THE TEACHING FAMILY MODEL - A CASE-STUDY IN DATA-BASED PROGRAM-DEVELOPMENT AND REFINEMENT (AND DRAGON WRESTLING)

A case study in program development and refinement is presented. We de scribe the Teaching-Family model and its history, the original researc h goal of developing a community-based program that was more humane, m ore effective in teaching community-living skills, and less expensive than the traditional large state institutions prevalent when we began. We present the research on the components of the model and the outcom e research on the complete model. We share the serious problems that o ccurred when we attempted to replicate the program in other communitie s. We argue that the subjective consumer feedback questionnaire (and t he other components of the comprehensive quality refinement system tha t have evolved over the past 25 years) have played an important role i n the survival and success of the model. We recommend that people inte rested in increasing the quality and survival rates of their human ser vices programs may want to consider developing a similar technology dr iven by systematic reciprocal feedback from consumers and line staff i nstead of relying on unplanned consumer and staff feedback, as many pr ograms do now. Such feedback helps us to continue improving the qualit y of the always evolving Teaching-Family model.