The Urban Skills Center is centrally located in the Mission Valley area of San Diego just off Interstate 8 at Texas Street. Urban Skills Center shares a facility with local businesses, which affords it an adult, employment-like atmosphere. However, it is also located next door to TIEE’s COOK Education Center, which permits the use of that facility for certain classes and activities.

The layout of the Urban Skills Center allows for one-to-one instruction and therapy as needed, small group instruction, and large group activities like our all-school meetings. We have Macs and a “Smartboard” for web-based learning, photo processing, movie making, cartooning, and other learning activities. At the COOK Education Center, located right next door, we have access to the brand new, fully appointed kitchen and laundry; a music room that is supplied with keyboards, drums, guitars, microphones and amps, a computer, and other instruments; a karate dojo in which students can earn all their belts; and a work-out room for serious conditioning. COOK Education Center also permits our students to use its spacious patio and playing field, which is designed as a multipurpose park in which our students can have lunch and interact with their friends, play group games like baseball and basketball, or just get in shape by walking or running the track.

Because transition to adult life is such an important part of our curriculum, we also like to think that our school encompasses the many community facilities we use for mobility training, shopping instruction, vocational training, and recreation.

Our team consists of one special educator for each group of eight students, a compliment of paraprofessionals necessary to educate our students at a ratio of four students for each direct service staff member, a fully licensed Speech/Language therapist, a Registered Occupational Therapist, and a school counselor.  Urban Skills Center’s Director is Mary Taylor, M.Ed., BCBA, who has been with TIEE for over 20 years and was TIEE’s Professional of the Year in 1991. The Vocational Services component of Urban Skills Center’s curriculum is coordinated by Sheryl Bobroff, who has nearly 20 years of service to TIEE and was TIEE’s Professional of the Year in 1999.

We are energetic and positive; we love our work and our students; and we function as a true team, with a common mission to have our students learn as rapidly and as enjoyably as possible. Everyone at Urban Skills Center is eager to be the best educator possible. We are keen students of what researchers tell us is effective and efficient instruction and therapy. In order to be the best, we train the hardest. Training, including coaching, is a daily affair.

All of our staff members receive regular evaluations on their performance across more than 100 teaching competencies. In order for them to master our competencies, and truly use what works, intensive training is necessary.

We provide a series of required foundation trainings on our philosophies and practices, including a survey of the concepts supporting our methods, video samples displaying our practices, and role-plays that permit guided practice of the essential skills of instruction. The following is a list of some of trainings we regularly provide:

ABA Principles and Practices ● Identifying and Managing Reinforcers ● Session or Student Skills ● Modulation and Differential Reinforcement ● Effective Instructional Practices ● Prompting and Error Correction ● Data Collection and Data Based Decision Making ● Functional Behavior Assessment ● Preventing and Managing Problem Behaviors ● Direct Instruction ● Fluency Building

Training requires coaching
Of greatest importance is our heavy emphasis on coaching in the classroom. Hands-on coaching is essential for the mastery of critical teaching skills. Opportunities for our teachers to benefit from coaching are ongoing and continue throughout their career with TIEE. Coaching may be pre-planned or incidental. Instructional observations involving data collection on specific teacher behaviors are conducted and the results are shared with individual staff members regularly and as needed.

Advanced training for professionals
Our teachers and specialists receive both formal training and coaching on more advanced applications of our methods and practices. Regular professional development meetings involve review of existing research, development of future research designs, curriculum development, data shares and analysis, video shares with feedback on instructional delivery, and ongoing training in the following areas:

Supervision and Training of Paraprofessionals ● Curriculum Based Assessment ● IEP Development ● Designing Effective Lessons ● Behavior Intervention Planning ● Parent Collaboration and Communication ● Community-Based Vocational Training