There were a number of schools for students who learn differently exhibiting at EdRev 2013 that were new to me.
One is Stellar Academy for Dyslexics, which is located a few miles south of the Dumbarton Bridge on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. (In other words, might be within commute distance for students from Palo Alto and Menlo Park, as well as East Bay communities
The mission of Stellar Academy, located in Alameda County, is to assist children with dyslexia overcome academic challenges through the Slingerland® approach.
The school is evidently rather new, and small (37 students, according to this Great Schools review).
Not sure what the Slingerland® approach is?
The Slingerland® Approach is a classroom adaptation of the Orton-Gillingham method....This structured, sequential, simultaneous, multisensory teaching approach is designed to help dyslexic students and other struggling readers with speaking, reading, writing and spelling. The flexibility of the approach has also made it effective in general education classrooms as well.
The school requires that an applicant either have a minimum of 10 hours of Slingerland® tutoring, or attend the Stellar Academy summer camp, before admission. The reason for this is to confirm that the Slingerland® approach is a good fit for the child's learning needs.
This prerequisite to me is a strong signal that Stellar Academy knows what it is about. There are non-responders to evidence-based interventions -- better to take the intervention for a "test drive".
I keep wishing that there was a dyslexia-specific charter school, using an evidence-based approach such as Slingerland, in southern Santa Clara county.
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