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.
