What we do at Two Roads Academy
Acceptance & commitment therapy, Social emotioal Learning and Individualized education all combined with Trauma INformed care
Two Roads Academy (TRA) is an approved therapeutic independent school located in Colchester, Vermont, serving upper middle and high school students, ages 10-21. At this time, TRA is focused on serving students in Grade 8-12; this allows for more targeted academic instruction, and tailored social skills programming for students.
We are an inclusive program available to learners of differing abilities, disabilities, and diagnoses. TRA offers small group instruction with the ability to differentiate and individualize based on student need. We provide a developmentally appropriate, therapeutic learning environment for students whose needs cannot be met in their home schools.
Interwoven throughout our programming are components of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) with Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), trauma-informed perspective, and restorative practices. We believe that by taking this approach, we can provide students an academic experience where they feel successful and supported, in an environment that fosters inclusion, embodies radical acceptance, and de-stigmatizes educational gaps and differences in individual abilities, styles, and approaches to learning.
At TRA our work is supported by an integration of three approaches to learning that we have termed our three pillars. Each of these pillars is an effective and evidence-based approach to learning and behavior change. When combined, they become a powerful foundation for sustainable growth and learning. Our three pillars consist of: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Individualized Learning, Social and Emotional Learning.
We believe that a student's success starts with their willingness to engage in the educational and social and emotional programming offered at Two Roads Academy. We ask that students are willing to make choices which can support them in living in alignment with their values, and that move them closer to their goals. We believe that students should be at the center of, and the helm of their learning and choices. TRA teaching and professional staff are there to support and guide students in making choices which move them towards their goals.
Two Roads Academy can look different for students; we can be a transitional program for students who desire to transition back to their sending school, we can support students in finding the right educational fit for them, or, we may be the just right educational setting and can support students in completing their educational journey with us. While their sending school is responsible for issuing the diploma, we conduct our own graduation ceremonies for students.
Therapeutic: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Pillar
ACT is a model of values driven behavior change that increases a person’s psychological flexibility. Through this model we teach students how to become aware of their own values, and notice how their behavior is moving them toward or away from those values. In the process, students learn how to notice thoughts and feelings that come up for them (whether aversive or pleasant) and make some space between those thoughts and feelings and the behaviors in which they engage.
Developing these skills of noticing, accepting, and engaging in values-driven behaviors allows what some might consider time to ‘think before you act’. ACT also helps develop a set of tools to increase perspective taking.
The empirical support for ACT as an effective model for social emotional learning and growth is robust and growing. Currently over 300 randomized control trials have demonstrated that the use of ACT has decreased psychological suffering and led to more functioning and workable engagement with life. Students engage in weekly sessions with our ACT therapists.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is embedded in everything we do at Two Roads Academy. Students receive consistent social coaching and support from our highly qualified staff throughout each day and across all settings. At Two Roads, we also provide each student with individual SEL opportunities through (1) Behavioral Supports and (2) the “MySELF” program.
Behavioral Supports: At Two Roads Academy, we offer individualized behavior programming for every student created by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). These plans are written to give students the opportunity to learn and practice functional communication skills and prosocial behaviors that will aid them in better accessing their education and community. At TRA, we focus on teaching and reinforcing behavioral and psychological skills that will open up each student's world. The overall goal of our behavioral programming is to coach and provide support to students while they increase behavioral & psychological flexibility, learn self-advocacy & self-awareness skills, and ultimately, become positive agents of change in their own lives. Behavioral Support at Two Roads Academy is rooted in Applied Behavior Analysis, which is an empirically based science, where plans are created through ongoing observation with data-based decision-making to produce socially significant outcomes for those being served. With this highly individualized, function-based approach, we can ensure that we will always be able to meet students where they are at and provide them with effective therapeutic interventions to get them where they need and want to be.
Social Emotional Learning Foundations (SELF) Class: SELF Class, which focuses on skills based in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, is designed to give all students the opportunity to learn and explore topics related to emotional health and social skills as they pertain to themselves. This program is delivered via direct instruction through carefully selected and designed instruction in the form of videos and worksheets, as well as continuously embedded social coaching by our uniquely and highly qualified Behavior ACTivists.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Pillar
Two Roads Academy academic programming is developed with the intention of educating the whole child. TRA strives to provide targeted academics for students in alignment with graduation requirements; providing individualized, appropriately paced curriculum for students with a specialized focus on the social emotional growth and transferable skills our students need.
Qualified English Language Arts/Social Studies and Math/Science teachers collaborate with TRA’s special educators to design and deliver curriculum and learning tasks which help students progress toward personal (PLPs) and Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s) goals and build transferable skills critical to success in life beyond school. TRA understands that many students have had inconsistent access to new learning, and strives to meet students where they are at and to use research-based, data-driven methods to help students fill gaps in understanding. Our content area teachers and our special educators work together to develop small group lessons which follow the general progression of Vermont's Transferable Skills, Next Generation Science Standards, National Core Arts Standards, Common Core State standards, and PBGRs.
All students are exposed to the same academic content; with our teachers rotating through topics throughout the year in order to address each school’s graduation requirements as they pertain to core content areas. Over the course of two years we touch on the following topics in the core content areas so students who transition back to their sending school have had exposure to the minimum course of study:
Math: Algebra, Statistics and Geometry
Science: Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics
Social Studies: American History, US Government, World History, Geography and Economics
English: Reading and Writing in a variety of texts and styles, finding and citing Textual Evidence
Co-teaching ensures that both an accommodation expert (the special educator) and a content expert (the Math/Science or ELA/SS teacher) are available throughout academic blocks to continuously adapt and modify tasks so all students can access new learning and achieve proficiency in new skill areas. This flexibility also allows the educational team to engage in methods such as project based learning which foster a deeper understanding of concepts and connections across content areas through exploring and answering complex and meaningful questions or collecting data to solve real-world problems. Through a variety of academic tasks, students develop deep content knowledge, critical thinking skills, creativity, and communication skills in the context of authentic, meaningful tasks. Proficiency-based grading is used to track student progress. This method reinforces and supports our focus on building student skills toward independence and transferable proficiency.
