NIFDI Press will soon be releasing a go-to reference tool appropriate for teachers, administrators, coaches and anyone else who is responsible for the implementation of Direct Instruction (DI) programs. The Program Reference Chart is a compilation of practical information on Direct Instruction programs, including:

• the targeted student population,
• teacher and student materials needed,
• the number of lessons in each level,
• the frequency of mastery tests and fluency checkouts,
• grouping guidelines, and
• the schedule for daily lessons.

The Program Reference Chart offers these details in a quick, easy-to-access format that is helpful for identifying which programs may be appropriate for a given student or instructional group. Administrators will find the charts useful for determining scheduling and staffing needs. The Program Reference Chart retails for $14.99 and will be available for purchase by August 3rd.

Want to be among the first to know when this becomes available? Become a member of NIFDI and receive Early Release Notices of our new products. In the meantime, you can get free sample pages.

Hope Academy, a private boarding school for abused girls in rural Kenya, began using Corrective Reading (Comprehension and Decoding) and Spelling Mastery in place of the Kenyan English curriculum in 2012. The students, girls in grades three through six whose third language is English, immediately began outpacing national performance on the standardized Kenyan national assessment in Reading.

When comparing student standardized test scores, the Kenyan government posts the country's results with how many pupils are above the mean. At the end of the academic year (November), all Kenyan private and public schools take the standardized achievement test. Scores are released to the public to determine the best private and public schools. Both the students and schools are ranked, and students scoring over 250 marks out of 500 can continue on with their education into secondary or high school.

In 2012, only 51.35% of the eighth grade student population in Kenya, taking the final standardized test, passed the 50% mark required. In the following two years, scores continued to decline nationally with 50.29% of students achieving the250 cut score in 2014 and 49.71% in 2014. (See Figure 1).

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Psychology Today recently featured a blog post titled Early Academic Training Produces Long-Term Harm that contends that academic preschools and kindergartens are stressful and unhappy places, have no lasting effect on students’ later academic success and can even promote long-term harm to children’s social and psychological development. In a report released by the National Institute for Direct Instruction, these serious misrepresentations made in the post are documented.

Drill, endless worksheets, unhappiness, and a lack of play are the antithesis of well-run Direct Instruction school. Substantial research evidence indicates that having well-structured early academic instruction in the DI tradition can provide the basis for continued success, not just in the early grades but through the high school years. Academic early education can provide an important and cost-efficient means of for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to compete on the same level as those from more adhovantaged settings.

Download the full report here: Harmful Effects of Academic Early Education? A Look at the Claims and the Evidence (Psychology Today, Jun 2015)