Assessment training of staff and placement testing of students in the Direct Instruction (DI) programs are important first steps in implementing any model of DI. The individual assessment results allow students to be placed and grouped in specific DI programs. Placing and grouping students in late spring allows DI instruction to start on the first day of school. This initial assessment also provides a basis for ordering specific levels of the DI programs in reading and language, and the results from the initial assessment are used to determine which levels of the programs teachers need to be trained to teach. Since the instructional skills used to teach different DI levels and programs are highly different, it is vital that teachers be trained in the specific program levels that they are going to teach.
Based on the size of the school, assessment training and student testing is usually scheduled for three to five days in the late spring. A group of six to 10 staff members are trained to administer and record the placement test results. This testing staff needs to be excused from school duties to have time to test students during the school day. After the initial training, the NIFDI trainer monitors individual testing to ensure that results are reliable and to answer questions about unique student responses. School staff members continue to administer the tests until all students have been tested—even if the trainer from the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) has departed.
The placement tests appear in the Teacher’s Guides that are available through SRA/McGraw-Hill. Most tests take approximately five minutes to administer although there’s a great deal of variation based on student skill level. Tests are administered to individuals and/or groups depending on the program and level being tested. For example, the Level 1 Reading Mastery test is administered to individuals only while the Level 3 Reading Mastery Test has both an individual and a group component.
NIFDI supplies materials for the trainer (overheads and handouts) and a master set of placement tests for all levels of the DI programs to be used at the school. The school makes the appropriate copies from the master set for each student continuing at the school. Completed placement tests are shipped to NIFDI, which analyzes the protocols and forms student lists for the initial, homogeneous instructional groupings.
In addition to working with school personnel at school sites, NIFDI personnel continuously monitor implementations even when they are off-site. Using written records, they conduct a weekly analysis of how every student performs in every subject every day. They discuss their findings on weekly conference calls with on-site school personnel. Conference call participants (usually the principal, building coordinator, coaches and NIFDI personnel) identify and describe student problems and strategize solutions to be carried out prior to the next call or site visit.
See also: Virtual Visits
Building leadership capacity through the development of peer coaches is one of the keys to achieving high levels of success with a schoolwide implementation of Direct Instruction (DI). Peer coaches can provide much-needed support to teachers and administrators when consultants from the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) are not on site. NIFDI consultants provide the bulk of coaching during the first year of implementation, after which coaching responsibilities begin to shift to school-based coaches.
Ideally, a teacher at each grade level is trained to become a peer coach. Peer coaches are selected in the first year of the implementation by the school's leaders — with NIFDI input — based on how well they implement DI techniques, how well they communicate with peers, and whether they are willing to take on peer coaching responsibilities. Peer coaches have the potential to be extremely effective because they teach the same programs as their peers. This enables them to develop expertise in specific levels of the DI programs and establish a close rapport with their peers because of shared experiences with DI.
Under the NIFDI model, coaching is non-evaluative. The focus is on student performance and student behavior. Peer coaches reinforce what’s working well and ask their colleagues to change only those teaching behaviors that make a difference with children. With peer coaches, teachers know that they can turn to a close colleague with problems and questions, which helps foster a collaborative atmosphere in the school. Click here to view a short video you can use to inform staff on what to expect when a NIFDI coach comes on site.
Peer coaches receive four levels of NIFDI coaches’ training over the course of two to three years. The first level, which is usually scheduled during the first year of implementation, focuses on analyzing student performance data. During this stage, the peer coaches’ primary role is to identify and describe problems of student performance in enough detail to permit the building coordinator and NIFDI personnel to implement an appropriate solution. The next two levels of training prepare peer coaches to perform 5-minute and extended observations of instruction with students present. The last level of coaches’ training prepares coaches to lead grade-level meetings focusing on student performance and participate in data analysis and problem-solving sessions with the rest of the school’s leadership team.
Support from NIFDI is the key to establishing an effective DI implementation, but NIFDI consultants cannot always be on-site, and they cannot work with schools indefinitely. If a school or district does not develop effective support personnel, the DI implementation will not reach its full potential, and the quality of the implementation may decline as new staff members join the school. With local coaches and trainers in place, a school implementing DI can continue to maximize student achievement for many years independently — even with the inevitable turnover of teaching staff.
Proper training is a crucial part of implementing DI with fidelity. Schools that work with NIFDI receive an extensive amount of training as part of their implementation package. All implementations include assessment training, pre-service training, and in-service training. The amount of time needed to train teachers and administrators will vary depending on the scope of the implementation and the size of the school or district.
Placement Test Training
Providing placement test training to staff and conducting placement testing of students in the Direct Instruction (DI) programs are important first steps in implementing any model of DI. The individual assessment results allow students to be placed and grouped in specific DI programs. Placing and grouping students in late spring allows DI instruction to start on the first day of school. Read More
Preservice Training
A common misconception is that Direct Instruction programs are easy to teach because they are composed of scripted lessons. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mastering the instructional skills needed to teach the DI programs is difficult. Preservice is the start of the learning process for teachers, teaching assistants, and administrators to master these skills. Read More
In-Service Training
Throughout the year, the National Institute for Direct Instruction provides staff development through in-service training sessions for schools implementing DI. These in-service sessions pick up where the preservice training leaves off by preparing participants to teach formats that appear later in the program and expanding on techniques covered during preservice. Read More
