Having an Impact on Underserved Students: A Description of Using a Strategic Science of Teaching Model and Its Application to a Charter School

Systematically applying the science of behavior throughout an educational environment may help position our educational system for success. Teacher preparation, school climate, classroom setup, and instructional delivery are all aspects of a school that the science of behavior can positively affect. Through the implementation of targeted teacher preparation, ongoing follow-up and support, establishing a decision analysis protocol for data-based instructional decision making, and ensuring measurement and accountability for both staff and students, this goal may be in reach. In this article, we describe the foundational steps for implementing the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS) and Accelerated Independent Learner (AIL) models, and the resulting data in an underperforming public charter school serving disenfranchised populations. The components of the model included classroom management techniques, design of interventions, use of evidence-based curricula, supervision, and research-based strategies and tactics to train and monitor professionals. The implementation of these procedures was done in successive phases to inductively analyze which components were needed and when. We report the relevant outcome data resulting from the targeted CABAS AIL components in the two phases of implementation.