Ben Bronz Academy is a research school, analogous to a research hospital: -- a school whose curricula and methods are continuously tested and improved, insofar as possible, on the basis of objective data and scientific method. The essential ingredients of a research school are replicable curricula and methods: teaching materials and procedures that are be utilized by more than one teacher, in essentially the same way, with more than one group of students.

On the one hand, successful replication requires more guidance for the teacher than is provided by the typical textbook and teacher's guide. On the other hand, successful replication does not require slavish, robot-like following of a teaching "script." Rather, successful replication requires devotion to a special image of teaching, where instead of operating independently, teachers work together to insure consistent good practice. In contrast to the customary image of a school as a place where heroic individual teachers work in isolation, the image of a research school is that of a master craftsman's workshop. In this image, new teachers begin as apprentices and grow to become masters who then take their turns in guiding the curricula. Standard procedures are seen as a scaffolding, held in place, and systematically improved by the master teachers on the basis of a continuous flow of evaluative data. Within this scaffolding, individual teachers' personalities may vary. The essence of a research school is not in the prescribed materials and procedures. It is in this concept of structured, data-based mentoring.

We do not know many schools that do this. We would like to discover and help to nurture more. On this web page we offer a forum where research-minded educators can describe, discuss and compare curricula, methods, teacher training, and administrative organization, -- along with data on their effects. A place where we can talk about all kinds of curricula and methods, for both regular and special education, unhampered by doctrines and bandwagons. If there are some data to show that something works, no matter where it came from, we want to find out about it, talk to its inventor and see if we can help each other in our work.

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