When Behavior Analysis is Insufficient Part 3 – Project Follow Through Part of a Series ~ When Behavior Analysis is Insufficient To the teacher or parent: These blogs outline ways that I learned to help teachers and parents for several decades. Part 3 – Project Follow Through What did we learn from Project Follow Through? Does anybody still know about Project Follow Through? Project Follow Through is the largest, (200,000 students), longest-running (8 years), most expensive (1.2 Billion $$$), comparative (14 models) educational research study ever done. The purpose was to remediate the academic and social skills of underprivileged students across America during the 1970s. !4 different approaches were sponsored for periods of 3 years to determine which, if any, could provide U.S. elementary schools with effective teaching methods. 12 of 14 models failed spectacularly, Two models, Direct Instruction and Behavior Analysis, accounted for all of the gains in the research. The project was never made public and was buried by its detractors despite its consistent beneficial success for millions of impoverished students. But despite that legacy, Project Follow Through did present the education world with opportunities. Although it is effective, Behavior Analysis is insufficient. However, when combined with Direct Instruction, the power to solve education problems was tremendous. Only fools would discard that kind of wisdom. But education is only rarely about wise choices. Unfortunately, treasures get buried. When faced with transformative data and research, educators are more likely to bury it than follow through with where the evidence leads them. A more complete review is presented in Kathy Watkin’s research provided here or you can also click the link below. https://www.behavior.org/resources/901.pdf Bonus: Check out the FREE lessons of the Maloney Method Digital Reading Program. If you can read, you can teach a child to read. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR DIGITAL LEARNING WITH VIDEO LESSONS AND THE MALONEY METHOD
