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Author

David Hudson Tuthill

David Hudson Tuthill
David Hudson Tuthill

David Hudson Tuthill is SUFS’ Safe and Healthy Schools Coordinator and a member of the Policy and Public Affairs (PAPA) team. He is a product of 13 years of education choice in the magnet programs of Pinellas County Schools. He has been with SUFS since May 2017 and lives in St. Petersburg, FL. You can reach him at dhudson@stepupforstudents.org or 727-451-9835.

Advocate VoicesEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedParent EmpowermentParental ChoicePodcastSchool Choice

podcastED: an interview with education choice advocate Virginia Walden Ford

David Hudson Tuthill December 5, 2019
David Hudson Tuthill

Education choice advocate Virginia Walden Ford served as the inspiration for a new independent movie that chronicles the creation of the Opportunity Scholarship Program in Washington, D.C.

Editor’s note: For more than two decades, education choice advocate Virginia Walden Ford has tirelessly championed families and students living in lower-income neighborhoods to ensure that all children have the academic options they deserve.

After growing up in Little Rock, Ark., during the battle for school integration, Walden Ford led the fight for the Opportunity Scholarship Program in Washington, D.C. Her passion for education equality was ignited as she witnessed, as the single mother of three children, the need for more education choices for all families.

Now, her story has been made into a movie starring Uzo Aduba, Matthew Modine and Vanessa Williams. Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, is bringing three free screenings of the film to Florida Dec. 8, 9 and 10 in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa, respectively. Walden Ford will be present at all three shows and will do a talk-back following the Tampa screening.

The Jacksonville and Orlando shows are sold out, but RSVPs are still being accepted for the Tampa screening here.

Step Up For Students advocacy coordinator David Hudson Tuthill recorded an exclusive interview with Walden Ford Tuesday in which she discussed her children’s diverse academic needs, the effect of neighborhood drug and gang activity on their learning, and her growing conviction that someone had to stand up and be the voice for children in the D.C. area and across the country.

We hope you enjoy the podcast.

https://www.redefinedonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Miss-Virginia-EDIT.mp3

 

December 5, 2019 0 comment
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Jacksonville School for Autism
Education ReportingPrivate SchoolsSpecial Education

revisitED: Jacksonville School for Autism helps students adapt to outside world

David Hudson Tuthill April 27, 2019
David Hudson Tuthill

Teachers and therapists at the Jacksonville School for Autism often work one-on-one with students.

Editor’s note: redefinED is supporting National Autism Awareness Month each Saturday in April by reposting articles from our archives that celebrate those who champion the educational rights of children with autism. Today’s post, which originally appeared in March 2018, features a couple whose desire to help their son led them to open an education center for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

By Livi Stanford

Michelle Dunham was troubled as she watched her son, Nick, struggle in school.

He had autism and was grouped in a classroom with children with different learning disabilities at a public school.

Dunham described her son as a gentle giant who hovers around 6’3. But he’s also non-verbal. She felt he needed one-on-one support to succeed academically. She didn’t fault his teachers, who were doing all they could to help. But to thrive, Dunham said, he needed an intensive learning environment.

“They had no resources to support him,” she said.

She talked things over with fellow parents. They encouraged her to start a school of her own.

Dunham and her husband opened the Jacksonville School for Autism in 2005, as a nonprofit K-12 educational center for children ages 2-22 with Autism Spectrum Disorder — a neurological condition characterized by a wide range of symptoms that often include challenges with social skills, repetitive behavior, speech and communication.

In 2007, the CDC reported 1 in 150 children were diagnosed with autism. Now, 1 in 68 children get diagnosed.

Dunham views the school as one part of a growing societal recognition that, with the right support, people with autism can flourish.

She started the school with the Schuldt family, which has an autistic daughter named Sarah.

“We were two families that could not find the right environment for our children,” Dunham said. “Our kids needed to have more intensive therapeutic support. We wanted it to be an environment that was full of enrichment and resources: a safe environment for kids to learn.”

Individualized learning

Since its founding, the school has blossomed, with 51 students and 50 therapists and classroom teachers. With a 22,000-square-foot building and funding entirely from donations and student scholarships, the school is close to maxing out its space. Ten JSA students receive a Gardiner Scholarship from Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog. Meanwhile, 35 students receive McKay scholarships and six students pay out of pocket.

Dunham said Nick has excelled at the school. Within three months, he started reading.

“He has been able to be participative in his world, because he understands,” Dunham said. “He has been able to show us his intelligence in so many ways.”

The school focuses on helping children with autism and their families by channeling all available resources into supporting students, and by embracing what Dunham calls “outside-the-desk” thinking.

“Children are unique in their learning ability,” Dunham said. “We want to make sure that we leave no stone unturned as far as trying to reach them. If it requires a natural teaching environment, we do that. Whatever it takes to help them.”

The school’s model blends highly structured classroom teaching environments and ABA clinical therapy. Applied Behavioral Analysis is a therapeutic approach that helps people with autism improve their communication, social and academic skills.

Chrystal Ramos, a clinical therapist at the school for the past two years, said lesson plans are tailored to students’ individual needs.

