Berger Baylor and BTC report improved student outcomes and vocational training activities

Dina Jason, director of Berger Baylor and Berger Transition Center, introduced teacher leaders who updated the board on program goals, student demographics and vocational training activities.

Teacher presenters reported the Berger program's first goal — a 5-percentage-point increase in math proficiency on a teacher-created school improvement assessment — had been exceeded (from 44.93% to 56.46% as of April reporting). Presenters also described gains in students' cleaning and independent living tasks, progress on social-emotional goals using the Zones of Regulation framework, and a year-to-year decline in aggressive incidents recorded on behavior-support logs.

Teachers highlighted hands-on vocational opportunities: a coffee cart and a school store called Blaze's Place where students handle orders, money and customer interaction; a baking class that produced cookies served at the board meeting; and a task-box library that supports pre-vocational skills such as stocking and sorting. Presenters described student participation in community job-like activities including bus cleaning and shopping for store inventory.

"We started at 44.93% with a goal to get to 49.93%. And as you see, in April, we had 56.46%. So we achieved it," one teacher said when describing the math proficiency results.

Jason also announced an autism acceptance walk scheduled for Tuesday, April 28, departing BTC at 09:45. The district invited board members and community to participate.

The board responded with thanks for the presentation and praise for the program's hands-on training that serves students across Western Wayne County.