Sanford Shapiro looks at Oakwood School
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Sanford Shapiro looks at Oakwood School
© 2007 Sanford Shapiro
The Oakwood School in Annandale, Virginia is a small day school for kindergarten through eighth grade students. There are about 110 students at this school in the suburbs of the Washington, DC area. It was started in 1971 and retains the founding director, who was a student at American University at the time of inception. The Oakwood School is one of those schools that looks and acts like a small community school in that everyone knows each other and there’s an easy relaxed feel to the place. At the time of my visit, there was a bustle in the school dining area where a group of parents was preparing a meal and some festivities for the kids and faculty. Things like that go on all the time at good schools but nonetheless it seemed to reflect something essential about the place.
The profile of the student is described as having mild to moderate learning disabilities. Similar to Denver Academy (also written about at this site), not all students have been officially diagnosed with learning disabilities. Oakwood will accept a child without the clear diagnosis if they feel there’s enough evidence that this is a child with average intelligence who has difficulty with literacy and learning due to learning differences. Nearly all the students have primary reading difficulties. The kids were well behaved and I’m sure that they do not, as the school mentions, take kids with any serious or primary behavioral problems. In fact the school prides itself on adhering to “traditional values” and it did in fact seem structured even while having such a friendly atmosphere.
The homerooms had anywhere from five to thirteen kids in the group. The school assesses for functional levels in reading, writing and math and then divides the kids into age based and skill groups. Reading instruction is a strong component of the curriculum. Most teachers use some form of an Orton Gillingham model, including the Wilson Reading and Phono-Graphix programs.
Oakwood has three full-time Speech and Language specialists as well as two Occupational Therapists who each offer contracted services to students who need an extra boost in those areas. The school has a strong inclination and interest in using Positive Behavioral Approach to discipline and use a clinical social worker one time per week to work on social and affective curriculum.
Related at this site: Oakwood School