About the School
Nestled in the middle of seventeen acres in rural Fulton, Maryland,
High Road Academy is beginning its sixth year of operation.
High Road Academy began as a tiny program of two students in
1998 and has grown to over seventy students in grades four through
ten at the present time. Given its location, students come not
only from Howard County, but Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Baltimore,
Carroll, and the District of Columbia as well.
High Road Academy specializes in individualized, remedial programs
for students primarily with learning disabilities. Staff is
trained in a variety of methodologies designed for students
with severe reading disabilities such as Orton-Gillingham, Lindamood
Phoneme Sequencing Program (LiPS), Phono-Graphix, LANGUAGE!
and others.
In addition to specialized strategies, High Road Academy also
remains committed to the integration of computer technology
in all aspects of the program. As a result, High Road Academy
maintains a large repertoire of software programs dedicated
to all aspects of the remedial program.
Each student accepted into the program undergoes an intensive
evaluation to determine present levels of performance upon entrance.
A careful analysis of sight word recognition, word attack skills,
comprehension, fluency, written expression, and math is conducted
on each student in order to build a remedial plan. Methodologies
and strategies are selected based on the student profile. Ongoing
evaluation and monitoring of achievement ensures that adjustments
in programming are made as often as needed based on student
performance.
The main focus at High Road Academy is on perseverance and dedication
to a return to a less restrictive setting. Dr. Ellen Gaske,
Executive Director, is committed to the mission of remediation
and return of students to home schools. High Road Academy has
maintained an average yearly return rate of approximately 30%
of its total school population each year! Follow-up data indicates
that students have continued to achieve and meet the challenges
of their new schools.
Last year, High Road Academy began a series of parent training
seminars. Staff presented on Study Skills and Organizational
Strategies, Reading Methodologies, Counseling Students with
Learning Disabilities, and Strategies for Written Expression.
This year, it is expected that these seminars will not only
continue to be offered, but also expand to include other topics
and a larger audience in addition to our parents.
With increased enrollment, the need to expand capacity has also
emerged as a priority. This year, High Road Academy has expanded
to serve students in grades four through eleven. The Lower School
(grades four through eight) is under the direction of Mr. Matt
Cooper, Associate Director. The Upper School (grades nine through
eleven) operates under the direction of Mrs. Beverly Goering,
Associate Director.
Dr. Ellen Gaske is the Executive Director for both upper and
lower schools.
Success Story 1
Three years ago, Freddie came to High Road Academy as a struggling
student in need of instructional help in most academic areas.
Now reading at an eighth-grade level and performing math at
a seventh-grade level, Freddie has had great success at HRA.
"He has made some significant leaps (in academics),"
says Freddie's current teacher, Mrs. Goering.
Freddie says that math and reading are his favorite subjects
because they are challenging. "I like them because they
push me to another limit," says Freddie.
Freddie credits the HRA staff for his successes. "The teachers
and assistants help you," Freddie says.
While Freddie will be returning to HRA for tenth grade next
year, he hopes to return to his regular high school for his
senior year. But Freddie knows that he still needs to make progress
in all academic areas, especially history, science and spelling.
"I am trying to work harder," says Freddie.
Success Story 2 Mrs. Martin and Adam: A High Road Success
Story (Interviews by Jose Matos and David Snyder)
For fifth grader Adam, the past three years at HRA have been
highly successful. Adam's teacher, Mrs. Martin, has worked diligently
to provide him with learning programs that cater to his specific
needs.
"Adam has made outstanding progress in reading and comprehension,"
says Mrs. Martin. "I'm so proud of him."
According to Mrs. Martin, the entire staff at High Road has
contributed to Adam's success. The teachers, assistants, reading
tutor and speech pathologist "worked together to help Adam
succeed."
Using Phonographics, Language! and other instructional reading
programs, Adam has improved his reading skills from a pre-primer
level three years ago to now reading instructionally at the
seventh grade level today.
Adam can see the difference these reading programs are making,
too. "Some of them are actually helping me get better at
reading," explains Adam.
A small class size of only three students is also contributing
to Adam's and Mrs. Martin's successes. "Teaching such a
small class allows me to zero in on the specific needs of each
child," Mrs. Martin says.
