Education That Works:
The Child is Always Right, Part Six
Precision Teaching

Edward L. Anderson, Ph.D.

Unlike Direct Instruction, Precision Teaching does not use special curricular materials, but is superimposed on whatever curriculum is in use. As we have seen, students chart their rates and/or their corrects and incorrects each day. They work with teachers in adjusting the instruction to achieve a weekly doubling of performance in each subject until the appropriate fluency standard is achieved. Precision Teaching independently implies that essentially all physiologically-whole students can achieve weekly doubling, though students will start with different base performances. Once again, all students can learn!

The Sacajawea School in Great Falls, Montana used an early version of this simple technique.⁽¹⁷⁾

Iowa Test of Basic Skills

Figures 4 and 5

Figures 4 shows a 25 percentile point differential in reading relative to the six other schools in the district, all with similar students. Figure 5 shows a 43 point differential in math. These results put the students in the 95th percentile in both subjects, the top 5% of the students in the US! Data had been gathered through Level 4 and showed high cost effectiveness! A new principal then let the program die and Sacajawea returned to the same programs the other schools were using.

PT is being used by thousands of students in other schools today.

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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