The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction: Transforming Education for the Forgotten 40%
Kent Johnson, PhD: The Founding of Morningside Academy
Dr. Kent Johnson is a renowned educator and researcher in the field of education, particularly known for his work in instructional design, applied behavior analysis (ABA), and precision teaching. As the founder and executive director of Morningside Academy, Dr. Johnson has dedicated his career to developing and refining effective instructional methods that help students who have struggled in traditional educational settings. His expertise and contributions have shaped The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction, a scientifically driven framework that has impacted countless students and educators across North America. Morningside Academy continually refines its teaching methods based on empirical evidence. Through ongoing assessments and research partnerships, the school ensures that its instructional practices remain at the cutting edge of educational science. This commitment to evidence-based instruction is a key reason why Morningside has successfully helped so many struggling learners.
About Morningside Academy
Morningside Academy, founded in 1980 and located in Seattle, Washington, is a laboratory school that provides struggling elementary and middle school students with the opportunity to catch up and get ahead. These students typically fall within the "forgotten 40%," who struggle with foundational skills in reading, writing, and mathematics but do not qualify for special education services. Morningside Academy is unique in its approach, offering evidence-based instructional methods that focus on mastery and fluency rather than compensatory education. The school offers a money-back guarantee, promising at least two years of progress in a student’s area of greatest deficit within one academic year. Over its 40-year history, less than 1% of tuition has been refunded, demonstrating the efficacy of The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction. What's even more impressive is how they achieve this—on top of that promise to parents, there's also no homework.
Image: Evidence of the academic gains possible captured for The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction online course hosted exclusively on The Behavior Academy (learn more).
The Six Pillars of The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction
Over the last four decades, through a process of organic problem solving and careful analysis, The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction (MMGI) has been solidified into what they call the "Six Pillars."
1. A Curriculum Focused on Component Behaviors
Rather than approaching education with a broad, holistic framework, Morningside Academy breaks down learning into specific component skills. For example, in reading, students work on phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary development separately, ensuring mastery before moving on to more complex tasks. This approach ensures that fundamental skills are solidified before students are expected to apply them in higher-level academic work.
2. Homogeneous Grouping for Targeted Instruction
Students at Morningside Academy are placed into small, homogeneous groups based on their skill levels rather than their age or grade level. This allows teachers to tailor instruction to students’ specific needs, maximizing learning efficiency. Group placements are dynamic, with students transitioning to new groups as they progress at different rates. Due to the rapid learning occurring at Morningside Academy, it is very common for children to move to different classrooms in the middle of a year, even multiple times.
3. Explicit, Direct Instruction Using Mathetics
Morningside Academy employs Mathetics, a teaching approach developed by Tom Gilbert that uses a three-phase method: demonstration, guided practice, and independent application. This structured instructional design ensures that students grasp concepts thoroughly before moving forward, reducing frustration and increasing retention. Regardless of the subject, classroom instruction is structured throughout the day to allow for all three of these methods: demonstration, guided practice, and independent application.
4. Practice to Fluency with Precision Teaching
Students engage in structured, timed practice sessions designed to build fluency in foundational skills. Using Precision Teaching and the Standard Celeration Chart, students track their own progress and make data-driven adjustments to improve performance. This practice ensures that students not only learn but also retain and apply their knowledge efficiently. By the end of the year, students are often seen working alongside their peers, suggesting interventions to one another. The teacher guides the decision-making process and helps brainstorm additional evidence-based strategies if needed. Thus, the teacher not only introduces and instructs on new concepts but also guides the decision-making process and helps brainstorm additional evidence-based strategies when needed.
5. Generative Instruction for Real-World Application: Simple Generative Responding
Rather than relying solely on rote memorization, The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction ensures that students can apply their learned skills in novel situations. This is achieved through structured sequences that guide students from foundational skills to complex problem-solving and critical-thinking tasks. The method encourages students to discover new patterns and relationships, making learning an active, engaging process. One way that this is achieved is through carefully creating instructional environments so that students will effortlessly use the skills that they have learned in class in novel situations, such as reading to their siblings at home. Dr. Joanne Robbins, principal emerita, has even developed specific curricula to achieve these outcomes, known as Talk Aloud Paired Problem Solving (TAPPS).
6. Generative Instruction for Real-World Application: Complex Generative Responding
Another way this is accomplished is through complex generative responding, where students are provided with instruction and guided opportunities to recombine previously learned behaviors in new contexts. Simple Generative Responding was the same behavior in a new context, whereas Complex Generative Responding is a new behavior in a new context. Rather than merely repeating memorized information, students engage in tasks that require them to apply their foundational skills in novel ways. This approach fosters adaptability and deeper understanding, ensuring that learners can generalize their knowledge beyond the classroom and into real-world situations.
Outcome-Focused Curriculum Decisions
Designing effective instruction begins by clearly connecting curriculum and instructional design. Morningside has adopted a systematic approach originally introduced by Susan Markle and Philip Tiemann, emphasizing precise goals, standards, and instructional objectives. Each learning objective includes specific conditions, responses, and criteria for accuracy and frequency, ensuring students not only master content but retain skills over time. Rather than focusing on isolated objectives, the curriculum provides a coherent, sequenced pathway that considers the broader educational outcomes, such as fluent reading or quantitative reasoning in mathematics.
