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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]One challenge with Eastern Magnet and accommodations is that there are alot of group projects and group work. Our DC was been able to advocate for extended time on individual assignments when needed, but for group projects it was much harder because other students are involved and being impacted.[/quote]

This is a great point.  Eastern is heavily reliant on group projects, at first with groups assigned and later more likely to have groups chosen. Because teachers can't tell other kids who gets extra time (obviously, and correctly), then the kids who need more time end up with frustrated group members. I can see how it would be really frustrating for a child who uses audiobooks, for example, to be on a group call with other kids flipping through texts to find the answer to a question together.

I'm not dissuading a 2e Humanities kid from trying, but just noting that the social dynamics might be a little challenging in addition to the academic ones, or they would bleed together. [/quote]

Honestly, I had a 2E child at EMS and the other students weren’t the problem, the teacher was.  In a group project, assignments can be broken up an shifted so that everyone does what they are good at. Even kids with accommodations are good at some things and bad at others, just like everyone else.  DD couldn’t read a ton on paper, but she could shift to audio or text to speech with ear buds when necessary. She was a great researcher, which could be done at her own speed.  She also was a very diligent and timely worker, so she often ended up doing other people’s work. She also is brilliant, and so would make connections or have ideas that others wouldn’t even know about.

She never experienced being left out of a group because of her accommodations.

That said, she had extensive IDRIP accommodations. [/quote] Thanks, PP. Overall do you think it was a good experience for her despite the teachers? What are IDRIP accommodations?[/quote]

IDRIP = Interdisciplinary Research Paper. (so maybe IDRP but said "eye-drip").  It a 10 page paper that the kids take all year to research and write.  It is both terrible and wonderful at the same time.  She had a lot of accommodations, and one of the two teachers in charge at that time was simply horrible, refusing to provide accommodations and berating, following her and challenging her use of them.  It was traumatic (and illegal).  But, other teachers were very helpful.

My DD herself has said to me that Eastern Middle School magnet was the single most important academic decision I made for her in a hugely positive way, and she said that despite the fact that although she applied and accepted eagerly, she threw a huge temper tantrum in the summer when the reality of it hit.  I made her go anyway, and by the end of the 1st quarter I couldn't have dragged her away. It enabled her to think of herself as smart and capable and to seek out other smart and capable people and believe that she was cool at the same time.  It taught her to write and research at a college level.  She is lifelong friends with people she met there, and continues to meet and befriend alums into college and outside of college because they all have such similar interests.

I will say that she had very deep interests in the academic material at Eastern before she went there.  So, it was a perfect match.

I should also clarify that she did not have any dyslexia or other learning issues when she initially attended.  But, during her time there she had a medical issue that created problems with language processing, reading and writing and hurt her stamina for work and lasted for over a year.

In addition to normal extra time accommodations, we also had "reduce work" and "reschedule deadline" accommodations at Eastern. Plus, she had the option of taking an incomplete in one class, but we really didn't want that hanging over her head in the summer.

The current principal, Matt Johnson, was there as Vice Principal at that time and was instrumental in having the school refuse to provide her makeup work, accommodations, etc.  He even went so far as to suggest she return to her home school.  I won't go into all the really awful things that happened that year, but we eventually got wise and appealed outside of the school to the associate superintendent level several times and things were corrected.

I say that because I now advocate a "three strike" rule for dealing with recalcitrant teachers who refuse to accommodate -- on first instance of non-accommodation, write a polite email to teacher reminding about accommodations and asking for compliance; on second instance, forward first email to principal and describe second incidence and ask for correction and support to teacher; on third instance, write to associate superintendent for special ed and reference incidents 1 & 2 and the pattern of non-compliance and ask for correction and support to teachers and principal.  
  
The truly awful teacher subsequently moved out of the magnet program to another school. [/quote]

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