As a service to our membership, NIFDI periodically releases various resources to our members. This month we added three new files:

* 2-Minute Observation Form-allows the observer to get into and out of classrooms quickly by focusing on one and only one important aspect of instruction: on-task behavior. The main thing the form is designed to capture is the approximate percent or number of students that are following the teacher's instructions consistently.

* 5-Minute Observation Form-provides a broad overview of how a classroom is functioning. It focuses the observer on required fundamental elements. Without the basics established, students will not be able to benefit from the sophisticated design of the DI programs.

* Lesson Progress Chart-Teachers and Assistants use this form to summarize and report lesson gains, mastery tests, and results and to communicate questions or comments to coaches and supervisors. Principals, coordinators, or coaches use this information to analyze the overall status of an implementation, to continuously monitor mastery and lesson progress and to determine areas that require change, and to identify solutions.

Members will find these documents when you log in and click on the Members Only Documents tab, found under the Members tab on the main web page. If you are not currently a member of NIFDI, click here to explore benefits and sign up!

The National Institute for Direct Instruction, in conjunction with the National Direct Instruction Conference, was pleased to present several recognitions the night of July 26th. The Wesley Becker Excellent School Award was given to two schools this year. The first recognition went to the Charter Day School (CDS), located in Leland, North Carolina. This tuition-free public charter school was established in 1999 and serves 950 k-8 students, utilizing Direct Instruction programs as its core curriculum. CDS parent of three students, Jennifer London notes, "CDS delivers on its promise to have all Kindergartners reading by January in their first year of school. This is unheard of in a school that doesn't use DI!" The hard work and dedication of the staff and students of CDS has consistently earned them much county and statewide recognition. 

A Becker Excellent School Award was also presented to Bancroft-Rosealie Elementary School in Bancroft, Nebraska. This rural pre-6 school has been utilizing DI for the past 10 years. The school is a 2015 US Department of Education (USDOE) Blue Ribbon School and the Principal, Dr. Jon Cerny, is a 2015 USDOE Terrell Bell Award winner. In their path to school-wide implementation of DI, Reading Coach Karin Vogt says, "When we implemented Reading Mastery our special education kids were out-reading the core program. The next year the first-grade class wanted it, then kindergarten. Everyone wanted to try. It was a no-brainer." In 2015, students reached 96 percent proficiency in reading and 94 percent proficiency in math. The support leadership of the administration, along with the commitment of staff to implement with fidelity, has lead to amazing results! 

Grade 5 teacher Toni Hatten is the recipient of the Siegfried Engelmann Excellence in Education Award. Toni teaches at Broadbeach State School in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia. Broadbeach principal Michael Roberts wrote in his nomination, "She has been able to successfully advocate the use of Direct Instruction with a focus on delivery and passion. She spends a great deal of each week modeling lessons and coaching other teachers at Broadbeach to implement all DI programs to a high standard." 

State Departments of Education recently published the results of their annual assessments of student achievement. Many people want to compare results to previous years and to other schools. Yet, the thought of taking the time to look up formulas in a statistics book or finding a number cruncher to do the work can be a bit daunting. NIFDI's Educational Impact Calculator (EIC) provides an easy, quick, and no-cost alternative. Users enter aggregate data (e.g. percentage of students at benchmark, means and standard deviations or the percentile rank of the average student) and the EIC instantly calculates the effect size, improvement index, and probability results that would occur by chance. Click here to get to the EIC. The website contains numerous examples of questions the calculator can answer and its use. It also has explanations of the input data and output statistics and links to a technical report that provides complete details on the underlying statistical formulas and research designs.