The Lionsgate Briefs are two to eight page documents that examine creative solutions to issues faced by the Lionsgate community. The briefs are organized around High Leverage Practices in Special Education (HLPs).
High Leverage Practices (1)
The CEEDAR Center’s High Leverage Practices in Special Education describe the research around effective practices in the field. These practices form the conceptual framework for all of Lionsgate’s Briefs. This introduction describes how our Briefs fit into the framework of instruction, meeting social/emotional/behavioral needs, assessment and collaboration.
Assessment of District-Wide IEP Goal Achievement (2)
IEP data collection is often overlooked as a source of programmatic information and feedback. Lionsgate tracks student achievement across all IEP goals and uses the information to create accountability for goal achievement and examine systematic patterns.
Supports for Students with Mental Health Needs (3)
Because of the complex nature of ASD, Lionsgate needs to identify and address co-occurring emotional, behavioral, and cognitive issues that create additional barriers to a successful transition from school to adulthood. Co-occurring issues can include cognitive delays, learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and various mental health problems. This brief describes what these mental health problems look like and how we work to lessen their impact.
Transitioning to Lionsgate from Another School (4)
Lionsgate’s process of welcoming new students into the community is extensive and supported in the literature. This brief describes the process for each new student transitioning to Lionsgate from another school.
Tiered Support Team (5)
Collaboration is one of four High Leverage Practices (CEC, 2017) identified for improving student outcomes in special education. Lionsgate Academy employs numerous professionals from various disciplines. The education and training of these professionals lends quality programming for all students. Given the training and education of each professional, the approach to intervention is naturally seen through the lens of that particular field of practice.
Grade Level Teams (6)
Lionsgate structures supports for students by organizing grade-based teams. These teams consist of case managers and support service providers. Having grade-based teams encourages collaboration by focusing the providers toward a shared group of students. Grade-based teams also develops expertise in particular areas such as transition (for the high school teams) and child development (for the middle school teams).
Equitable Access to Qualified Teachers (7)
Equitable access to qualified teachers is a requirement by the state of Minnesota as part of a school’s accountability measures in the World’s Best Workforce. Lionsgate uses a statistical comparison between students of color and white students to assess equitable access. This brief describes the data preparation and analysis that is used at Lionsgate Academy.
Case Management/Classroom Instructor Model (8)
Lionsgate employs a job design for licensed special educators that separates the teaching portion of the job from case management. The result is high quality special education instruction, high quality IEPs, high quality evaluations and careful monitoring of the student’s progress.
Why a Separate School? Closed vs. Parallel Systems (9)
In times where inclusion is the objective of many special education advocates, Lionsgate attracts a student population of over 95% special education. With a high population of students receiving special education services, Lionsgate is a single system. This brief discusses Lionsgate’s program from a systems thinking lens.
Case Conferences (10)
Structured, regular sharing across all staff helps to increase consistency in supporting student behavior. Case conferences and Case Manager Presentations to Educational Assistants are two formats employed at Lionsgate.
Twice Exceptional Programming
Leadership Enrichment Opportunities (LEO) (11)
Students who are academically gifted and also are identified as having a disability are sometimes termed, “twice exceptional.” Lionsgate’s Leadership Experience Opportunities program (LEO), provides instruction and support for these gifted students to learn to be leaders and advocates in their communities.
Support & Response Team (12)
Lionsgate uses trained responders to support students who have a history of challenging behavior and to respond to events at school during a crisis.
Embedded Sensory & Autism Supports (13)
Lionsgate embeds numerous sensory accommodations and strategies throughout the school. This brief describes many of the strategies used within educational environments.
IEP Standardization & Practice (14)
Lionsgate’s IEP format is thorough, compliant, and team friendly. This brief explains the format and expectations of our IEP meetings and provides a model.
Tracking Classroom Success Across Time & Environments (15)
This brief explains the use of the Classroom IEP Reporting Doc., a google system of data collection that tracks a student’s classroom skills across time. The form is an efficient method for gathering data on classroom performance as well as tracking that performance from year to year.