Focus and Process

LDI offers a two year core curriculum with three primary post-secondary options for high school graduates. These options are pathways and supportive placement into community-based collegiate education, occupational training programs, or full time competitive employment. Many incoming students originally commit to a specific outcome such as college. However, it is not uncommon for a potential new student to be undecided or to change to a different path as new talents are discovered or to refine the career direction.
The core curriculum offers the time for a student to gain exposure to the vast array of Phoenix area colleges, training, and employment options prior to making a commitment to a specific career direction. Simultaneously, each student is also developing proficiency in managing the responsibilities of independent adult-living and learning to make healthy choices for her/his social and emotional well-being.

The program content follows an established instructional schedule that provides numerous opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate their level of learning and achievement. There is program scheduling flexibility to accommodate students who desire additional outside coursework or immediate work experience. Permission is given for these scheduling revisions as long as they do not conflict with other program courses. Participation and satisfactory completion of all designated LDI classes and activities are mandatory and a requirement for advancing to the next level of the program.

The LDI Post-Secondary Program identifies a challenging set of goals that focus on learning and achievement for all adults, not just those with hidden disabilities. For example, a major component of this program is termed "The Adult Life Domains" with accompanying curriculum.
Its instructional focus is on developing practical skills, experiencing and demonstrating consistent performance in the handling of common problem solving and decision making demands necessary for adult-life success. Thus, this course of study emphasizes those major life demands of adult functioning that require certain degrees of independence and personal competency in adult, workplace and academic proficiencies.

The framework of the LDI curriculum development mode is outcome-based or "top-down" driven. The question asked when developing a "top-down" curriculum in any of the LDI instructional or program areas is "What are the competencies students need to have in order to competently perform the assigned tasks?" The projected outcomes of each job are examined first to provide the foundation for building the curriculum. Outcomes are examined to determine the competencies needed to perform the tasks of the job. Those identified competencies or objectives are then organized into a curriculum or program of study.

The major life demands represent the events or activities typically encountered by most adults in everyday life. It is from these demands that specific life skills, or the competencies needed to perform major life demands, are generated to develop instructional objectives for the student's Individualized Education Program (IEP) and Individual Plan of Action (IPA).
LDI uses a combination of standardized and in-house developed assessment tools to measure student performance, capacity, and growth. Instructional success and competency is accomplished by the documentation of skills in a matrix format tied to an assessment tool based on Langford's (1992) model of Total Quality Learning. The matrix is a tool for self-assessment and measurement of knowledge. It returns the responsibility for learning to the student and provides a method to ensure quality and continuous learning. This evaluation process is based on continual analysis, critical thinking, and reflection.