“When I was teaching at different schools that had lesson plans that we had to follow, it was not catered to each child,” she said. “A lot of students that were having trouble were falling through the cracks. We couldn’t focus on their needs. It was following the lesson plan.”

Trina Middleton, educational director at JSA, said many children have “splinter skills.”

They might master higher-level skills in a subject area without being able to demonstrate lower-level skills that educators typically view as building blocks.

For example, a student might be able to add or subtract numbers, but still struggle to match the number seven with a group of seven objects on the table – a concept known as 1:1 correspondence.

Many of the students work one-on-one with a teacher or therapist for half-day or all-day sessions. They also take part in an array of other activities such as music therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, yoga and karate.

Programs like music therapy are designed to cater to students’ interests, while also meeting their therapeutic needs.

“Many individuals with autism have an affinity for water and music,” Dunham said. “One of the things that we have been able to see with our music therapy program is that music for our students doesn’t just grab their attention. It has a healing property to it.”

Krista Vetrano uses costumes to engage with her students.

Building social skills

During a recent visit to JSA, a teacher was dressed up as a painter to engage with students.

Krista Vetrano said she uses costumes to help introduce topics in a fun and creative way — a technique she calls “social modeling.”

Vetrano said she tries to make the characters relate to the topic of the lesson. Characters like Pablo Punctuation or Nanny Noun help teach grammar concepts. They give students the opportunity to ask questions practice getting to know someone different and new.

While the school embeds academics everywhere, the staff is focused on one long-term goal: helping students assimilate to the outside world.

For example, if a student has a fear of public restrooms, they visit the restrooms as a first step in helping the child to overcome his or her fear.

The school uses role-playing to help students understand how to greet people or handle situations like waiting in line.

“It is about making their world bigger and bigger,” Dunham said.

Ready for work

The school also implemented a vocational training program for older students to help them acquire skills to become gainfully employed in the future.

Dunham said she began the program because she wanted Nick to thrive as a citizen. Now she wants to expand the program to allow as many individuals as possible to gain skills.

 “Our goal is not only train (students), but also to help them seek employment and retain employment,” Dunham said.

Dunham said at the end of the day the school will grow as needed to support the student base.

“We don’t want to grow at the expense of quality,” she said. “We want to make sure we don’t change the culture of learning we worked so hard to build for our students and their families.”

Nick takes part in vocational training at Publix.

His mother describes him as an anxious young man who has difficulty standing in one place. He craves order.

His job at the grocery store is to stack fruit on the shelves, which Dunham described as a perfect fit for him.

“When he goes into Publix and puts his apron on there is a calmness about him,” Middleton said. “He is actually participating and being expected to be responsible for a job that he enjoys and plays to his skill set. His pacing and anxiety decrease.”

Dunham said her son craves social interaction.

“He really loves to be around people,” she said. “That is one of the reasons he enjoys Publix.”

Life with autism

Kristopher Turcotte recently moved with his wife and son from South Carolina to Jacksonville. He was looking for options for his 8-year-old son, who has autism.

“This was one of the best options that we could find,” he said of JSA.

Since his son has enrolled in the school this summer he has acquired more speech.

“He has problems with social settings,” Turcotte said. “That is one of the things that the school has worked with him on.”

Dunham explained some students with autism also suffer from food allergies and sleep deprivation, or have a sensitivity to light and sound.

While all teens struggle with puberty, Dunham said for students with autism it is a “mountain to climb.”

She explained many teenagers with autism do not understand what is happening to their bodies. Some develop seizures.

“Puberty can bring out anxiety and aggression in our children,” she said. “We work with the children trying to obviously look for these indicators and what is happening in their life and try to support them first.”

Dunham worries as they grow up and leave school, they may not have all the support they essentially need.

“What is the next step for these students?” she said.

The statistics about increasing autism diagnoses only highlight the urgency for Dunham to develop a working community to support young adults with autism as they transition to adulthood.

“I am looking at a lifespan model that would provide the educational, vocational and residential support for our young adults,” she said.

April 27, 2019 0 comment
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CustomizationEducation and Public PolicyEducation LegislationEducation PoliticsEducation ReportingPodcastPolicy WonksSchool ChoiceTechnology and InnovationTesting and Accountability

podcastED: Senator Jeff Brandes on the future of public education

David Hudson Tuthill April 17, 2019
David Hudson Tuthill

Sen. Jeff Brandes (R- St. Petersburg)

If you ask Florida Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) what he thinks the education world will look like in the year 2040, he’ll tell you it will be going back to the past.

“I see us moving back to the one-room schoolhouse where we have students of different capabilities working with each other to help everyone rise,” Brandes says.

The Pinellas County lawmaker pushes innovative education policies every year in the Florida Legislature, but new leadership more focused on education choice appear to be giving his ideas more traction.

His signature education bill this session, SB 226, would expand a mastery-based education pilot program from the three Florida counties currently testing the concept to any district in the state that wishes to participate. The bill wasn’t heard in committee last session but is on track to pass this year with wide bipartisan support. A similar bill is currently awaiting passage in the House.

