Good Shepherd Options Program aims to make a well-rounded Catholic education accessible to more students and families
DEARBORN — For 12 years, Divine Child High School in Dearborn has offered academic support for students with learning differences to help tackle the challenges of a Catholic school curriculum.
The Instructional Support Program provides students with different learning needs with personalized in-class interventions, individualized accommodation while taking tests, after-school study hours and in-class peer mentors to help students in the classroom.
This year, Divine Child expanded its support to students with developmental and intellectual disabilities by offering its Good Shepherd Options Program, an inclusive, non-diploma track option in which students with atypical learning abilities can be in class, side by side with their peers.
The program aims to make a Catholic education accessible to all students and to include students who previously were separate from the general student population, said Jamesena Ingram, director of academic support programs at Divine Child.
“Divine Child knew there was a growing need for this program in Catholic schools,” Ingram told Detroit Catholic. “The Options Program is for students who have a significant learning difference to be able to have a Catholic education and meet Christ in the Catholic realm of community within Divine Child High School.”
The program allows students with atypical learning abilities to take regular classes at Divine Child with assistance from their fellow students and allows adjustments to the class curriculum and standards to suit the students’ needs and abilities.
The program allows students to have a traditional high school experience with their peers and develop social and intellectual skills. Upon graduation, students in the Good Shepherd program are given a non-diploma certificate they can use in preparation for further vocational training.
“It’s creating a culture of belonging,” Ingram said. “I’ve really seen a huge difference this year with our students being more accepting of students with their differences, being supportive and volunteering to help.”
Forty-five students filled out interest forms to be peer mentors this year, both in the Instructional Support Program and the new Good Shepherd Options Program, which was made possible through a St. Margaret of Costello Grant.
The two-year, $50,000-per-year grant enabled Divine Child to start the program and hire Amanda Parker to be the Good Shepherd Options Program teacher and facilitator of the peer mentor program.
Parker works daily, one on one with students in the Good Shepherd program, along with working with small groups in the Instructional Support Program. She also works alongside the core curriculum teachers in monitoring the progress of the students in the Good Shepherd program, tailoring the curriculum whenever appropriate.
Parker’s main responsibility is monitoring the relationships the peer mentors build in the classroom, which she calls the bedrock of both the Instructional Support Program and the Good Shepherd Options Program.
“The peer mentor program is the cornerstone of our Options Program,” Parker said. “They are so vital in making our students feel included. They are building that bridge between inclusion and true belonging. The teachers teach, they make a connection, but students truly feel part of the school, and it’s their peers who make the effort to make them part of the school atmosphere.”
Griffin Teems, a junior at Divine Child, is one such student who filled out an interest form to be a peer mentor last school year, looking to “change things up” from the usual curriculum.
“A peer mentor is like a friend and mentor all in one,” Teems said. “It’s going to classes with the student, reviewing their planning, and helping them throughout the class. If there is some sort of setup they need, we help them with that, guiding them through their day to be more productive in order to get their work done and make their time at school more successful.”
Last summer, students at Divine Child attended a one-day seminar at the University of Notre Dame to learn how to be peer mentors and the different learning styles and mental processes students with atypical learning behaviors use.
“When we went to Notre Dame, we had people teach us and guide us into how people with different learning styles learn and what we can do to help them through class,” said Divine Child junior Natalie Alexander. “We learned a bunch of different techniques like making sure when I’m talking to someone, to intentionally invite a student with atypical learning abilities to be in the conversation, so they are not left out. Or whenever a student doesn’t understand the assignment, to rephrase it in a way the student will understand.”
Alexander herself has dyslexia and has used tutors in the past to help her with school work, which motivated her to sign up to be a peer mentor so she could help students get the most out of their time at Divine Child.
Having the Good Shepherd Options Program to supplement the Instructional Support Program makes Divine Child all the better as a school, Alexander said.
“I think Divine Child is a great example of a school doing whatever it needs to help students,” Alexander said. “With the ISR and the peer mentoring program, they really helped me and other people like me make sure we understand all of our work and (to check) if we needed anything. And then being open to working with people with different types of disabilities, learning with them, being with them, getting to know them better, it makes everyone feel invited in the school.”
There is one student in the first year of the Good Shepherd Options program, but Ingram said multiple families have expressed interest. The student’s family expressed interest in the program because the student’s sibling attended Divine Child, and the family, who asked to remain anonymous, wanted the same experience for their other child.
“The student had a sibling here, and it was essential for them that their other child could go to Divine Child,” Ingram said. “This family saw this program as a huge blessing for their child. The student’s experience was a little rocky at the start of the school year, but now that they’re here, the family has said they are very blessed. They love the program and have seen tremendous growth in their child in both ability and confidence.”
As the school year progressed, Parker said there has been remarkable improvement in the students’ socialization skills and for the students who are peer mentors.
“We see (the peer mentors) grow when they work with our students who need help in the classroom," Parker said. “We had a parent whose son is a senior and a peer mentor, and the parent was talking about how their students were so excited that they are thinking about working with students with atypical learning skills as a career path.”
Divine Child’s Good Shepherd Options Program follows in the footsteps of other Catholic schools’ inclusion programs, including those at St. Mary Catholic Central in Monroe and Regina High School in Warren.
“We know what our calling is, and we are supposed to accept all, yet there was this particular group of students that we, as Catholic schools, weren’t accepting,” Ingram said. “We were breaking up families in educational settings, telling (some) families ‘no’ and other students ‘yes.’ I think as teachers, we need to adapt and learn more about students with different learning needs and what we can do to accommodate them. Now people are being educated on how to provide these services and deliver on what our schools have been lacking.”
Beyond accepting and teaching more students, the Good Shepherd Options Program also brings the gifts of students with atypical learning needs to Divine Child, making Divine Child a better reflection of the entire people of God, Parker said.
“I think we’re practicing what we preach as Catholics,” Parker said. “We talk about how we’re all created in God’s image, and we all deserve dignity, respect and love, yet we’re not showing that inclusion to the best of our ability. And we know this is not an easy initiative to start; it’s scary, you have to embrace it. But once you do, the benefits far exceed even what you could imagine, because it’s not just the benefits you see on paper; it’s learning to be Christ-like throughout the day with all of God’s creation. It’s beautiful.”
