www.enidk12.org/schools/Monroe
A pioneer in embracing the All Kinds of Minds approach schoolwide, Monroe Elementary School has incorporated the philosophy of teaching to how students learn since the late 1990s. A public school serving 465 P-6th grade students in Enid, OK, Monroe Elementary has been at the forefront of what evolved into a statewide initiative.
Monroe Elementary Principal Kay Kiner recalls, “Our goal was to intervene and make a positive impact with our struggling students who did not qualify for extra services. Our Schools Attuned to All Kinds of Minds training opened our eyes to a new way of thinking about learning and teaching, giving us research-based knowledge and strategies to use with our students who learned differently in the regular classroom.”
Monroe Elementary, along with the other public schools in Enid, mandates All Kinds of Minds professional development participation for all of its educators, administrators, and related school professionals. This helps the school ensure there is a depth of understanding of the neurodevelopmental framework among faculty members and an ability to effectively leverage appropriate techniques and tools in order to best reach individual students.
Since embarking upon its relationship with All Kinds of Minds, Monroe Elementary School has used the many resources provided through that collaboration—including the Management Resources Binder, the Lesson Plans Library, and the Attuning a Student process—to augment the faculty’s capacity to understand and manage students with learning difficulties, and to help those students understand one another. They also use All Kinds of Minds content in their Response to Intervention efforts, having found the Management by Profile concept blends seamlessly with RTI requirements.
Ms. Kiner concludes, “Even though we are in a community where 83 percent of the population lives in poverty and 10 percent of the students are English Language Learners, our test scores have improved and there has been a reduction in special education referrals. We believe our integration of the All Kinds of Minds approach into our school culture has been integral to our goal of ensuring student success at Monroe Elementary.”
