Spectrum Academy Elementary School

The teachers worked (and are working) very hard to teach through COVID. I am so grateful my boy is at this school with supportive and understanding staff.

Related services are superior to other school settings: OT, speech, and assistive technology. The OT rooms and teaching about self-regulating are great for some kids. Others take pride in how disruptive, destructive and rude they can be. (My son hates hearing one boy repeatedly brag about breaking things. And the noise volume is worse than other, larger schools.) Many of the "teachers" are on provisional licensure and/or have only worked at this school, so the school culture is well established. Coming as an outsider, my experience and Master's level work was always in question (constantly attacked) without ever just seeing if it worked. The worst was when I wanted to try a Language Arts method that has helped kids for decades and that I've had great results with. I was forbidden to use it but encouraged to have the struggling students go to a pull-out program taught by an unlicensed TA. Integrated, multi-sensory, thematic units are proven for Special Education and English Language learners to be more effective than pull-out, but pull-out gets to count as another "help" they're giving, even if less effective. (Notice, too, it was a method, not replacing the curriculum the school approved.) I felt like I was constantly working under a thundercloud ready to zap, which made the stress of the job worse than any other I'd been in. Anyone who differs from their "norm" or says there's a different way, or points out something they do that is unethical, violates IDEA law, or tries to improve the negative will be shunned or worse. This includes parents as well as licensed professionals. So, if this is where you want to send your child or to work, you need to accept their way and keep your mouth shut. It is a very hostile environment to work and very negative for students. (Yes, there are some caring and competent faculty and staff. But they'd be that way anywhere they work. This school limits them. Think how much better it would be if they'd "train and retain" as a moto and established a caring, nurturing, safe environment for everyone.)

Some classes are still doing very well. However, other classes are a disaster, thanks to the recent influx of new students and staff. By adding a third building Spectrum nearly doubled its capacity in North Salt Lake, which unfortunately enabled loose admission decisions to fill all of the extra seats, which has been very destructive to the school's original mission to help kids on the autism spectrum. They admitted large numbers of kids that are not autistic but that have severe behavior problems. Many are the newly-admitted students are extremely violent, disruptive, and disobedient, refusing to participate in learning at school. The brats are nearly impossible for a teacher to deal with and make it impossible for their classmates to learn. Many of their parents do nothing to hold these kids accountable for their actions or support their teachers. Spectrum is advertised as a school especially qualified to educate kids on the autism spectrum because it has behavior specialists and teachers with special training and experience in education for kids on the spectrum, but in reality many of the new staff have no experience or training in autism education, and at least one teacher is brand new straight out of college. For grades 3-8 Spectrum has only one behavior specialist (and a couple of assistants) to deal with dozens of kids with severe behavior problems, so the poor behavior specialist can only handle a tiny fraction of the behavior incidents that happen each day, so the teachers are forced to do their best to handle these huge disturbances on their own. While the teacher is dealing with the violent screaming brats tearing up the classroom, little learning is possible for the other students. It is not like that in every class. Some teachers there are doing an amazing job controlling their students behavior and creating great learning environments, but if your kid is in one of those disaster classrooms that the administration is doing very little to fix, you are fooling yourself if you think your kid will get a better education there than in the regular public school near your house. For example, I hear Tooele school district is doing great things with Autism education. It is not too late for Spectrum to turn its misguided ship around and go back to being a great school. It just needs to make some important changes: 1) Hire more behavior support staff, including ABA therapists. 2) Return to focusing admission on kids on the autism spectrum, those high-functioning enough to learn at the school. 3) Refuse admission to kids with severe behavior issues, especially non-autistic kids with a recent history of violence and bullying in their old school. 4) Retain your best teachers who are very skilled with (and enjoy working with) autistic students by offering them competitive salaries and the support and resources they need to succeed. 5) When recruiting new teachers, offer adequate compensation to attract those with autism training and successful experience. 6) If you must hire inexperienced teachers, try to attract those with specialized autism-related education, such as that now offered at Utah Valley University. It was kind and idealistic for the administration to decide to accept so many behavior problem kids in hopes it could help them, but it simply does not have the means to do so. It is time to get back to Spectrum Academy's original core mission of helping kids on the Autism Spectrum that are helpable.

Great support here for kids on the Autism Spectrum and ADHD. Small enough that they learn who the parents are and teachers have great communication with the parents. The kids have social skills class every day and are taught at their specific education level, whether at grade level, above, or below. We are so glad to have found Spectrum!

I love Spectrum, Its a great school!