The Thomas Reynolds Center for Special Education and After-School Programs
2008-2009 School Year
Graduate Assistant Opportunities
- Graduation with Masters in Special Education (Grades 1-6)
- Partial tuition scholarship
- Part time employment in the Special Education field; Approximately 16 hours per week during Center operations at $10 per hour
- Hands on teaching experience in an after-school tutoring program
- Involvement in scholarly research
- Collaborate/develop relationships with partner school district personnel
- Receive direct instruction from Master Teachers in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, and student empowerment
- Training and professional development opportunities
The Thomas Reynolds Center has hired 6 Graduate Assistants for the 2008-2009 school year to provide strategic academic tutoring in our after-school program. The after-school takes place from 3:00-5:00pm Monday through Thursday beginning on Monday, October 20, 2008 and ending on Thursday, May 21, 2009. Students at-risk for academic failure and students with learning disabilities receive instruction in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics and student empowerment. Students also receive help with their homework with the goal of teaching students skills working towards becoming independent. The Thomas Reynolds Center is beginning its 6th year partnership with Amherst Central School District (specifically Windermere and Smallwood Elementary) servicing students in grades 2nd through 5th. The Thomas Reynolds Center is excited to announce a new partnership with the Aloma D. Johnson Fruit Belt Community Charter School (grades K through 2nd) located at Reverend Dr. Bennett W. Smith Sr. Family Life Center - 833 Michigan Avenue - Buffalo, NY 14203.
Research
The Thomas Reynolds Center will implement anew reading program, RAVE-O: A systematic approach to reading fluency and comprehension with our students beginning January 5, 2009 and continuing for sixteen instructional weeks. The students will be pretested and posted using the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, 2nd Edition (KTEA-II) to measure academic progress in reading. The research question states: What impact does a sixteen week intervention with the RAVE-O reading curriculum, as measured by participant pre/posttest scores on the KTEA-II, 2nd Edition, have upon participants’ reading achievement?
The Thomas Reynolds Center will collect data at our two after-school program instructional sites. These sites are established educational settings, and the project utilizes normal educational practices with all participants. Students will receive 30 minutes of instruction in RAVE-O for days per week, for each of the sixteen weeks of the study.
RAVE-O was developed by Dr. Maryanne Wolf and the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University. The Executive Director, Elizabeth Wright, the Associate Director, Lisa Drewniak, Assistant Professor, Education Department, Dr. Susan Krickovich and the 6 Graduate Assistants have all received training in RAVE-O from Tufts University representatives.
With written parental consent to participate in the Thomas Reynolds Center, parent/guardians agree to have their child assessed. The summer of 2009 will be spent statistically analyzing data collected. In addition, a literature review, methodologies, findings, results, and conclusions will be written under the direction of Elizabeth Wright.