By: Stephanie Lancet
As part of its effort to share best practices with the special education community, The Center for Learner Equity (The Center for Learner Equity) identified several public charter schools across the country as “Centers for Excellence” and is communicating how each school uniquely leverages its autonomy to benefit students with disabilities. Here is a spotlight on one of them.
Brooklyn Laboratory Charter Schools (Brooklyn LAB), a New York City charter network with four growing campuses, serves students from 6th to 9th grade. Aiming to personalize educational experiences and unlock all students’ potential and strengths, Brooklyn LAB leaders explicitly and intentionally integrate their commitment to serving students with diverse learning needs into the mission, vision, and practices of the school. While Brooklyn LAB offers an enrollment preference to students with disabilities (via its lottery weighting formula), it does not operate as a school solely dedicated to special education, instead striving to enroll a natural proportion of students with disabilities compared to its surrounding district. To achieve this, the school utilizes a dual approach in removing barriers that often stand in the way of the learning of all students, and particularly the learning of those that learn differently: a robust teacher pipeline and a combination of personalized instructional practices.
To effectively sustain its commitment to inclusion and its culture of individualization, Brooklyn LAB utilizes a system of teacher staffing structures that cultivates a supply of special education teachers capable of effectively implementing key school instructional and philosophical techniques. This intentional, internal pipeline improves the recruitment, induction, and retention of teachers by offering individuals the opportunity to progress through four talent-development levels. Made possible in part by this staffing structure, Brooklyn LAB provides a robust combination of evidence-based personalized instructional practices that intentionally meet the needs of students with diverse learning needs. The students receive whole class, small group, and one-on-one instruction, as well as additional support from technological learning platforms that individualize and monitor student progress.
The robust teacher pipeline and personalized instructional practices support the school’s commitment to inclusive success, as demonstrated by comparing student growth and performance on statewide ELA and Math exams to the NYC District and community District. To learn more about Brooklyn LAB and its approach to serving students with learning differences, read our full case study here.
In case you missed them, check out our profiles on Denver’s Cole High School and Indianapolis’ Paramount School of Excellence.
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