History of the Academic Club Methodology
The Lab School of Washington was founded in September 1967 by Sally L.
Smith. It was designed to serve intelligent students with moderate to
severe learning disabilities with or without attention
deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The school’s philosophical base
lies in the Integrated Arts and Academic Club Method, developed in 1966
by Professor Sally L. Smith. She drew on the works of Swiss
psychologist Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner of Harvard University, and
especially the great American educational theorist, John Dewey. Dewey
believed in using concrete materials to teach children, and that
children learn best by doing.
Professor Smith’s integrated method of teaching was first used during a
summer program in 1966 for inner-city youngsters who were poor readers
or non-readers, then repeated the next year with a larger group from
two inner city schools. The phenomenal success of these programs,
coupled with the continuing academic failure of her son, eventually led
Professor Smith to a tutoring center where the possibility of starting
a special school-within-a-school developed. The Lab School remained a
part of a remedial center for 15 years. It became its own private
nonprofit [501 (c) (3)] organization in 1982, officially becoming The
Lab School of Washington and eventually moving to its current campus.
During the years from 1967 to the present, The Lab School of Washington
has continued to grow, both in size and in scope. The Lab School now
provides staff development for local public schools, holds conferences
and workshops for educators and the public, provides full on-site
speech-language therapy, occupational therapy and psychological
services (for students and private patients), a comprehensive summer
school program, and has twice been awarded the National Blue Ribbon
Award of Excellence by the Department of Education. LSW is the only
school for students with learning disabilities that was included in the
US Department of Education’s National Diffusion Network “Education
Programs that Work”. Sally Smith has served, since 1976, as a tenured
Full Professor in charge of the Masters Degree Program in Special
Education: Learning Disabilities at American University in Washington,
DC. The Lab School of Washington enjoys an international reputation as
a premier teaching and research center. Its program has been
successfully replicated at Baltimore Lab that opened in 2000. In 2004
the Academic Club Teaching Service was developed.