Years in the Making

It was years in the making.

It wasn’t just one thing, but many things.

Many people, actually. And it took courage.

The courage of students and teachers to try a new approach. And for families to be accepting of the change.

In 2015 the school changed gears and put into place a highly-structured teaching program for reading, math, language, and logic.

For the next five years we closely monitored how students were doing.

The results were incredible.

And on July 14th, 2021, the Behaviors Analysis in Practice research journal published the “story of how a public charter school serving students with autism adopted Direct Instruction as their primary form of instruction.”

This is the Autism Model School’s story of “students demonstrating greatly accelerated rates of learning for their age”!

The authors of the article include familiar names to AMS—Joel Vidovic (Director) and Mary Cornell (Director of Education)—along with researchers Sarah E. Frampton and M. Alice Shillingsburg.

Shortly after the article was published, Joel Vidovic held an all-hands-on-deck staff meeting. He praised the entire team of paraprofessionals and teachers and clinical team members for their foundational role in making the school’s Direct Instruction program a success.

Putting in place a radically different approach to student learning—teachers reading from scripts, students answering out loud and all at the same time—was not without speed bumps.

Valid concerns were brought to light by teachers, board members, parents, and students.

One of the school’s guiding values kept everyone rowing in the same direction: “We believe educational programs should be held accountable to produce outcomes that are socially valuable, functional, and acceptable.”

Ultimately, the powerful results for students made the school’s change to Direct Instruction a road worth traveling.

And now other programs can use their story as a blueprint for achieving great things!

Learn more about the use of Direct Instruction in our curriculum.

PA System Turns Up the Volume on Safety

Getting a message out quickly is important for a school. For daily activities and safety situations.

With the school’s old Public Address unit, however, only some classrooms could hear a crackly-sounding voice ringing from discolored speakers.

Thankfully this all changed in the spring when Torrence, a company based out of Perrysburg, finished installing a new, up-to-date sound system.

In days of the old PA, someone from the front office would have to set an alarm for class changes, wait for the alarm, grab a microphone, press a red button, and say something like, “Math Concepts classes will begin in five minutes.”

This process would have to be repeated many times a day every day. Some announcements would be delayed or skipped by the office due to phone calls or other pressing issues.

Now, class changes are announced automatically with pre-recorded announcements.

This lets the front office team focus on responding to more immediate needs.

The PA’s powerful features will also increase the safety of students and staff during an emergency situation.

With the old system not everyone in the building would hear the call for a safety drill. The front office team would need to individually contact certain teachers.

And, once again, a staff member would have to go through a multi-step process to make the announcement.

How many steps does this take with the new PA?

One.

A single press of a button initiates a pre-recorded message to lock-down that rings out across all areas of the school, including the playground.

Teachers are able to check-in by pressing a button on a console located in their classrooms, which instantly sends a signal to the main office.

This project has furthered our goal of creating a safe place where everyone can learn, grow, and reach their full potential.

The new PA system was funded through the OH K12 School Security Grant administered by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.