As you likely know, there is a vast amount of writing related to Direct Instruction, and new work continues to appear. NIFDI's Department of Research and Evaluation regularly searches for and reviews both past and new writings on Direct Instruction for inclusion in the Research Database. In recent months, the office has identified and reviewed a lesser widely distributed category of studies: theses and dissertations on DI.

Given the size of the DI literature base, the office is confident there are still other important and relevant works, such as dissertations, not yet discovered and we are asking NIFDI News! readers for their help. If you have students who recently completed DI-related projects or know of writings that are not currently included in the database, we ask that you contact NIFDI's Office of Research and Evaluation to share these citations.

You can reach the Research Office at research@nifdi.org or 877.485.1973.

Have you ever wished there was a convenient, online resource that you could use to help explain the fundamentals of DI to newbies? Well, now there is! NIFDI is proud to release our brand new Introduction to Direct Instruction video series!

This nine-part introduction is free and covers a range of topics relevant to individuals new to DI, including:

• What is Direct Instruction?
• What are the Direct Instruction programs?
• What are the Direct Instruction program components?
• How are students assessed in the DI programs?
• What directions are there in the Teacher Presentation Books?
• What is the comprehensive Direct Instruction model?
• What is the research base for Direct Instruction?
• What training and support are available for implementing DI?
• How do I get started with Direct Instruction?

Each video is only about five minutes long, providing a succinct introduction to each topic. Users can browse through the videos separately, but we recommend viewing them in the order they appear on the NIFDI webpage.

Nearly 100 pre-k students in Texas have reason to be proud of their newfound reading and language skills. IDEA Pharr Academy in Pharr, Texas introduced a pre-kindergarten pilot program featuring Direct Instruction programs with the goal of reducing the achievement gap and ensuring students begin kindergarten on grade level. 80% of Pharr Academy’s students speak Spanish as their first language, and nearly all students, 97.3%, come from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

The year began with eight groups of students in Español to English and four more groups in DISTAR Language. Pharr’s goal for the half-day pilot program was for all students to  complete Español to English or DISTAR by the end of the year and be primed for starting Reading Mastery Signature Edition (RMSE) language and reading programs in the fall. With over 30 instructional days remaining until year’s end, 66 of the 99 pre-k pilot program students have already started RMSE K – some having completed over 60 lessons! The other 33 students are finishing up Español to English and are a few lessons away from being ready to placement test for RMSE.

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John McWhorter, a professor at Columbia University, recently presented the keynote speech at the Cato Institute half-day conference on ending poverty. One of the pillars to his solution? Direct Instruction!

McWhorter said there were three things that needed to be done in order to end poverty for African Americans in the United States and touted Direct Instruction as the premier program for teaching all inner city kids how to read as one of those solutions. He also suggested encouraging young Americans to wait to start families until they had established careers and ending the war on drugs as two other meaningful methods.

Watch the video above to see McWhorter's remarks for yourself. Note: John begins his comments on Direct Instruction at 29:30 into the talk and at about 55 minutes, discusses why seemingly no one knows about DI.

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