203-824-7700
Restoring Hope.
Reclaiming Lives.
Innovation in Education provides specialized intervention, education, and support services to at-risk youth, in order to assist them in their efforts to realize their potential and expand their opportunities to meaningfully direct the course of their lives.
About Us
Founded in 2009, Innovation in Education agency administration and direct service staff have provided gender specific, strength based educational and social/behavioral intervention services for both court involved, adjudicated, and at-risk youth for over twenty years.
Our services span the continuum of intervention, from community based educational and support services, to out of district and alternative education, detention programs for youth who can no longer be served within their communities, and specialized programs within residential treatment and detention facilities.
Innovation in Education also provides professional development related to educational advocacy for educational advocates, program officers, juvenile detention officers, and program managers.
Our Voices
I am a feather in a pile of needles
Who worries that I might fly away from my little brother
Who sees the crack in the aluminum pipe
And hopes for more feathers so I can finally take flight
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I am misunderstood
I need the hood
I give a bandaid
And get blood
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I am Kujo
Who is a beast
Who imagines that he’s off the leash
And believes that one day, any way, I’ll be free.
Philosophy
Educators must take into account not only the academic and vocational skills necessary for survival and productivity, but also the social and emotional needs the students bring with them.
A sound educational program must meet the needs of the population it serves; identifying and examining students' needs carefully, as they determine the methods for meeting them. Thus, our educators take into account not only the academic and vocational skills necessary for survival and productivity, but also the social and emotional needs the students bring with them.
In developing and fostering an environment in which students participate and involve themselves in the learning process, a partnership of learning between teachers and students develops. Within this partnership, our teachers continually evaluate, shape, and develop methods that best meet the students individual learning modalities, and students work to develop their own formulas for success through a concentration on the processes that spark social, emotional, and academic understanding. In this way students who have typically struggled educationally "learn how to learn" and consequently, learn how to find meaning.
Our educators serve as models for students by demonstrating that learning is a process, that questioning is essential and that a wide variety of learning strategies and modalities are all acceptable. In order for students to learn, they must feel that learning is relevant. Nearly all students have the desire to learn. It is our responsibility to learn how to spark that desire by providing students the opportunity to consistently participate in authentic learning tasks, and by encouraging an interest and investment in the learning process.
What do we want students to know and be able to do?
As a result of participation in our educational program, what do we want students to know and be able to do?
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Identify education as a meaningful vehicle for self improvement
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Identify themselves as viable learners
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Identify positive/socially acceptable problem solving strategies, and begin to apply them
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Practice Reflection and Self-reflection (taking responsibility, ownership of choices & ability to effect change in themselves, exploration and challenging of pre-conceived ideas about why people are the way they are)
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Identify and develop effective methods for dealing with conflict and anger
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Dispel "eye for an eye" and retaliatory thinking
Services
Comprehensive Educational Services in Residential Programs
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Innovation in Education provides comprehensive educational services for youth who have been court placed in residential programs. By addressing the unique and varied talents, dominant learning modalities, and interests of students, the educational programs are designed to re-engage at-risk youth in learning and assist them in developing the social skills and learning strategies necessary to successfully access future educational and vocational opportunities.
Integrated thematic curriculum, delivered through differentiated instructional methodology is the focus of core instruction and is directly linked to participation in authentic learning tasks. Such experiences translate to practical, applicable educational options for students who might otherwise be minimally invested in the community of learning.
Innovation in Education utilizes varied instructional methodologies designed to meet the unique and varied learning modalities of each individual student. As the individual learning modalities of each student become evident, teachers adjust instructional strategies and learning activities to better facilitate understanding and real life application. All instructional and remedial methodologies selected by Innovation in Education staff are necessarily research-based strategies for improving learning of at-risk youth. The topics for the thematic units of study are related to the educational program’s overarching theme of Resiliency and selected based on relevance and interest level for at-risk youth.
I feel confident on the path
That I am now following
I forgive my past experiences
Understanding that they have created
The person I am today
Professional Development
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Innovation in Education provides professional development related to educational advocacy for educational advocates, juvenile probation officers, program and services officers, classification and program officers, juvenile detention officers, and program managers. The curriculum has included the following topics:
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• Accessing Educational Services for Marginal Students
• Working Collaboratively with School Districts
• The Impact of the Educational Experience on
Pre-Adjudicated and Adjudicated Youth
• Conducting Functional Behavioral Assessments and
Developing Behavior Intervention Plans
• PPT Participation
• The Continuum of Service Delivery Within Schools
• Effective Educational Practices for Marginal Students.
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Educational Advocacy & Consulting
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Innovation in Education provides the following educational services in an effort to re-engage clients in the learning process, ameliorate academic deficits, improve school attendance, improve academic performance, decrease disciplinary incidents, increase grade promotion, and increase graduation rates.
Advocacy
• Educational Consultation and Advocacy
• Comprehensive Educational Case History Review and
Recommendations
• Family School Liaison
Assessment and Evaluation
• Functional Behavioral Assessments and Behavioral
Intervention Plans
• Referrals for Evaluation for Special Education Services
