Overview: Iron Horse Middle School

Iron Horse Middle School is in the San Ramon Valley School system. It is an urban school and is made up of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. The learning center concept supports special education students in a collaborative model. The multi–layered approach to service delivery meets a wide spectrum of needs from monitoring of students' progress to providing specialized classes in both core and math.

Our goal at Iron Horse is to provide an appropriate education for all students. In order to achieve this, our district has implemented the Language! program; teachers have attended multiple workshops to learn about this delivery model. Language! is a structured language intervention.

Curriculum
This program provides for accelerated gain within a structured, linguistic base for reading, writing, spelling, and language concepts. Sequential and cumulative, this program is designed to bridge the gap between students' functioning levels and their own potential. Another goal of our project is to provide the most appropriate educational experience for our students and are flexible about making changes to a students plan in order to meet their individual goals. Many of our students are in blended classes with general education students and all students with IEPs are in general education science, PE, and elective classes. We feel our responsibility is to support not only our students in these classes but also the teachers through open communication and assistance.

Iron Horse has many appropriate academic and behavioral interventions in place to address the needs of low-performing students. Curriculum Assistance class, Homework Club, weekly math tutoring, monthly study skills workshops, referral to the Student Study Team, and monitored behavior plans all serve to assist struggling students and help them feel better about being at school. All students on campus are welcome to participate in these programs, and parents are made aware of the programs and are encouraged to have their child participate.

Our special education team continues to in-service all staff, both new and returning, on the tenets of our program, special education law, and the Individual Education Plan process. Our team also educates other stakeholders, such as members of our parent community and staff from our feeder sites. This task is accomplished through annual workshops, coffees, formal and informal meetings, and regular articulation with our sister elementary and high school sites. All of our team members work within the parameters of our model and are trained in delivery of all instructional components. Teaching strategies, assessment processes, and follow-up activities are all based on the California Standards for Teaching.

The materials and processes used within our program are clearly communicated to all individuals and groups involved in its success. This communication starts at the beginning of the school year and is maintained throughout. In fact, communication begins before school starts, when resource specialists meet with general education teachers to review the students that are placed in their classes. Teachers are given an Individual Education Plan at a Glance, a document that gives a brief overview of a student’s areas of concern and any necessary classroom accommodations. This initial meeting opens up the lines of communication between teachers and serves to help in the communication of each student’s progress towards goals and objectives. If progress is not being made, guidelines are set up so communication of any issues is done promptly, and intervention strategies are put into place.