Letter from a parent
March 15, 2002
Dear Dr. Ellyn Lerner,
We are Carol and Mickey Frye and our eleven year old son, Justin
is a student of High Road Academy in Fulton, Maryland. It was
apparent when Justin came to us as a two and a half year old
that our lives were never going to be the same. From that day
forth our commitment to finding Justin the help that he was
going to need to become a successful adult began. Justin began
receiving services from a local agency dealing with infants
and toddlers with disabilities. The results were truly amazing
and once Justin began speaking he never stopped! However, other
problems soon began to become apparent. Pre-school was very
difficult for both him and us. His social skills were not developing
and he soon became labeled at the school as a disruptive child.
We also began to notice a problem with his remembering such
things as the letters of the alphabet and the numbers, one through
ten. No matter how hard we tried or what method we used, Justin’s
memorization skills did not seem to be developing. But Justin
also had some incredible strengths. We began to notice his astonishing
ability to just look at something and replicate it using any
type of building material. He loved building with K’neks
or Legos and we were amazed at the incredible things he would
construct.
Knowing that Justin was not your typical child we began seeking
help from the medical establishment. After a long and tedious
search we found a home at the Kennedy Kreiger Institute in Baltimore.
Justin was evaluated there and we discovered that he was an
incredibly intelligent child; however suffering from Attention
Deficit Disorder and with a severe learning disability. The
trials with medication began. After three grueling years in
a Catholic school and a public school, we were given the opportunity
to place Justin at High Road Academy. He had totally shut down
in his current school and the teacher was having a difficult
time getting him to even pick up a pencil. Justin realized not
only how intelligent he was, but that he also was not able to
do the things the other children were doing. He dreaded any
activity that required reading or writing which made for a grueling
day. Socially he still was not developing and therefore felt
much like an outcast. Our hearts would ache for him when he
would come home and ask why he did not have any friends.
Justin began at High Road Academy as a depressed child who was
intelligent enough to know that he was not like other children.
We cannot begin to tell you what High Road has done for our
son. The staff has treated Justin with compassion and an incredible
amount of tolerance. He has gone from a child who was angry,
sullen and discouraged to one that is happy and feeling confident
that he can succeed. It has not been an easy road, but the staff
has never given up and we will forever be grateful to them.
Mickey and I wish for every child with a disability the chance
to attend a school such as High Road Academy. The school has
not only made a difference in Justin’s academic ability,
but has impacted his entire life. How wonderful that would be
for every child that suffers on a daily basis through no fault
of their own.
We are fully aware that Justin’s struggles are far from
over. But we are confident his experience at High Road Academy
will continue to have a positive effect on the successful person
he is sure to become.
Sincerely,
Carol and Mickey Frye
Letter from a parent
March 13, 2002
To Whom It May Concern
Having a child with a Learning Disability isn’t much different
than any other disability. At least not when you have dedicated
teachers and administrators that are willing to go the extra
mile to see that these children get every opportunity to be
successful. It has been a pleasure and honor to be associated
with Dr. Gaske and the staff of High Road Academy.
Our son, Freddie, is one of these learning disabled students
that fell through the cracks of the public school system. Year
after year we had to deal with one failure after another. These
failures ranged from academic, social, over crowded classrooms
to students with other disabilities (behavioral, emotional,
even multiple disabilities) in the same classroom.
Freddie was placed in a program for children with learning disabilities
when he was in first grade after completing two (2) years of
kindergarten. Each year there were different struggles he had
to deal with. As with many learning disabled children he struggled
with the academics more than any other issue. As a student in
the primary grades of elementary school they were unable to
find a way for him to learn how to read. We were told many reasons
why this was difficult for our son. “He is not able to
remember the strategies for reading.” “He could
only read from memory and he would only be able to read the
words he was able to remember.” “He is just lazy.”
“He won’t be able to read beyond a second grade
level.” Because of this he had difficulty in all his subjects
since reading is such an important part of each subject. He
made it through fifth grade with what we thought was good progress
under the circumstances. Each year we would be told that Freddie
was making good progress and that the next year he should continue
that progress.
To our disappointment we did not get the same assessment when
he started middle school. Even though he was still in Special
Ed. classes we ran into many more problems than before. These
students change classes just like everyone else. It took a while
but he was able to accomplish this with some ease, but that
was about the only thing that came easy. Since the school had
an over crowding problem, his classes were also over crowded.
