gap year should be tailored to your goals. And given the uncertainty of a post-Covid world, it’s important that students not be solely focused on international travel. Make a list of possible activities and projects, and stay flexible if things have to change.

Enjoy It

The beauty of a gap year is that for many students, it is the first time they will be learning without the rules of the classroom or the pressure of grades. Remember that this is an opportunity to explore interests that may have been left by the wayside in pursuit of a top GPA and to rekindle intellectual and creative passions.

If you think a gap year may be right for you, contact Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman – Board Certified Educational Planners and College Counselors – at My Learning Springboard to further discuss this planning.

Written by Daniel Penny, an educator and writer with an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University, a BA in English from Grinnell College, and an AA in liberal arts from Bard High School Early College.