Revised 7/2008

Working with AESS Students

Parents can chose to increase the involvement of the ES in their student's education. The term our school will be using for this program is "Additional Educational Specialist Services (AESS)". Each ES must be willing to service up to 5 AESS students if asked to do so by their families. The AESS contract must be completed each year, even if the student was AESS the previous year and no changes are being made. The contract can be started or stopped at any time. If an AESS student transfers to a new ES, a new contract must be completed in order for the ES to be properly paid; (submit them in a timely manner, submitting them with a date that begins months earlier is not acceptable). ESs who work with their own children as students in the charter school, can not complete an AESS contract for them, as that would be a conflict of interest.

This training guide has been created to assist an ES in understanding the different options available to our AESS students and the job responsibilities required with these options. While going through the guide, it is helpful to have a generic copy of the AESS form for referral, but the copy printed from WEBfiles should be used when completing the contract with a parent. The training guide is divided into three sections. The first section gives an overview of the different options involved in AESS and the responsibilities of both the parents and the ES in each option. The second section has a guide to help you get started meeting with your students as well as the required job responsibilities in working with the AESS students. The third section has helpful tips and optional forms you can use in working with your AESS students.

SECTION 1

There are two options of ES involvement. When signing up students for additional ES services, the ES, parent and student must determine which option would work best for the family. Each option requires additional funds from the IF(instructional fund) budget to fund their chosen option. The more involvement the ES has, the more funding deducted from their IF (instructional funds) account. Check your WEBfiles Welcome Page "School Specific Dollar Amount Info" for the amount your school deducts for each option.

REMEMBER- the ES will not receive the entire deducted IF funds since a portion will go towards ES employment costs.

Option A-

(There may be specific modifications to the information befow for specific school programs using AESS A in their program. See your program information for specifics that may be different than the typical AESS A listed below.)

-The parent can ask for assistance from the ES in choosing curriculum, if the parent wishes.

-The ES will give written assignments for the student's daily work.

-The ES will be available to give instruction during scheduled meetings or via email or phone as needed (during his/her scheduled office hours that must be posted).

-The parent is primarily responsible for the grading of the student's work as well as day to day teaching and evaluation of daily work. The ES will be available to consult with the parent when needed in the evaluation of the student's progress and assigning of grades.

-The ES will meet with the student and parent face to face for at least one hour per week or two hours every other week. This meeting time may be spent evaluating student work, giving instruction, consulting with parents, observing student activities, explaining assignments, etc.

-The ES will review the student's progress with the student and parent at every meeting.

-The ES must have a mid-semester consultation with both the parent and student on the student's progress.

-In option A, the parent must be present at all meetings.

-The parent needs to sign the attendance form at the end of the learning period. The student signs in the AESS box once and the form is dated in the AESS box each time the ES visits.

Option B-

-The ES chooses the curriculum.

-The ES gives written assignments for daily work.

-The ES collects and evaluates daily work and grades tests and quizzes.

-The ES will be available to give instruction during scheduled meetings or via email or phone as needed (during his/her scheduled office hours).

-The ES evaluates student's progress and assigns grades as needed.

-The ES meets with the student face to face for at least one hour per week or two hours every other week. This meeting time may be spent evaluating student work, giving instruction, consulting with parents, observing student activities, explaining assignments, etc.

-The ES reviews student progress with the student at each meeting.

-The ES will consult at mid- semester with the student on their progress.

-The ES will hold meetings in a public location unless the parent agrees to be present at the time of the meeting in their home.

-If the parent is not involved in the meetings, the ES and student only sign the Attendance form. The student signs in the AESS box once (multiple signature lines are for more than one AESS student in the family) and then dates the Attendance form each time the ES visits. The parent signature line is left blank.

A broad summary of the differences between option A and option B are as follows:

Option A/Option B -

More Parental Involvement/Minimal Parental Involvement

Parent Grades Work /ES Does All the Grading

Parent Evaluates Work/ ES Evaluates Work

Parent Chooses Curriculum/ES Chooses Curriculum

Can Ask for Es Assistance

Each ES, in both options A or B, can decide whether to do the LR and turn in the attendance sheet each visit, or only once within a 20 day time period.

SECTION 2

Getting Started

Before meeting with an AESS family take the time to familiarize yourself with some of the curriculum available for independent study students. Check your school's curriculum page and refer to your ES advisor for suggestions.