Now the classes were even larger than before only now there
were students that the teachers had very little control over.
Then there was the issue of being taunted and teased, not by
the students in the regular classes, but the ones he had to
be in class with everyday. None of this was helping to build
his confidence or acceptance of being in middle school. Soon
he just went along with the crowd and started to misbehave.
By the end of his sixth grade year it was evident that this
was not going to be easy and we did not look at the next six
(6) years of our son’s education with much pleasure.
We tried contacting the teachers, trying to make sure he was
getting the accommodations that he was entitled to. Just trying
to contact them was an effort in its self. When you did reach
one of them they were pressed for time and couldn’t talk
long. When a team meeting was called the only ones that showed
were the team leader and myself. Each time we would be told
that they were doing the best they could but they have so many
other students that they can’t spend all their time on
one student. His reading assignments were supposed to be at
his reading level and reduced to include as much of the main
content without being beyond his ability. This never happened;
he brought home papers that were well beyond his reading ability.
He was to get help writing his homework assignments in his assignment
book. Again that rarely happened. We were beginning to believe
that our son was never going to get the right kind of help.
Looking ahead we were unsure if he would be able to graduate
from high school with a diploma or just with a certificate of
attendance. There were so many things he had to accomplish in
order to get a diploma we knew it was going to be an uphill
struggle if we didn’t do something soon.
That is how we got to where we are today. It doesn’t matter
how Freddie was placed into High Road Academy, but after what
we have been through for the first six (6) years of Freddie’s
education it was the greatest thing that could have ever happened
to him.
We feel it has been through the dedication and compassion of
the staff at High Road Academy we have seen our son make strides
we never believed possible. The small classes allowed for little
distraction and the ability to work in a much calmer environment.
The staff does not allow the students to treat other students
with disrespect. They allow the students to learn at their own
rate with no pressure to go faster than they can handle.
When Freddie entered High Road Academy they spend several months
testing him, to see where he was academically. This was done
so they could provide him with the proper program to achieve
the goals they set for him. When the testing was done much to
our surprise we were informed Freddie was not reading at the
high third grade level his other school indicated he was reading
but he was at a pre-primer level (kindergarten). At this point
we realized why he was having such a difficult time the previous
year. We were told then that his teacher would set up a program
specifically for Freddie. They may use several programs but
initially they would work together to enable Freddie to learn
to read. With the use of teacher, teacher’s aide and the
computer they were going to start Freddie with the beginning
steps of reading. We weren’t sure that even that would
work since he was so far behind. Not that we weren’t confident
in the staff but we had been told so many times that it just
might not be something Freddie would be able to do.
To our surprise and amazement we were proven wrong. After only
sixteen (16) months (less than that if you take away the time
they spent testing him) he has made incredible progress. As
we said when he entered High Road he was reading minimal amounts
of words. Now he is reading narrative passages independently
at a third grade level and with instruction at a fourth grade
level. Reading expository passages he is reading at a fourth
grade level independently and sixth grade with instruction.
All of this is due to the dedication and compassion of his teachers
and other staff making this all possible.
Freddie has made progress in many areas other than reading.
He took the Maryland Functional Reading and Math Test this past
fall and even though he didn’t pass either one he came
very close on each. We are very confident that he will pass
these in the near future. Since entering High Road Academy Freddie
has gained confidence within himself. He now knows that he can
succeed and he has the power to make that happen. His frustration
level has also been diminished greatly and when he does get
frustrated he has ways of working through it. Freddie enjoys
and looks forward to school each day whereas he never wanted
to go before. When he passes to a higher level in one of his
programs he comes home excited and proud of his accomplishment.
We now feel Freddie has a real chance to graduate with a diploma.
We know that there will come a day when Freddie will have to
move on and leave High Road, but with the continued support
and instruction he will be one of High Road’s success
stories.
As Freddie’s parents we feel that programs like this are
important to help those children that are not being successfully
taught in the public school systems. We wonder how many other
children would benefit from programs such as this one. There
are so many children that will be lost in the school systems
because they are not able to get the instructional help needed
to be successful. We are more than grateful Freddie was given
the opportunity to attend such an effective program provided
by High Road Academy.
