Unique Students. Unique School.
Why VSA?
From helping students with dyslexia and concurrent disabilities like dysgraphia and executive functioning challenges, to working with programs like Every Child Reading to hold summer camps, learn more about what VSA has to offer your child.
Vertical Skills Academy (VSA), is a non-profit intervention school offering intense remediation in academic skills for students with reading or language-based disabilities. Many of our students who have dyslexia also have dysgraphia, dyscalculia, language processing deficits, written expression disorders, issues with executive functioning and working memory, ADHD and learning disabilities in math. Although our students at VSA have been diagnosed with dyslexia, we believe their diagnosis is a gift and have created a nurturing environment to allow our students to flourish and achieve their goals. Most students attend VSA for a few years and then are ready to integrate back into their home school. Here are some ways that VSA helps our students thrive:
- 3.5 hours of literacy instruction a day provided.
- Orton-Gillingham (OG) approach used in ALL subjects.
- 55 min OG tutoring session built into the daily schedule.
- English Language Arts (ELA) time is based on highly engaging, authentic text using the EL Education Curriculum.
- ELA teachers use accommodations such as text-to-speech and speech-to-text to meet students’ needs during ELA time.
- Most students move back to their home school in 2-3 years.
- Daily tutoring sessions limited to 3:1 student to teacher ratio in order to cater individually to students’ literacy needs.
- Elementary Classes capped at 8:1; Middle school classes capped at 10:1.
- All staff have been trained in Orton-Gillingham methodology in order to cater specifically to our students with dyslexia.
- Many of our teachers have advanced degrees, as well as advanced training in Yoshimoto OG.
- Teachers follow Colorado State Standards and Common Core Standards in all subjects so that students do not fall behind from their peers in public schools.
- Science classes adhere to federal NGSS standards.
- The curriculum is delivered in a creative and relatable fashion, individualized to each student, so that students can connect to it in a way that makes sense to them.
- All students receive their own Chromebook provided by the school, preloaded with learning apps such as Type to Learn, Reading A-Z, Kiddom, Learning Ally and IXL.
- Students are explicitly taught how to use speech-to-text and text-to-speech tools to help them write longer assignments and read higher-level text online.