All Direct Instruction programs are based on careful studies of how children learn. Two pioneers in this work were Wesley Becker and Siegfried Engelmann. Others who have contributed decades of writings to this area are Douglas Carnine and Russell Gersten.
Research on How Children Learn
Even though many curricula include some elements of effective instruction, this does not mean they are necessarily effective. Direct Instruction (capitalized), the programs developed by Siegfried Engelmann and colleagues, incorporates all of these elements. Other direct instruction (no capitals) curricula incorporate only some of the effective elements.
Siegfried Engelmann, the founder of Direct Instruction, and Geoff Colvin, Ph.D., a longtime collaborator, have developed a rubric for identifying authentic DI programs - ones that conform to all of the elements of effective instruction. See Rubric for Identifying Authentic DI Programs
A key element of effective instruction is ensuring that students master the material they are studying. This is often called "mastery learning." In a 1999 article, Engelmann describes how teaching to mastery involves aligning student needs and the content of a curriculum and shows how DI programs accomplish this. See Student-Program Alignment and Teaching to Mastery
An article by Cheryl Schieffer and colleagues, published in 2002, shows how one DI program, Reading Mastery, embodies the elements of effective instruction. Schieffer et al, JODI, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 87-119
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Dixons Manningham Primary School leaders Terri Leighton, Yasmin Ali, and Abigail Burrow discuss the school’s journey from implementing Corrective Reading, a remedial program for select students in Grades 3 (roughly equivalent to Year 4 in the UK system) and above, to implementing Reading Mastery Signature Edition reading and language tracks as core instruction for all primary-grade students. They describe the remarkable changes in students’ ability to read and understand grade-level texts. Clips of students receiving instruction and participating in other activities are interspersed throughout the video.
Kris Althoff provided training and support to Dixons Manningham Primary School as it implemented Direct Instruction (DI) for core literacy instruction for all of its students. In this interview, Kris talks with Bryan Wickman, Outreach Director for the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI), about the steps that led to a dramatic increase in student performance during the COVID pandemic in the primary grades at the school.
This video highlights an academic preschool pilot project begun in the Fall of 2014 at Pharr IDEA Academy in Pharr, Texas. In this pilot, students in this predominately ELL school were taught using Espanol to English and/or DISTAR Language prior to entering kindergarten.
Direct Instruction (DI) is often used to help students who are struggling academically. DI can be used to accelerate the learning of higher performing students, too. The 16-minute DVD, Helping Kids Soar: Children Reaching Their Full Potential with Direct Instruction, portrays two schools in different parts of the country that have used DI successfully with all children, including high-performing students: Emerson Elementary in Alliance, Nebraska, and Fickett Elementary in Atlanta, Georgia.
Both schools follow a similar formula for achieving success:
The DVD shows how a careful implementation of Direct Instruction with NIFDI support can help bring out the joy and wonder of reading as it prepares students for advanced content.
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Video Guide
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Helping Kids Soar (with subtitles in Spanish)
Translations and subtitles courtesy of Carlos Vílchez-Román and Juan Villaorduña Velarde.
Gering Public Schools, a small district in northwest Nebraska, used to suffer from an achievement gap in reading. In 2004, 36 percent of all Hispanic students in second grade met fluency benchmarks compared to 59 percent of all white students in the district's three elementary schools. Low literacy performance was also a problem at the district's sole junior high school.
That was before the district implemented the comprehensive Direct Instruction model with the support of the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI). Now the achievement gap in reading has been closed. Over three-fourths of all students meet second-grade fluency benchmarks, with a higher percentage of Hispanic students meeting benchmarks than white students! At the junior high school, the need for remedial reading programs has declined drastically as students are much more able to comprehend content area texts.
This 20-minute DVD, Closing the Performance Gap: The Gering Story, portrays the district's transition from one with literacy problems to one in which all students receive an education that meets their literacy needs. The video describes the changes that have taken place in instruction, progress monitoring, and professional development through the implementation of the comprehensive Direct Instruction model.
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Gering's data before NIFDI support -- and AFTER!
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Closing the Performance Gap (with subtitles in Spanish)
Translations and subtitles courtesy of Carlos Vílchez-Román and Juan Villaorduña Velarde.
The Battle of City Springs Epilogue tells the story of a school in a high-poverty area of a large U.S. city that experienced years of failure before implementing the full immersion model of Direct Instruction. Until Baltimore’s City Springs Elementary started implementing the full immersion model of Direct Instruction in 1996, the school was considered to be the epitome of failure. Over 90 percent of the students were (and still are) eligible for free or reduced lunch. Academic performance was at sub-basement levels. No students in the 3rd grade or the 5th grade passed the Maryland state test, the MSPAP, in either mathematics or writing. The Abell Foundation rated City Springs as the 2nd lowest-performing school in the city of Baltimore.
The school climate was just as poor. Students ran the halls, and teachers locked classroom doors in order to control them…and keep others out. The 2000 PBS documentary, The Battle of City Springs, captured the difficulty of transforming the school during the second year of DI implementation, 1997-1998.
After six years of implementing the full immersion of DI with support from NIFDI, the school is the epitome of success. The halls are clean and orderly. Students are well-behaved. Most important, student performance has improved dramatically. Students, teachers, and the principal take great pride in their accomplishments.
RESOURCES FOR THIS VIDEO
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City Spring's data before NIFDI support -- and AFTER!
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Video Guide
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This video is courtesy of the Center for Applied Research in Education (CARE) based in Hillsboro, Oregon. The school featured in this video is not supported by NIFDI but exemplifies the benefits of Direct Instruction (DI). Special thanks to Bonnie Grossen, PhD., Executive Director of CARE.
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