Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Special Education Curriculum topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Revere Local teachers propose TeachTown curriculum to expand transition supports for 'super seniors'
Summary
District staff proposed adopting TeachTown, an evidence-based, leveled curriculum to support students with moderate-to-intensive needs who will remain in school beyond social graduation; presenters said upfront professional development raises first-year costs but promises richer materials and better data for IEPs.
Melody, a special-education teacher at the high school, told the Revere Local Board that staff are proposing adoption of TeachTown to support a cohort of students they call “super seniors” — pupils who will socially graduate but remain in school to continue vocational and life-skills training.
“We have 11 kids this year. We work with the students with the most intensive needs,” Melody said, describing a shared-teacher model with Jordan Martin and a curriculum that offers tiered levels so students can access the same texts at different levels. She said TeachTown embeds accommodations, uses video modeling and provides scenario-based problem solving to teach routine tasks and generalization across settings.
Advocates described TeachTown as a full curriculum that covers ELA, math, science and social studies while also focusing on transition skills such as cooking, money handling and community employment. Melody said the program’s adapted novels and leveled readers allow students to “read the same book together” at the level appropriate to each learner.
Presenters contrasted TeachTown with the district’s current Unique Learning System, calling Unique “more of a supplement” that requires teachers to create additional materials. “Unique has served its purpose but this one has just taken it to the next level,” one presenter said. Melody added, “I don’t have [the data tracking I need] with Unique currently. TeachTown allows me to do that.”
Staff gave a rough cost picture during the presentation: attendees were told Unique’s recurring costs can be about $30 per student per year for certain features, while TeachTown carries higher upfront costs because professional development and adapted materials make up a substantial portion of the first-year expense. Presenters said roughly half of initial-year costs would go to professional development and that the vendor supplied multiple quotes from which the district negotiated a smaller package.
Curtis Richardson was named as the TeachTown contact who provided demos and sample materials. Presenters also outlined a five-year digital-access bundle option (cited as an example package for 10 students) and said that after the initial term annual costs would be closer to current yearly expenditures.
Teachers described community partnerships already in development to provide work-based experiences — including outreach to local businesses and organizations to provide mock-store practice, ServeSafe certificates and in-house job simulations in which students would “clock in” on iPads and practice customer-service tasks.
Board members asked for materials to be shared; presenters agreed to leave handouts, provide the PowerPoint by email and respond to follow-up questions. Staff characterized the proposal as a pilot/rollout possibly beginning next year with required professional development to ensure successful implementation.
Next steps: board members will review the materials and consider the proposal at a subsequent meeting; no formal procurement decision or vote was taken during this session.
