Mission Statement
The Curry College mission is to educate and graduate students prepared to engage in successful careers and active citizenship with a global perspective. We are an inclusive community of diverse learners and educators, committed to continuing our legacy of developing effective communicators with reflective and critical thinking skills. We mentor and empower our students, building meaningful relationships that inspire them to achieve their ambitions.
Curry College provides rigorous and relevant academic programs to undergraduate and graduate students, and our rich blend of liberal arts and career-directed programs is enhanced by practical field experiences and co-curricular activities. Learning at Curry extends beyond the classroom and is embedded in all that we do.
Resources
http://www.collegemagazine.com/top-10-accommodating-schools-students-learning-disabilities/
https://www.curry.edu/about-curry/news-and-events/recent-news/news-index/pal-education-forum.html
Contact Information
Program Description
Program Overview
The internationally recognized Program for Advancement of Learning (PAL) provides academically focused assistance to bright, college-able students with specific language-based learning disabilities, executive function disorders, and/or AD/HD. PAL has been widely recognized as the country’s first college program of its kind and for its leadership role over the years. Since its inception, PAL has focused on providing comprehensive, strength-based support to college students with language-based learning disabilities in a proactive environment.
Students in PAL are fully mainstreamed and constitute about 20% of each entering class. Students work in a combination of individual and/or small, credit-bearing classes with a PAL faculty member developing strategies in areas such as reading comprehension, written language, speaking, listening, organization, and time management. These skills are continually related to the students’ individual profiles of learning.
Description of Services
PAL Comprehensive Programming Highlights
- 30 Faculty with advanced degrees
- Academic, individualized Coursework
- Adult Center PAL
- Full-Scale Educational Diagnostic Center
- Testing Accommodation Center
- Summer PAL Bridge Course for incoming first-year students
- PAL Applied Strategies Sessions (evening small group support)
- PAL in Study Abroad
- PAL Learning Cohorts for majors and careers
- Peer Mentoring with upperclass PAL Students
- Content Tutoring
- Writing Support
- Speaking Center
- ADA Accommodations
LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS ENROLLED IN PAL COURSES
The Program for the Advancement of Learning (PAL) provides instruction in learning theory, individualized support, and assistance to college students with learning differences by focusing on students’ unique strengths as they become competent, effective, independent learners through heightened self-awareness and knowledge of the learning process.
- PERSONAL AGENCY SKILLS
- METACOGNITION
Students will define and explain their preferred learning styles, strengths and challenges, as well as the strategies (e.g. for reading, writing, communicating, test-taking) that support them; and, will explain ways they apply and reassess those strategies, as they engage in the metacognitive process of thinking about their own thinking. - SELF-REGULATION
Students will demonstrate self-knowledge by identifying personal goals that include appropriate academic accommodations and that include a time/materials management system; they will define a plan that incorporates an active and reflective mechanism for them to achieve those goals, through personal advocacy, and with openness to change. - ACTIVE AND ENGAGED LEARNING
Students will actively engage in their learning environment and personal life-learning. Students will identify connections and relationships they make between one’s self and others as members of communities and will actively participate in shared activities or efforts where they demonstrate knowledge of their own and others’ perspectives.
- METACOGNITION
- COGNITIVE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS
- CRITICAL THINKING AND REASONING SKILLS
Students will demonstrate critical and creative thinking and reasoning skills that question and evaluate their own and others’ assumptions about complex problems and will provide possible solutions. - RECEPTIVE AND EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE SKILLS
Students will demonstrate ways they understand visual, written, and auditory information and will demonstrate ways they authentically express personal ideas, thoughts, and feelings through written, verbal, or other expressive vehicles.
- CRITICAL THINKING AND REASONING SKILLS
Application Process
December 1, 2017 for Early Action (Early Action students eligible for $2,000 PAL Scholarship
Target Population
- Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD)
- Executive Functioning Challenges
- language-based learning disability
Program at a glance
How many students are enrolled in this program? 100-499
What are the annual costs for a student to attend this program? $5,000-$9,999
Is this program public? No
Is this program fee-based? Yes
how large is the instition associated with this program? 1,000-9,999
What type of institution is associated with this program? College