Education   

Education That Works:
The Child is Always Right, Part Seven
The “Morningside Model”

Edward L. Anderson, Ph.D.

Established in 1980, Morningside Academy in Seattle combines PT with DI while incorporating all seven research results. The math program has the very small steps that I mentioned earlier. During the past eleven years, Morningside has taught well over 300 children, most diagnosed as learning disabled, who had never gained more than half a grade in an academic year. Many had behavior problems as well. They gained an average of two to three grade levels per year in each of reading, math and language.(18) (Parents get their money back if this goal is not met. There has never been a refund.) No homework is required.

Table 1 shows the grade gains achieved in one year by Morningside students in Reading, Language Arts, and Math. The most important data is in the Bold-faced type.

Morningside Children’s Grade Gains

    Reading   Language
Arts		   Math  
Year Number of Students Mean
Grades
Gained		 Standard Deviation Mean
Grades
Gained		 Standard Deviation Mean
Grades
Gained		 Standard Deviation
1981-82 11 2.4 0.51 1.6 0.56 2.1 0.97
1982-83 43 2.3 0.57 1.9 0.73 1.9 0.65
1983-84 75 2.4 0.86 1.9 0.65 2.0 0.73
1984-85 54 2.5 0.75 2.7 0.97 2.2 0.56
1985-86 28 2.0 0.72 3.0 0.83 2.5 0.62
1986-87 24 2.3 0.84 2.3 0.70 1.9 0.77
1987-88 27 2.3 0.70 3.5 0.84 2.2 0.83
1988-89 32 2.5 0.83 3.0 0.72 2.7 0.70
1989-90* 11 2.8 0.77 3.3 0.75 2.4 0.84
1990-91* 21 2.2 0.62 3.8 0.86 3.9 0.72

*Metropolitan Achievement Tests (MAT6) 1989-91.
Others; California Achievement Tests
Table 1

Oddly, one of the objections most often heard to this kind of success is that “It may work for low achievers, but our kids are different.” This is roughly equivalent to qualifying a doctor to do heart transplants but not hangnails.

back to section homenext

Edward L. Anderson, Ph.D.
Ed Anderson was among the founders of the Cambridge Center,
and remains one of its most active supporters.
This paper is based upon a talk that Dr. Anderson gave on August 2, 1994,
sponsored by the Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York.

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