S5E10: Laura Doherty on the Baltimore Curriculum Project

In this episode of the Direct Instruction podcast, I’m joined by Laura Doherty, President and CEO of the Baltimore Curriculum Project (BCP)—Maryland’s largest operator of neighborhood, PK–8 public charter schools, and one of the longest-running Direct Instruction networks in the United States.

For nearly three decades, BCP has been quietly doing something that many systems only talk about: implementing Direct Instruction with real fidelity, at scale, in high-poverty neighborhood schools—while building a warm, community-centered culture around it. Laura shares how BCP first adopted Direct Instruction in the mid-1990s, what convinced them to stick with it, and how their commitment to carefully engineered instruction has deepened over time rather than fading as “just another initiative.”

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We dig into what a Direct Instruction lesson actually feels like inside a BCP classroom: the brisk pacing, explicit scripts, and choral responses—but also the joy, safety, and sense of momentum that students experience when every task has been designed with their prior knowledge in mind. Laura talks about how students respond to the structure of DI, and why many of them end up experiencing it as empowering rather than restrictive—especially when they start to realize just how quickly they’re moving through reading and math content.

From the teacher side, Laura explains what it takes to build and support a DI teaching force: intensive initial training, ongoing coaching, and the kind of data culture where teachers are never left alone to guess what’s working. We talk about what it feels like to teach in a DI environment at BCP, how new teachers are brought on board, and how the network sustains high expectations without burning people out.

Zooming out, Laura paints a picture of BCP’s wider school culture—community schools that serve as neighborhood hubs, with restorative practices, strong relationships, and a deliberate focus on making classrooms feel safe, predictable, and academically ambitious all at once. She describes how families, community partners, and staff all fit into that picture, and what it means to run charter schools that are explicitly rooted in the local neighborhoods they serve.

Finally, we talk about recognition and the future. In 2025, BCP was honored with the inaugural Silver Star School Award from the National Institute for Direct Instruction—an acknowledgment of their long-term, high-fidelity implementation of DI across their network. Laura reflects on what that award means to her team, why it feels like a validation of decades of steady work, and how it shapes her vision for the next chapter of BCP’s story: more schools, stronger community partnerships, and an even deeper commitment to getting every child in Baltimore the kind of instruction they deserve.

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The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching.