The High Road School of Anne Arundel County is a non-public education program that focuses on academic and behavioral needs of students with special education services.  Our highly structured program is specifically designed to meet the individualized academic and therapeutic needs of students with emotional/behavioral disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, mental retardation, and learning disabilities, as well as other disabilities under IDEA.  Students are referred to the program by local school systems (Anne Arundel County Public Schools and surrounding counties).

Students attending The High Road School of Anne Arundel County work towards transitioning back to a less restrictive environment, and/or pursuing a Maryland High School Diploma or a Maryland Certificate of Completion.

The High Road School of Anne Arundel County seeks to build student confidence and competence through personalized interventions, as well as prepare our students to be independent, successful adults.  We achieve these goals through our specialized program, consisting of three main components: Academics, Behavior Interventions/Counseling, and Transition.

Our academic component focuses on individualized instruction based on student needs and county curriculum.  Students receive instruction in small group and one-to-one instructional settings, with time for independent work and computer assisted instruction.  Our behavioral/counseling component focuses on individual and/or a school-wide behavior management system with built-in incentives and rewards for positive behavior, including field trips, participation in sports teams, and weekly arts and crafts activities. Students have access to their school social worker outside of scheduled services as needed.   Our Transition program incorporates functional life skills as well as career awareness and readiness skills. Many of our students exit the program with referrals to job resources in the community through programs like DORS (Division of Rehabilitative Services).

The High Road School of Anne Arundel County offers a wide array of services for students, including certified Special Education Teachers, a Reading Specialist, staff trained in crisis intervention, school social workers, in-home and/or family therapy, a school Psychiatrist, Speech/Language Services, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy Services.  The school also provides Maryland High School Assessment and Bridge Plan preparation.

Students at The High Road School of Anne Arundel County have the option to participate in a high-interest, self-directed classroom that focuses on career preparation, as well as several community service projects offered throughout the year, such as Adopt-A-Road, volunteering at soup kitchens, and participating in a recycling program.  We have athletic teams that compete in football and basketball, and an academic team that competes with other High Road Schools in the region.  Our students also participate in a region-wide Fine Arts Festival, where students display a variety of talents, from drawing to performance art.

Parent involvement is a critical part of our education program, and parents are encouraged to contact the school at any time.  High Road staff contact home weekly to address student progress as well as parent/guardian ideas and concerns.  In addition, our parent newsletter is sent home monthly.

Holiday Breakfast

The holiday breakfast at High Road School of Anne Arundel County was well attended this year! Students, staff, families and county placement specialists enjoyed a breakfast prepared by staff members and holiday activities in the classrooms. What a wonderful time of the year to celebrate each other’s company and the amazing accomplishments of our students! Happy holidays!

Graduating Seniors of the Class of 2011! 

The High Road Schools of the Maryland North Region and New Hope Academy are extremely proud of the graduating seniors of the Class of 2011!  Our students region- wide are pursuing degrees at 2 year colleges and 4 year universities; attending nursing school; and beginning internships and apprenticeships.  We wish them the best of luck in all of their future endeavors!

Project IMPACT

In a collaborated effort, High Road Schools of Perryville, Anne Arundel County, and Baltimore County took a group of students to the Maryland Correctional Institution-Jessup, a medium-security male facility. This tour is part of Project IMPACT (Inmates Making Positive Attempts to Change Teens). School social workers planned the visit for twelve students and seven staff members. The High Road group arrived at Jessup and were led on a five hour tour by several prison inmates and two sergeants. Students had the opportunity to sample prison lunch (served at 10:30am!), visit a locked down isolation cell, see the building where gang members are incarcerated, and see the prison dormitory for older inmates. Throughout the tour, inmates spoke with the students and answered questions about life in prison. Students were taught about the lack of privacy, the isolation from friends and family, and the safety concerns that exist in prison. At the end of the tour, the inmates shared their personal stories and lessons they have learned the hard way. Several inmates emphasized making good choices, staying away from drugs and violence, and the importance of family. One inmate stated, “You don’t realize how good you have it and how much your family cares about you.” On the way home from the field trip, the students participated in an engaging discussion about what they saw and how they can make personal changes in their own life to make better choices on a daily basis. According to one Anne Arundel County student, “I am going to change my life and stay away from the gangs in my neighborhood because those guys don’t really have my back.  I don’t want to end up there!”

North Bay Field Trip

I want to begin by thanking all of the parents for their cooperation on returning the pages of paperwork necessary to make this trip possible. The staff that gave up their time to stay with the students over night deserves an abundance of gratitude.  Last, but definitely not least, the New Hope and High Road students that went on the trip need to be commended the most.  They showed a tremendous amount of respect for the North Bay staff and the facility, and enthusiastically bought into the message North Bay was sending to them about conservation and taking individual responsibility about the environment that is immediately around them.
 We arrived March 15th at about 11:30am and immediately were greeted by an enthusiastic and friendly group of North Bay staff members that ushered us to our cabins and then lunch (which I will say was phenomenal) of chicken tacos.  After lunch, the fun really began! The North Bay staff had us split into groups and we rotated around the facility going from the ropes course, to the scales and tales animal presentation, to a giant rope swing, the nature hike, and finally the 150 yard zip line.  It was more fun than I had ever seen our students have on a field trip, that‘s for sure.   After those 5 fun-filled hours, we headed back to the dining hall for a spaghetti dinner.  We went from the dinner to the game room where the students enjoyed shooting pool, playing table tennis, and of course, eating smores.  After all that fun, students began to show signs of sleepiness.  We watched the movie “Despicable Me” but I would guess only about half of the students made it through the movie without falling asleep.  We were a worn out group of campers.  We awoke the next morning to breakfast and headed out to learn about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”.  This presentation proved to be motivational to all of the students as they picked up about 8 huge bags full of garbage and half a dozen tires from the beach.  Seeing all they accomplished, the students walked to lunch with a feeling of pride.  They cleaned the beach for the sake of cleaning the beach.  They weren’t paid; they just cleaned the beach because it was the right thing to do.  After lunch, we gathered our things and headed back to school.  
Thank you to everyone that had even the smallest part in making this happen.  This is a field trip that, I’m sure, the students will never forget; I know I never will.  I really look forward to next year’s trip.
-Mr. John Lochte

Gold Level Student

Cody B. is Anne Arundel County’s first ever gold level student!  Since his first day at High Road, Cody has yet to earn a single minus on his point sheet. On gold level, the absolute highest behavioral level, Cody enjoys many privileges, incentives and more autonomy. He has advocated for himself appropriately on many occasions regarding his educational and behavioral plans, and has even written motivational advice to other students in the school. 

He is passionate about students helping themselves, using positive coping skills and becoming more self-aware. Cody loves to play on the school’s Wii and has helped younger students learn how to play.  He is currently a volunteer at an animal shelter in his community where some of his responsibilities include cleaning cages, feeding and walking abandoned and abused dogs. He is also an integral part of the football and basketball teams. Cody is scheduled to graduate in June.

Grand Opening!!

On November 30th, the High Road School of Anne Arundel County had an amazing grand opening celebration! The “Blue Crabs” celebrated the open house with special classroom activities, a catered breakfast, raffle drawings for prizes and a caricaturist on site to do portraits for students!

The best part of the day though was getting to show off their new school to all of the guests! Parents and several special education case managers from Anne Arundel County enjoyed school tours given by students. Ms. Megan commented “It was incredible to see the students show off their school spirit and school pride to all of our visitors today!

Open for Learning

The staff and students at the High Road School of Anne Arundel County are thrilled to have relocated to their new building in Millersville, MD. The newly renovated space has lots of great features including large classrooms, a bright modern library, a fully loaded and completely up to date transition room and an impressive student work space, which will be utilized for teaching carpentry and construction skills.

During the weeks leading up to the move, the students voted on school colors and a new school mascot. Navy and gold are now the official school colors in honor of the naval academy located nearby in Annapolis and the fighting blue crab is the official mascot in celebration of our Maryland heritage.

With a staff this enthusiastic and students this eager to learn, this is bound to be a very successful school year!

Reading Specialist

The Reading Specialist position can hold a number of different roles within a variety of school settings. This position is found at all levels, from elementary through high school, private and public schools. The primary role of a person in this position is sometimes a coach for classroom teachers and other times as one-on-one intervention teacher. In my position at High Road, I wish to fill both of these roles as intervention teacher and coach.

The students who meet with a Reading Specialist are most often recommended by their classroom teachers or Administrators. These referrals are based upon discrepancies in potential ability and performance, or reading skills that are far below what would be expected. When a student is referred, further testing is completed to determine the most effective course of action. I use a variety of assessments such as the QRI-IV (Qualitative Reading Inventory, 4th edition), and vocabulary and phonics surveys. These assessments allow me to identify whether a student’s weaknesses are in decoding alone, comprehension, or a combination of both.

Following the individualized nature of our school programs, I am able to decide upon a plan with the classroom teacher that best meets each student’s needs. This may come in the form of individualized intervention in phonics utilizing one of a number of research-based programs, or as supplementary activities to assist the classroom teacher. If a student has strengths in phonemic awareness but weaknesses in comprehension, their plan for individualized sessions will reflect that. 

Some of the programs utilized in our schools include: Edmark Reading, Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Reading. Each of these is a research proven program that addresses the ‘Big 5’ areas of Literacy: Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension. Through these programs, students are offered intense, individualized instruction in the areas with demonstrated weaknesses.

It is our responsibility as educators to ensure that students have the opportunity to reach their potential. It is my wish that each of our students find independence in their reading, and that such independence helps them reach their goals.

List of Reading Interventions

Transition Program

All of the programming that is designed to transition the student from school to work emphasizes preparation for productive employment after graduation. To make this employment as successful and fulfilling as possible, we help the student explore his or her interests and then build upon natural talents in choosing possible career paths. As students mature, we encourage them to gradually become more self reliant. Our Transitional Services staff aids in this process by giving the students just the right amount of independence and interaction with the wider community, while still providing the supports necessary for the students to feel secure and confident.

School-to-Work Program
Our School- to Work Program offers students the opportunity to participate in true- to- life jobs within the school setting. The end goal of the program is to develop the student’s employment skills and social skills in order to maximize their potential for success in the real world. As such, students seek to obtain jobs by first filling out an application and interviewing for the position they are interested in, as they would in real life. Once the student obtains a suitable position at school, they are held accountable for their attendance and performance, so we work with them on such aspects of employment as punctuality, responsibility, and working independently. Many of the jobs the students procure involve our student - run on the premises retail business. Students participating in the School-to-Work Program are trained to operate many of the state- of- the- art machines that make customized products for sale through this retail business.

Community Work
New Hope Academy affords students the opportunity to take their learning outside of the classroom and transfer it into the community. We work with our students to practice the proficiencies they have mastered in the School- to- Work Program, and then, when a student is ready, a job coach accompanies them to volunteer or paid job sites out in the community. We partner with a wide array of local- area businesses, including restaurants, hospitals, preschools, and retail shops, to expose the students to real - life work experience and social interactions. In this way, students can explore numerous career avenues and gain valuable work experience to list on their resumes.

Building student skills and confidence

The High Road School of Anne Arundel County can boast of a completely unique component to their transition program this year. Students working with the transition staff will be able to utilize the “Student Work Space” This is a separate area outside of the transition room that students will create into a functional work space literally from the ground up. Mr. Dan, transition coordinator, stated “The end goal for this space is to have a safe and educational environment where students can learn and master carpentry and woodworking skills. This is an area of high interest for many of our students and we need to make learning and practicing these trade skills accessible to them”

The students have a blank slate to work with, as of right now. The Student Work Space consists of 4 concrete walls and a concrete floor. Mr. Dan will put together a team of students that will lay a tile floor, put up drywall, paint, build shelves and install carpentry and woodworking equipment. Check back for before and after photos!

Parent Survey

click here for Parent Survey

Parent Resource Information

Official site for Anne Arundel County public schools
www.aacps.org
 
Anne Arundel County Asperger Support Group
www.aacaps.org
 
Anne Arundel County Chapter of the Autism Society
www.aaccasa.org
 
 NAMI(National Alliance on Mental Illness) Family Support Group
www.localcommunities.org/lc/namiAAcounty
 
Special Olympics Maryland, Anne Arundel County
www.soaamd.org
 
Shelter Resources:
Sarah's House (Fort Meade) 410-551-7723
Light House (Annapolis) 410-263-1835
 
Clothing Resouces:
Salvation Army- 410-263-4091
 
Food Resources:
Department of Social Services- 410-269-4500
Food Bank (Crownsville) 410-923-4255
Food Link (Annapolis) 410-222-7853
 
Health/ Dental Resources:
REACH- 410-222-4531
Stanton Clinic (Annapolis) 443-481-3599
Ask a Nurse (Annapolis) 410-573-5490
South Baltimore Family Health Centers
(Baltimore) 410-354-2000 (Brooklyn) 410-355-0343
Dental Health Services 410-222-7138
Maryland Children's Health Program- 410-222-4792
 
Job Training Resources:
Workforce Development- 410-424-3240
YWCA Career Services- 410-626-7800