An important feature of successful Direct Instruction implementations is to celebrate success--success of students, teachers and entire schools. For many years, there has been a tradition of recognizing excellence in education at the National DI Conference and this year is no exception. Individuals and schools that have made a significant difference in the educational performance of children will be recognized through the following awards:

• Siegfried Engelmann Excellence in Education Award
• Wes Becker Excellent School Award
• The Wayne Carnine Student Improvement Award

Please take this opportunity to identify and nominate a colleague and/or school that has made a difference. Nomination applications are short (1-2 pages) and are available on our website.

Nominations are due in our office by June 3rd, so download the application packet today! 

IDEA Public Schools is a K-12 Public Charter school that predominantly serves low income students and ensures that 100% of their students get accepted to college. IDEA currently has 44 schools in Austin, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley serving more than 24,000 students. IDEA schools are consistently rated in the top of the rankings for public schools in Texas. It starts with building a solid foundation by using Direct Instruction in their K-2 classrooms.

As IDEA opens up two more academies in San Antonio and one more in Austin, they are looking for more amazing DI leaders and teachers to carry out the mission of 100% to college. Please take a brief moment to check out some quick links and important information about leadership opportunities for the upcoming school year with IDEA Public Schools.

See who IDEA is here.

2016-17 vacancies include Assistant principal of instruction in San Antonio and Austin, and teacher vacancies in the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio and Austin.

Submit your Assistant Principal of Instruction Application:

Click here for the Central Texas Region
Click here for the Rio Grande Valley Region. 

School districts in Texas and Washington are partnering with Oregon Research Institute (ORI) to learn more about what middle school teachers are doing to teach English learners (EL) in the 6th and 7th grades how to speak English, and to find out what's working for their students, within the context of an evaluation of Direct Instruction Spoken English (DISE). The study is being conducted by Drs. Barbara Gunn, Erin Chaparro, Keith Smolkowski and Patricia Vadasy at Oregon Research Institute, and is funded by the United States Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Grant #R305A150325.

The four year project is now mid-way through Year 01, with 10 middle schools in Laredo Texas, and 2 middle schools in Sunnyside, Washington working with ORI researchers. The teachers who are implementing DISE are receiving training and coaching support from NIFDI. Their students were tested in the fall on English oral language skills, with follow-up testing this winter and spring. The research team is recruiting more schools to join the study in the fall of 2016. Participating districts and teachers will be provided with incentives including stipends, curriculum, and professional development. If you think your district might be interested in participating, or for more information, please contact Erin Chaparro echaparro@ori.org, or Barbara Gunn barbarag@ori.org. 

McGraw-Hill, the primary publisher of the DI family of programs, has released the 2016 Price List. Print versions of the catalog will no longer be distributed.

The following DI programs are included in the price list:

• Reading Mastery
• Horizons
• Corrective Reading
• Language for Learning, Language for Thinking & Language for Writing
• Reasoning and Writing
• Essentials for Writing
• Expressive Writing
• Spelling Mastery
• Connecting Math Concepts
• Corrective Mathematics
• Essentials for Algebra

To view or download the catalog, visit McGraw-Hill's website.

As a complement to the forthcoming catalog, the National Institute for Direct Instruction has also created a spreadsheet DI Materials Cost Worksheet  that will aid administrators and other decision makers in determining program material costs. Constructed as a Microsoft Excel document, users can simply enter the quantities for each title and component into the worksheet, and the total estimated cost is automatically calculated at the bottom of the sheet. This document is updated regularly to reflect current pricing from the publisher, but users need to verify actual pricing from the publisher or through their sales representative. Note that the material cost spreadsheet includes price information for Direct Instruction Spoken English (DISE), published by Sopris Learning. NIFDI does not sell these programs directly and recommends this worksheet as a tool
for estimating only.