Listen on iTunes

Brandes firmly believes that the flexibility of mastery-based education and the wide array of options it provides will expand opportunities for students.

“Our goalposts cannot simply be you got an education or degree,” Brandes said. “A job is the goalpost. How do we focus everything that we’re doing to line up to professions that are out there for people who complete their education?”

SB 226 is not a mandate. Districts would have to opt in to participate, and there are unanswered questions about implementation, funding and state-mandated testing. But testing certainly would change under a mastery-based education system.

Brandes says this is a good thing.

“The upside is that we get to take the temperature of each individual student in real time … Why do we need to take the temperature once a year if we’re taking it every day?”

Listen to the full interview below or on iTunes.

http://www.redefinedonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Brandes-FINAL.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

April 17, 2019 1 comment
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Vance Aloupis
Education LegislationEducation PoliticsFundingPodcastSchool ChoiceSpecial EducationTeacher EmpowermentTeacher Quality

podcastED: Rep. Vance Aloupis on early childhood education, school choice

David Hudson Tuthill April 3, 2019
David Hudson Tuthill

Rep. Vance Aloupis (R-Miami)

Rep. Vance Aloupis, R-Miami, narrowly beat his Democratic opponent in 2018 to represent Florida’s 115th District, a seat held by former Education Committee Chair Michael Bileca. One of many freshman members serving this year on House education committees, Aloupis wants to become a legislative leader in early childhood development.

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http://www.redefinedonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Aloupis-FINAL-mp3.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

April 3, 2019 0 comment
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Charter SchoolsCustomizationPrivate SchoolsSchool ChoiceTesting and Accountability

revisitED – Jeb Bush: Information is power for low-income parents

David Hudson Tuthill March 30, 2019
David Hudson Tuthill

Editor’s note: Today, redefinED continues to review pieces published previously on school accountability. This post, which originally appeared in June 2016, features former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in an interview conducted by a student who attended school on a tax credit scholarship.

Jeb and Denisha screenshot

Denisha Merriweather interviews former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on school choice, education politics and more.

All parents should have access to “consumer reports” on schools in their area — public or private, magnet or charter — and be able to choose among them. Once their children are enrolled in a school, they should get meaningful updates on how well they’re doing.

It might seem simple, but for too many parents, that’s not how the school system works, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says in a new interview.

The former Florida governor has returned to his role as chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, and has recently begun outlining a national education agenda.

He sat down recently in his Miami office with Denisha Merriweather, a former tax credit scholarship student, who is now seeking a master’s degree in social work at the University of South Florida. (Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog, helps administer the scholarship program.)

Merriweather asked how schools could help low-income parents make better decisions about where to send their children.

“There ought to be a report card for any school that has any government money, directly or indirectly, going to it, and the report card ought to be easy to understand,” Bush said.

Parents, he said, should also receive detailed information on how well their children are doing, not just in subjects like reading and math, but on other skills like staying on task.

This might seem like an obvious prescription. But only a few school systems in the country have created the kind of system that really allows parents to make informed choices from the full range of potential options. In communities like New Orleans, which have created such systems, parents often take the opportunity to shop around, and many choose move their children to different schools.

“That information is not available for most parents, particularly for low-income parents. But if they had it, they’d make the right choice for their kids, all the time,” Bush said. “I trust a parent, irrespective of their level of income, over a massive school district. It’s not that the people inside the school systems are bad, but they’re not the parent. They’re not the mom.”

“We should already be doing this,” he added. “This is 2016, for crying out loud … We have the tools to do this. The system resists it, because there’s a lot of economic interests at stake.”

See Bush’s full answer in the clip below.

March 30, 2019 0 comment
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Florida Schools RoundupredefinED education roundupRoundups

Miami-Dade scandal, Parkland deaths, Schools of Hope, and more

David Hudson Tuthill March 25, 2019
David Hudson Tuthill

 

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March 25, 2019 0 comment
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Florida Schools RoundupredefinED education roundupRoundups

Arming teachers, MSD principal reassigned, and more

David Hudson Tuthill March 22, 2019
David Hudson Tuthill

 

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March 22, 2019 0 comment
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Florida Schools RoundupredefinED education roundup

House PreK-12 budget, school safety, charter school expansion and more

David Hudson Tuthill March 21, 2019
David Hudson Tuthill

House budget released: The House PreK-12 education budget was released in the appropriations subcommittee Wednesday. The total budget was $21.6 billion, over $500 million less than the proposed budget released by the Senate Tuesday. The differences include nearly $200 less increase in per-pupil funding, and $10 million less in funding for the Gardiner Scholarship. Tampa Bay Times. News Service of Florida.

School safety: After the signing of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Act last year, charter schools in Palm Beach county scrambled to upgrade their security without district support. Palm Beach Post. Student journalists at the University of Florida, under the instruction of Tampa Bay Times editors, spent months assessing the state of the existing program across Florida. They found a variety of approaches — and some bizarre mishaps. Bradenton Herald.

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March 21, 2019 0 comment
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