The LEAD Group:
Learning and Educating About Disabilities
Colorado
Community Setting
The LEAD Group is located in a high school in an upper middle class community on the outskirts of a metropolitan area in Colorado.
Population Served
Participants in the LEAD Group are high school students in grades nine through twelve who have been identified as having a learning disability or other mild disability. Students with learning disabilities who are in upper elementary and middle school grades also participate by being mentored by the LEAD Group members.
Program Description
The mission of the LEAD Group is "to educate ourselves and others with respect to dealing with the social, academic, and emotional aspects of learning disabilities." The students participate in a one-credit course that includes education about their disabilities and coaching on the use of self-advocacy skills. The class also acts as a support group for members as they practice their self-advocacy skills (e.g., by discussing their needed educational accommodations with general education teachers). Students also make presentations to a wide variety of groups including teachers, students in other schools, the business community, and future teachers, about what it means to have a learning disability and how people can cope with their disability in educational or work settings.
Exemplary Self-Determination Practices
- Education on self-awareness and disability knowledge
Students in the LEAD Group spend extensive amounts of time learning about their individual strengths, areas for improvement, and how their disability impacts their lives. Students’ cumulative folders, including test results and IEPs, serve as "textbooks" for students to learn about themselves. A support group function is incorporated into the course, so that students can act as sounding boards for each other and validate anxieties students experience as they begin to stand up for themselves to teachers and others. Guest speakers from the community, ranging from a school psychologist to alumni with learning disabilities provide an additional "real life" perspective for the students.
- Community Presentations (Advocacy)
Students also focus on articulating their knowledge to other students, to their teachers, and to community groups. Presentations to teachers and business and community groups focus on building empathy and understanding for employees who may have learning disabilities, while presentations for parents and students tend to focus on how the LEAD Group functions and how other schools can start similar groups.
- Mentoring
Students in LEAD mentor students in upper elementary and middle school grades. The practices they use in working with each group differ; the focus at the elementary level is on providing support and normalizing the experience of having a learning disability, while with middle school students the emphasis is on preparing for high school and what participating in LEAD will entail.
- Self-advocacy skills applied to other settings
One of the group’s co-leaders co-teaches mainstream English classes that include both LEAD and other students, and works with the teacher on developing strategies that will help students with different learning styles. Students in the LEAD Group use their self-awareness and self-advocacy skills to assert themselves in general education settings, as well as outside the school. When the group submitted a proposal to the Learning Disability Association to make a presentation at the national conference, the LEAD Group went before the school board to present their case for out-of-state travel.
What Makes it Work?
- Effective sequencing of self-determination skills
Students in the LEAD Group first focus on becoming knowledgeable about their disability and about their individual strengths and needs. Without this understanding, they would not be able to self-advocate as effectively. The LEAD Group has recently developed separate activities for incoming freshmen intended to build their self-awareness and disability-related knowledge, while upperclassmen continue to fine-tune their self-understanding. Upperclass students build upon their self-advocacy skills by adding further communication skills to be applied in community presentations.
- Student ownership
From determining course content to planning for community presentations, the students in the LEAD Group have ownership of the process. They elect officers who meet weekly to decide what needs to be addressed in class. The group’s co-leaders (a special educator and a guidance counselor) are responsible for helping to determine how to accomplish the group goals set by the students.
- Administrative support
The LEAD Group has generated support for its efforts with both building level and district level administrators. A few examples of the ways in which these individuals have supported the group include allocating funds for their activities, allowing the flexibility to create a credit-bearing course, and developing connections in the community for student presentations.
Staff
A guidance counselor and a special education teacher co-facilitate the LEAD group. They help students arrange speaking engagements, work with the group to develop their plans for mentoring, and determine how to best integrate the course content that students say they want for the LEAD group.
What People Say About Self-Determination and the LEAD Group
Life without LEAD is not life. – Parent of a LEAD student
Some of us are fortunate to be born without learning disabilities…But a good part of what we become is what we believe we could become. The [LEAD] kids believe they can become and they know their weaknesses. I believe that the seniors [in LEAD] are coming out of that program knowing themselves better than 90% of the population in this country. – Administrator
I think the goal for any parent is that you want to see your child be self-sufficient. That is the ultimate goal – that you want them to be able to take care of themselves and be happy and self-sufficient and independent…So when they start being able to advocate for themselves, you’re just thrilled. – Parent of a LEAD student
[If I wasn’t in LEAD] I’d have horrible grades. Because…being in this group helps me confront the teachers on what I need. If I wouldn’t have been in this group, I know I would be too scared to talk to the teachers, and my grades would be low, I know it. – Sophomore in LEAD
For most of these kids, they have never been in a position of leadership. This is their first time. They have always been at the end of the line. My dad always used to tell me, "If you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes." And for these guys the view has never changed. Now all of a sudden…I don’t know that we’ve made a big impact on their transcripts, but I think we have made a big impact on their ability to take care of their business. – LEAD coordinator
I wish some of my other students were as self-determined as the LEAD students. With the LEAD kids it is easier because they meet me halfway. – High School English Teacher
For more information about LEAD
Contact:
Al Pocock and Stan Lambros
Cheyenne Mountain High School
1200 Cresta Road
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
719-475-6110