PERSONALIZED EDUCATION PLANS

CASE STUDIES

David

David is an eight-year old third grader who has attended two different schools. David lives in a single-parent home with two younger siblings in kindergarten and second grade. He rarely sees his father who has remarried and lives in another town with his new wife and children. David is afforded the opportunity to have extended visits with his father during the summer. His mother is a high-school dropout. She recalls few positive school experiences, but she recognizes that the children need a good education to better their lives. David’s mother works during the day but does not get home until about 6:00 PM. David is the after-school caretaker for his younger siblings. David shares a lot of responsibility in the home. Since David’s mother leaves for work before the bus arrives, David is responsible for making sure his siblings are ready for school and at the bus stop on time. David struggles with organizational skills and is usually gathering his materials for school just as the bus arrives. The responsibility of the younger siblings only complicates David’s life in the mornings.

David is described by his teachers as generally polite, motivated, and cooperative in class, but obviously very frustrated academically. They are concerned about David’s self-esteem. He appears withdrawn and passive in the school environment. Often David has to re-do parts of his written assignments due to illegible handwriting. His math and reading skills are below grade level. He scored Level II in math and a high Level II in reading on the third grade end-of-grade tests. He scored a 2.0 on the LEA optional narrative writing test. However, his third grade pretest scores were low Level III in math and low Level II in reading. David struggles with phonetic patterns when attacking new words, but has excellent memory skills. He can recall most sight words on grade level. He enjoys telling stories and is quite creative and imaginative. He has difficulty putting his thoughts down on paper, but his art work is exceptional for his age.

David’s teachers note that he often needs questions and directions repeated, although the routine hearing and vision screenings indicated that David’s hearing and vision needed no corrections. David has few friends and is considered a loner. When given the opportunities for peer interaction, he is often seen isolated from the group. David is involved in athletic activities outside of the school setting. He participates in Tai Kwan Do, and his mother indicates that he loves to jump on his trampoline. David has been taken to the emergency room on several occasions because of breaks, sprains, and cuts. David was referred in April by his classroom teacher to the School Support Team for consideration of further testing due to his lack of academic progress and social and emotional concerns. Further assessment will be conducted at the beginning of the next school year.

Donald

Donald is a sixteen-year-old eighth grader who is small for his age. Because of his size, he is frequently ridiculed by the other students. His typical response is to lash out verbally, often using profanity. Donald enjoys playing softball, but is usually the last person chosen for a team. His only interest seems to be in drawing and using bright colors to complete his drawings.

Donald lives with his mother and younger brother and sister. His sister is in sixth grade, and his brother is two years old. Donald’s mother is an unemployed alcoholic who leaves the care of the younger children to Donald. Before coming to school, he must fix breakfast for himself and his sister. He is also responsible for doing the family laundry and frequently comes to school in dirty clothes and without having had a bath,

Because of poor reading skills, Donald was retained in first and third grades. He scored Level I on his reading EOG, Level II on the mathematics EOG, and 1.5 on his writing tests in the seventh grade. Local assessments show that he is reading on a third grade level. Donald cannot sound out words or use contextual clues to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word. He also has problems with grammar and does not use the words "his" or her". For example, Donald will say, "She left she work at home." Tests for placement in an exceptional children’s program did not qualify him for these services. He doesn’t know multiplication facts and uses addition to do multiplication. He cannot divide, nor does he understand fractions.

Donald only turns in homework on rare occasions and never brings paper and pencil to school. During class he is inattentive, restless, and scribbles on his papers. His attention is not focused on the classroom instruction, and at times he is disruptive and disrespectful. Discipline measures haven’t been effective in changing his behavior.

Gale

Gale is sixteen years old and currently repeating ninth grade. She has had a long history of difficulty in school and has started saying that she has decided to drop out of school. When in elementary school, her mother allowed her to stay at home whenever she said she didn’t feel well, and this developed into a pattern as she continued in school. Gale lives with her mother and father, and they tend to be overly protective of her. Her father is on disability and spends much of his time watching television and drinking alcohol. He watches sports games on television all day and half the night. Her mother works at a local department store. Gale is often responsible for preparing meals. She enjoys this and has a rather extensive collection of cookbooks. Gale also enjoys sewing and makes many of her own clothes.

Gale is quiet and withdrawn at school and appears to have some social and emotional problems. She has never had any behavior problems in class or school. She rarely answers voluntarily in class, but she does interact well with other children in small groups. Although Gale has found ways to make herself unnoticeable in the classroom, she tends to take a leadership role in small group activities. Gale does not participate in any extracurricular activities at school and always goes directly home at the end of the school day. She participates in varied activities and sings in a church choir.

Gale’s teachers have always thought that she was capable of achieving at a much higher level than her work or test scores reflected. She does complete her assignments, but often she does just enough to get by. Several of her teachers wanted to retain her in both elementary and middle school even though she had passing grades, but her mother would not agree and often blamed the teachers for Gale’s lack of progress

Gale’s eighth grade EOG score in Reading was low Level III and her math was low Level II. Her seventh grade writing score was 2.5. Gale’s course of study is College Tech Prep. In the first year of ninth grade she had low Level II in all courses. Her high school is using four-block scheduling. For the first semester of this school year Gale was enrolled in ELPS, Introduction to High School Mathematics and Chorus. It is the end of the first six -week grading periods. She is struggling in all of her classes except Chorus. She has a low C in English I, a low C in ELPS, a D in Introduction to High School mathematics and an A in Chorus. Her school provides an after-school program in the computer lab to assist students who have not passed the competency test. Gale has been informed of the class but has not taken advantage of the opportunity to attend.

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