Before going to the home, have some generic curriculum and assignments ready for the student to work on while they wait for their curriculum to arrive. Some suggestions can be found on the web site under GENERAL CURRICULUM RESOURCES- Curriculum ideas for new students.

At first meeting fill out:

1.) Necessary paperwork for enrollment (for CWCS only: this may have been completed at Centralized Intake)

2.) Additional ES Service Contract-

This form is in WEBfiles by going to "view" active students and clicking on the student number.

3.) Determine either option A or B with parent

4.) Discuss student's plans after High School and fill out the graduation requirements agreement form with parent and student to determine the students course of study (foundations (basic), general, college bound etc.)

Review what courses will be required to graduate per the student's desired course of study

5.) Determine what courses the student will take for the current semester.

7.) Make recommendations of curriculum appropriate to the student's course of study (see the helpful tips section for curriculum ideas)

8.) Determine the student's learning style using one of the various assessment tools such as PLS (Performance Learning Systems).

Order all materials

Once materials are received, determine how many credits the book or workbook are worth (keep in mind 15 hours = approximately 1 credit). Once you determine how many credits each book is worth, create a plan for the semester. List each class the student is taking and then next to each class, list the work the student will be required to do in order to receive those credits. Estimate when the student should complete the text. At your next meeting with the parent/student, go over the classes for the semester, the books/ workbooks he/she will be using and what will be required in order for them to receive full credit. Also, determine how grades will be assigned. Have the student, parent and yourself sign the "semester plan" (for an example of a "semester plan" see helpful tips section).

Once you have determined the semester plan, break the requirements down into monthly or weekly assignments sheets that you can give to your students (see sample forms).

Meetings must be held with students either once a week for one hour or every other week for two hours. This meeting time may be spent evaluating student work, giving instruction, consulting with parents, observing student activities, explaining assignments etc. At each meeting the ES should review the student's progress with the parent and the student.

Meetings may occur in the student's home only if a parent is present. If a parent will not be present at the meeting, the meeting must occur in a public place (library, restaurant etc.). The parent and ES will work together to determine a suitable location for the meetings.

Section 3

Helpful suggestions

1.) Make a photocopy of all the table of contents before you give students their books. Using the table of contents will help when you are working on their learning records

2.) Examples of curriculum to use-

*For the "Foundation" (Basic) course of study students could be using workbooks from the Steck Vaughn catalog or Wieser or any other "high interest catalog".

*For the "General" course of study a student could order books and study guides from the Division of Independent Study (North Dakota) or

*For "College Bound" students make sure to select books found in the a-g book listing.

4.)If a student is having difficulty staying motivated enlist the parents to help with creating an incentive program.

5.)While planning the student's course of study, things you may want to address are test preparation, study skills and developing job skills.

6.) ES's who work with AESS students should watch for opportunities to learn how to better serve "at-risk" students, such as attending workshops or reading books.

7.) When an ES provides AESS there are many times when the parent is not present at meetings and the ES only has communication with the student. However, the ES should remember that the parent is responsible for the education of the student and needs to be informed of any requirements and student progress. To ensure that the parent is provided this information, the ES should snail mail or email pertinent information to the parent or confirm its receipt when giving information to the student to give to the parent.

Example of a semester plan (for a student on a general course of study):

Fall 2001

(5 credits) English 9A- Chapters 1-15 in textbook

Read the novel Great Expectations and complete novel guide

(5 credits) PE- Complete 5 hours each week of activity, keep a log of the date of each activity, what the activity was and hour long you did the activity.

Take at least 6 pictures of your self doing activities over the course of the semester.

(5 credits) World History- Complete 1/2 World History textbook

Watch 5 videos on World History and write a one-page summary of each video.

Complete Map Skills Handouts

(5 credits) Math- Complete 1/2 Math text

(5 credits) Earth Science- Complete chapters 1-15 in text answer all questions and complete all chapter tests.

(5 credits)- Health- Taking an online class

(5 credits) Photography- take Contract Program Course - must maintain positive attendance. At the end of a semester student must turn in a 3-page paper explaining all he/she learned in photography

I agree that the above requirements need to be met in order to receive full credits and passing grades in all the above classes.

Student________________________________________

Parent_________________________________________

ES___________________________________________