The College School's new home seems to have something for everyone.

The students, ages 6-14, who attend the school on the UD campus, like having their own lockers for the first time. Teachers like having plenty of windows in the spacious classrooms. Director Jeanne Geddes-Key likes having a room set aside for art, cooking and other "special" classes, which no longer must travel from classroom to classroom on a cart. Parents like the additional space, which has enabled the school to expand from 44 to 55 students and to reduce its waiting list for enrollment.

And everybody likes the colorful new iMac computers--one for each student in the private, tuition-supported school operated by CHEP.

"The classrooms in our old location were adequate, but they weren't great," Geddes-Key says, referring to the school's former site in the Willard Hall Education Building, where, for example, the rooms had no windows. "These new ones in Alison Hall are great. The whole space is very pleasant and conducive to learning."

The additional space, enrollment and amenities this year enhance The College School in many ways, but its philosophy and focus remain unchanged, Geddes-Key says. As always, she says, the school features flexible ability groupings and a great deal of individual attention for each student, made possible through small class sizes and significant assistance from undergraduate and graduate students in CHEP's School of Education and student volunteers from throughout the University.

Children enroll in The College School to work through academic, social or other problems they have experienced in their previous schools, Geddes-Key says. The College School is designed to be a transition program, in which teachers identify and target the skills on which each particular student needs to work. After an average of two or three years, students normally move into a more mainstream educational environment.

Each class at The College School consists of 11 students, a teacher and a teaching assistant. In addition, about 125 UD students each semester are involved in some aspect of the program. Many are CHEP teacher education students who, as part of their educational methods courses, assist each week in The College School classrooms. Others tutor children one-on-one, working to help them develop their skills in specific areas. The University students' work is overseen by the classroom teachers, all of whom are certified in special education.

"Our goal is for each student to receive a one-hour individual tutoring session four days a week," Geddes-Key says. "With all the help we get from UD students, we're generally able to meet that goal."

For Rachel Kramer, CHEP 2002, an individual and family studies major who plans to attend graduate school and then teach children with disabilities, working at The College School has been valuable. "The good experience I had here helped me decide that I want a career working with children," she says.

The school benefits not only from the help of University students, but also from the expertise of faculty and staff, Geddes-Key says. This year, for example, CHEP's Office of Educational Technology (OET) is working with the youngsters on ways to integrate the use of computers into all aspects of the curriculum.

The College School always has emphasized technology, but the new space and new computers, purchased by CHEP for the school, have given those efforts a boost. Patricia Sine, director of OET, visits the school frequently as part of the technology initiative and helps the teachers develop their own and their students' computer skills.

"Since the students each have their own computer, they can learn to work the way adults do--using the computer as a tool to do their everyday work, not limiting themselves to a 30-minute computer class once a week," Sine says.

The College School's young students, who visited Alison Hall regularly last school year to watch the renovations progress, are "delighted" with the computers and with the new location in general, Geddes-Key says.

--Ann Manser