The instructional system also relies heavily on detailed content analyses, involving component-composite analysis, task analysis, types of learning, and learning channel analysis. These processes help identify essential skills learners need at various stages, ensuring instruction progresses logically from foundational "tool skills" to complex, integrated "composite skills." For example, before teaching advanced arithmetic, students must fluently perform basic math operations. This thorough analytical process, informed by pioneering work from figures like Siegfried Engelmann, Ogden Lindsley, and Eric Haughton, supports the development of tailored instructional materials that foster seamless, generative learning.
To avoid student failure and its associated side effects, the instructional design prioritizes methods such as practicing discriminations before performing operations, moving from concrete to abstract concepts, and grouping students homogeneously based on skill levels. These strategies prevent frustration by ensuring learners are adequately prepared before tackling more complex tasks, thereby maintaining motivation and engagement. Through iterative refinement based on student performance data, instructional programs are continuously enhanced, ultimately creating competent, confident learners who experience meaningful and sustained academic success.
Unlike many school districts that frequently adopt new curricula—often at great expense and with little evidence of effectiveness—Morningside is guided by data-driven results. Rather than chasing trends, Morningside’s approach ensures that only instructional methods and curricula proven to produce strong outcomes are integrated into the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction (MMGI). Nowhere in this section do you see decisions based on the latest educational fad; every choice is rooted in what demonstrably works, ensuring lasting student success and consistently achieving their guarantee of 2-years growth in a child's area of greatest deficit.
The Morningside Multi-Level System of Assessment
At Morningside, four distinct levels of assessment are employed to ensure instructional precision: micro-level, meta-level, macro-level, and curriculum placement assessments. Micro-level assessments occur daily, involving timed practice on key tool and component skills. These practices are closely tracked using Standard Celeration Charts, allowing instructors to rapidly adapt instruction based on immediate learner performance data. Meta-level assessments, conducted periodically, are standardized, formative checks (e.g., curriculum-based measurements, CBMs) to validate student progress externally, predicting how learners will perform on end-of-year high-stakes tests.
Macro-level assessments refer to standardized, norm-referenced tests administered annually or biannually to evaluate overall student progress compared to national benchmarks. These tests play a critical role in meeting performance guarantees provided by Morningside to parents, ensuring accountability. Finally, curriculum placement assessments are strategically conducted whenever a student transitions between instructional programs, guaranteeing optimal placement and preventing instructional inefficiencies due to mismatched skill levels.
By integrating these four assessment levels, Morningside systematically verifies instructional effectiveness, identifies necessary adjustments promptly, and ensures all students achieve or exceed their learning goals. This rigorous approach not only prevents academic failure but also helps learners build lasting skills, confidence, and the ability to apply what they've learned in diverse and practical contexts.
John Dewey and the Influence of Pragmatism
John Dewey was a philosopher and educator who strongly influenced modern educational theory. He emphasized the role of experience and inquiry in learning, advocating for an approach that integrates knowledge with practical application. Dewey’s concept of Reflective Thinking aligns closely with The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction by fostering an iterative, problem-solving approach to learning. His belief that education should be dynamic and evolve based on outcomes resonates with Morningside’s commitment to data-driven instruction.
Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy also informs Morningside’s emphasis on teaching students to analyze and synthesize information in meaningful ways. Rather than rote memorization, students engage in structured activities that promote independent thinking and reasoning, ensuring that learning extends beyond the classroom and into real-world problem-solving.
Constructivist Approaches and Their Role in Education
While The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction aligns with many behaviorist principles, it also shares common ground with constructivist approaches. Constructivism emphasizes student-led exploration and the building of knowledge through active engagement with materials and concepts. The key distinction is that Morningside provides a carefully sequenced foundation before encouraging self-directed inquiry.
Constructivist strategies, such as problem-based learning and project-based learning, are incorporated into Morningside’s later stages of instruction. Once students have achieved fluency in foundational skills, they are given opportunities to apply their knowledge in more complex, generative ways. This structured approach ensures that students are not left to "discover" essential skills on their own but instead develop them systematically before engaging in broader exploration.
The Importance of Selectionist Learning Models
A core principle underlying The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction is selectionism—the idea that behaviors and cognitive skills evolve and strengthen through reinforcement and meaningful application. This selectionist perspective, influenced by B.F. Skinner’s work on contingencies of reinforcement, ensures that students' learning experiences are shaped by clear instructional objectives and measurable progress.
By integrating behaviorist methodologies with pragmatic and constructivist elements, Morningside Academy offers an educational model that is both structured and adaptable. It ensures that students not only master essential skills but also develop the ability to think critically, solve problems, and adapt their learning to new challenges. This holistic approach to education makes Morningside a leader in evidence-based instruction, continuously refining its practices to meet the needs of diverse learners.
Training in the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction (MMGI)
For educators looking to implement The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction, Morningside Teacher’s Academy (MTA) provides extensive training and partnership opportunities. MTA collaborates with schools across North America to bring the model into diverse educational settings. Educators receive hands-on training, coaching, and implementation support to integrate evidence-based instruction into their classrooms.
Additionally, the Morningside Summer Institute (MSI) offers a three-week intensive program for teachers, graduate students, and professionals who want to deepen their understanding of the model. Those interested in exploring the methodology can take the online, on-demand course The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction, available exclusively at The Behavior Academy, as a stepping stone before committing to the full MSI or MTA experience.
About the Author:
Ryan O’Donnell, MS, BCBA is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) with over 12 years of experience in the field. He has dedicated his career to helping individuals improve their lives through behavior analysis and are passionate about sharing their knowledge and expertise with others. He oversees The Behavior Academy and helps top ABA professionals create video-based content in the form of films, online courses, and in-person training events. He is committed to providing accurate, up-to-date information about the field of behavior analysis and the various career paths within it.
