1979-1990: Multicultural Understanding through the Arts

In the early years of our work, we focused on multicultural understanding, especially through arts of diverse cultures. We assembled exhibitions of art by indigenous Americans and exhibited them in museums in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and we produced supporting educational publications, videos, lectures, and children's activities. We brought collections of art and artifacts from these cultures into schools, where we provided extended residencies to raise awareness of self and other and to teach curiosity and respect for differences among people. In 1990, we published the book To Hold Us Together: Seven Conversations for Multicultural Understanding, to support our multicultural work in schools. 

1991: Building Academic Communities Through the Arts

As we worked to foster multicultural understanding, we saw that operating in an imaginative mode through the arts brought out great possibilities for building community. We began to offer programs for children and adults through arts residencies during the school year, and summer workshops, Building Academic Communities Through the Arts (BACTA), for teachers to develop their own arts capabilities and encourage their students to do the same by integrating the arts into everyday learning. Schools hosted BACTA workshops to help build teacher confidence and skills in integrating arts into subject areas. Arts integration supports our goal of helping schools create orderly, safe climates. The arts nurture engagement in learning, and engaged learners tend to behave respectfully.

1997: Midwest Regional Center for the Responsive Classroom Approach

In the late 1990s, we encountered the Responsive Classroom approach for building safe and supportive communities. We saw that, in the context of good relationships, a school can achieve a climate safe enough to support both excellence in learning and appreciation for differences. Origins became the Midwest regional center for the Responsive Classroom approach, licensed by its founder, the Northeast Foundation for Children. Origins provides Responsive Classroom training and on-site school support in six states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Oklahoma.

2004: Developmental Designs Approach and New City School

In 2004, we introduced an approach to the integration of social and academic learning that is tailored to the needs of middle-level learners: Developmental Designs. We began offering workshops and on-site support helping middle-level schools engage students in learning by building caring, supportive communities.  

Origins assisted the founding of a public charter school demonstration site for the consistent implementation of our approaches and to pilot new strategies. New City School, in Northeast Minneapolis, models the integration of a strong, supportive social program with a challenging and imaginative academic approach. New City School implements Responsive Classroom (K-5) and Developmental Designs (6-8) approaches, arts-integration, reading, writing workshops, and integrated thematic learning for social studies and science. For more information, visit the New City School website.

2005: Establishing Developmental Designs as an Evidence-based Approach

Soon after its introduction, Origins started work on establishing the Developmental Designs approach as evidenced-based. Developmental Designs practices are research-based; Origins will now gather evidence that the particular integration of social-emotional and academic practices within the approach positively and significantly impacts middle-level learning. Here are a few highlights:

2008-2009
Mixed-methods evaluation design study of the Developmental Designs professional development approach lead by Dr. David Hough, PhD, Missouri State University 

2010             
Origins began to implement a School and Teacher Case Study research project at a St. Louis Park, MN, middle school, examining the quality of teacher implementation of the Developmental Designs approach.

2011            
The Middle Grades Research Journal Volume 6, Issue 3 (autumn, 2011), was dedicated to an examination of the Developmental Designs approach. Dr. David Hough, of the College of Education, Missouri State University, reported on his 2008-2009 mixed-methods evaluation design study of the Developmental Designs professional development approach. The report noted that improvement in both behavior and academic performance in high-poverty schools were associated with implementation of Developmental Designs practices.

Learn more about Developmental Designs research activities

2008: New Focus on Publishing

To support training and implementation in the Developmental Designs approach, Origins began developing the Best Practices Series and a number of additional resources. Educators use these publications to support implementation of the approach, both as an initial point of departure and to follow and reinforce training.

2008           
The Advisory Book: Building a Community of Learners Grades 5-9

2009   
Classroom Discipline: Guiding Adolescents to Responsible Independence

2010           
Tried and True: Classroom Games and Greetings, Grades 4-9

2011            
The Advisory Book Professional Development Guide, the first in a series of professional development guides that explore Developmental Designs core practices
            
The Circle of Power and Respect Advisory Meeting DVD, the first in a series of Developmental Designs instructional DVDs