Center For School Success

The Center for School Success (CSS) helps students, teachers and parents understand and manage specific breakdowns in learning.

CSS services shift the focus from what individual students can’t do, to what they can do and provide strategies to promote self-advocacy and school success.

Center for School Success
79 East Wilder Road
West Lebanon, N.H. 03784
Ph: (603) 298-6700
Fax: (603) 298-6703

learning

21687
parents and teachers
have discovered that there is potential
in every student

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learning assessments • teacher training • community workshops

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WHAT is CSS?
The Center for School Success (CSS) helps students who struggle with learning achieve
measurable success inschool and in life. CSS is dedicated to promoting this success
through a community model of collaborativesupport among the individual students,
their parents, teachers and health care providers.

Located on the banks of the Connecticut River in West Lebanon, New Hampshire,
the Center’s serene location was intentionally chosen to provide a relaxing atmosphere.
CSS professional staff are noted for their welcoming and upbeat interactions with
students and their families. CSS believes that every student deserves an opportunity to better understand the way s/he learns; providing an
inviting environment is one way to begin this journey.

"The discovery of finding CSS
a tthe end of a winding
country road is an appropriate
metaphor for how I began to
identifymy child's approch to
learning and what strategies
she, her mother and I could use
to promote her school success.
Once arriving at, we all
immediately felt at ease in
the comfortable, warm atmosphere ...
and the staff made immediate
connections with my daughter."
–BRIAN, FATHER OF
A 10YEAROLD GIRL

WHY does my child struggle in school?
As they grow and develop, most children sooner or later face learning situations
for which their brains simply aren’t wired. It would be unrealistic to expect all
students to excel at everything in school all the time — such an expectation
inevitably leads tostress for both students and parents.

At the Center for School Success (CSS), we work with students who experience
learning challenges. Our model focuses on students, grades 2 through 12, who are
educated within general education classrooms. Our services are based on the work of
Dr. Mel Levine, noted pediatrician and author of A Mind at a Time.
Over the past 30 years, Dr. Levine has developed a framework for looking
at the various ways children learn and how students, parents, teachers and health
care providers can help struggling students be more successful at school.

“Some children end up paying
an exorbitantprice for having
the kind of mind they were
born with. Through no fault
of their own, they are the
owners of brains that somehow
don’t mesh with the
demands they come up
against... There is much that
parents and teachers can do to
redeem such kids, all of whom
possess remarkable strength
waiting to be tapped.”
-DR. MEL LEVINE,
A MIND AT A TIME

HOW can CSS help?
Our specially trained interdisciplinary teams include a learning specialist, a
clinical psychologist and adevelopmental pediatrician. Our approach is to
understand each student who comes to us and to uncover the individual
ways in which that student learns best.

Each student receives a comprehensive assessment that identifies the
neurodevelopmental strengths and weaknesses that affect the student’s learning.
Those strengths and weaknesses are then linked to specificacademic skills.
For example, to uncover why a student struggles with spelling, CSS clinicians might
examine the student’s memory, attention, sequencing and language abilities.

The team gathers information prior to and during the assessment and produces a
detailed learning profile specific to each student. We recognize and appreciate that
every student has a mixed profile — stronger in some skill areas than in others.
Once the student’s individual profile has been identified, CSS clinicians then
focus on ways to leverage a student’s strengths to help improve areas of learning difficulty.

“The CSSlearning specialist...
was able to use strategies and
techniques to get information
out of my son’s ‘file cabinet’
(brain) that I didn’tthink that
he knew.”
— PATTIE, MOTHER OF A
14YEAROLD BOY

CAN CSS help every student?
Our model is not suitable for students with severe learning needs. Children with significantly
delayed cognitive functioning or emotional/behavioral difficulties would benefit from
specialized assessments related to their specific needs. Your pediatrician should be able to
refer you to an appropriate evaluation facility in your area.

Because of the focus of the CSS assessment, IQ or standardized achievement test scores are
not provided. Labels are not used (e.g., “learning disabled,” “ADHD”) in reports or
explanations to parents. Consequently,CSS assessments are not designed to determine eligibility
for special education services.

Success is like a vitamin.
Everyone needs some of it.
When you don’thave enough
success, it’s hard to feel very
good about who you are.
DR. MEL LEVINE,
KEEPING A HEAD IN SCHOOL

WHAT does a CSS assessment envolve?
The assessment focuses on a student’s brain development as it relates to his/her learning
(such as language,memory and motor skills). It also covers the student’s skills and
productivity in academic areas includingreading, writing and math. The assessment is a
dynamic, interactive process. Clinicians engage students,talking with them about how they
approach problems and experimenting with possible teaching techniques and strategies.

Typically, the assessment day provides an educational experience for both parents and
students. A CSS family liaison joins parents while they observe their child through a
oneway mirror.The liaison’s role is to helpparents better understand the student’s
unique learning profile by explaining the various assessment measures chosen by the
cliicians and answering parents’ questions as they watch. At the end of the assess-
ment day, a member of the clinician team meets with the student, and in some cases
with the parent(s), to explain the preliminary findings and to begin to map out strategies
for success.

“The way she experienced
the assessment was so
reaffirming ...It allowed her to
see her differences in a
positive light.”
— BARBARA, MOTHER OF
AN 11YEAROLD GIRL

WILL I receive a written report ?
Following the assessment, students and parents receive a comprehensive report that includes:

• A review of the neurodevelopmental and educational assessment;
• A learning profile summary;
• A customized learning plan; and
• A onepage management plan based on the learning plan that contains
the most pertinent ways parents can help their child address his/her learning
difficulties and maximize his/her strengths.

Although the reports are written with the student and his/her family as the
intended audience, specific sections are designed to share with teachers, health care
providers and other clinicians. Recommendationsmade in the learning plan section
can be implemented both at home and in school.

“The report I received from
CSS was so different from
previous testing. Before, I felt
like I was reading about
someone else’s child that
I didn’t know, butt he report
captured my son on every page.”
— BETH, MOTHER OF
AN 8 YEAR OLD BOY

WHAT else can CSS do for families?
At CSS, we realize it takes time and support to move from being aware of learning differences
to making lasting changes in behavior. That’s why we offer and encourage followup coaching
to assist students and parents in implementing learning plan recommendations at both home
and school.

Our ultimate goal is to help struggling students achieve success in school by:

• Becoming aware of their learning strengths and weaknesses;
• Identifying and practicing the appropriate strategies; and
• Learning how to advocate for themselves in order to achieve that success.

“There’s a huge difference
between a labeled student
and an empowered student. My
‘labeled’student secretly
hoped tha the was smart but
was resigned to not doing well
My ‘empowered’ student is gaining
confidenceas a few adaptations
allow him to show his teachers
how smart he really is.
He now appreciates his
strengths and takes responsibility
for his weaknesses.”
— LACEY, MOTHER OF
A 10YEAROLD BOY

At the Center for School Success (CSS) we believe that students need to know how they learn best; teachers need to know how to address the unique strengths and needs of all their students; and parents need to know how to support their children’s learning strengths and challenges.

Hosted By: Scott, Hawkins Group Communications