NNPS Community-Based Instruction (CBI) Program

What is Community-Based Instruction?

• Community-Based Instruction is individualized instruction. Community environments and target skills are selected for students by evaluation of their individual needs and recommendations made by students, parents/guardians, and teachers.

• Community-Based Instruction is direct, planned, continuous instruction. Community environments are visited repeatedly in order to provide instruction for target skills. Instructional procedures are determined and materials are secured prior to entering community sites. Modifications (to sites, instructional materials, instructional cues, etc.) are made, as appropriate, and opportunities are also made available for reinforcement and maintenance of mastered skills.

• Community-Based Instruction is incorporated with the belief that every student, regardless of the severity of his or her disabilities, is capable of living, working, and recreating in the community. Therefore, Community-Based Instruction should cross over community, domestic, recreation/leisure, and vocational domains.

• Community-Based Instruction is not a field trip.

• Community-Based Instruction is not simply exposure to environments.
  

NNPS Community Based Instruction Program Facts

• There are currently fourteen middle school classes participating in the CBI Program. These fourteen Special Education classes serve students with intellectual disabilities; specifically the students enrolled in EMD, TMD, and SPD classes as well as the students enrolled in the Autism classes. Other students, based on IEP recommendations, may participate in CBI as well. It is anticipated that approximately 105 students will participate in the NNPS CBI Program during the 2009-10 school year.

• CBI Participants are engaged in instruction at an average of 37 different community locations each week. (This number would increase significantly if the count included each store or restaurant visited when a class is engaged in instruction at a shopping center or mall.)

CBI Business Partners

The CBI Program has 19 recognized Business and Education Partnerships. These business partners include:

Each school year, approximately ½ of our CBI participants receive aquatic instruction (swim lessons) at the Boys and Girls Club of the VA Peninsula, the Ft. Eustis Aquatic Center, or the Newport News Family YMCA.

President Obama has issued a “call to service”, encouraging individuals to volunteer. Middle School Students involved in the CBI Program have been volunteering in the Newport News Community since 1993.

During the 2006-07 school year, the NNPS CBI Program became a certified organization through the Corporation for National and Community Service and the USA Freedom Corps. In doing so, NNPS CBI students are eligible to receive Presidential Volunteer Service Awards. An average of 113 individuals received this award during the 2006-07 and the 2007-08 school years. 104 Presidential Volunteer Service Awards were presented at the end of the 2008-09 school year.

During the 2008-09 school year, CBI Program participants logged in a weekly average of 167.5 volunteer hours in the community.

History of Community Based Instruction

In the summer of 1992, Special Education Classroom Teacher, Tracy Tracy, under the direction of Alice Little, her supervisor at the time and a NNPS Special Education Coordinator, submitted a proposal for the establishment of a Community-Based Instruction Program for Newport News Public Schools. This proposal was submitted to and, ultimately, approved by Mary Mehaffey, the Director of Special Instructional Services for NNPS. The justification for the CBI Program development was as follows:

In accordance with the 1992 Standards of Quality and Objectives for Public Schools in Virginia and Newport News Public Schools Policies and Procedures in place in 1992, a primary goal of education was and continues to be “to aid each pupil, to the full extent of his or her abilities, to participate in society as a responsible family member and citizen”. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its 2004 reauthorization also mandate that student activities "promote movement from school to post-school activities, including post-secondary education, vocational education, integrated employment, continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, or community participation."

Research shows that persons with disabilities often have difficulty in generalizing skills and learning abstract concepts. This is especially true of individuals with intellectual disabilities (and the reason why the CBI Program in NNPS was established for and continues to mainly serve this population). Opportunities, therefore, must be provided for “learning by doing” for these students and the learning must take place in the natural environments in which skills are typically expected to occur. The classroom is only one of the many environments where students must learn to actively participate and, therefore, Community-Based Instruction (CBI) becomes imperative.

The CBI Program was developed during the fall of 1992 and a pilot program was put in place during the second semester of the 1992-93 school year. The program was a success and has been a Special Instructional Program offered since that time. Due to population changes, the program has seen some changes over the years. In its earlier years, CBI was offered to students in elementary, middle, and high school classes. As the population grew, the CBI Program changed to one offered to only Middle School Students in NNPS.