In Education Week's January 22nd article, Florida Pushes Longer Day, More Reading in Some Schools, Springfield Elementary School in Springfield, Florida struggled with student performance and was Bay County's only school on the state's list of 100 worst performing schools with a 'D' grade in 2012-13. The school, as part of the inclusion on the list, was required to add an additional hour to the school day and dedicate the time specifically to reading.

Districts were allowed a lot of freedom to determine how they wanted to handle the extra hour, as long as it was approved by the state department of education. Springfield Elementary allowed staff to determine the program students would be offered and opted to switch to Reading Mastery Signature Edition for their core English Language Arts program. In just one year, the 470-student school raised its grade from a 'D' to a 'C' using Direct Instruction and has not only kept the program, but added another DI program this year - Connecting Math Concepts!

The National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) has developed a two-part, self-paced online tutorial describing the fundamental tenets of a Direct Instruction implementation. The goal of the tutorial is to provide school and district leaders a solid understanding of what’s involved in implementing Direct Instruction successfully. The tutorial can also be a helpful tool in explaining DI to external constituents, such as school board members, community members, district officials and more.

Part One of the tutorial covers what to do before school starts in preparation for an implementation of DI, while Part Two covers what to do to maximize student performance with DI once school starts. Each part is composed of nine smaller segments, about five minutes in length, followed by a “Check Your Understanding” component that presents questions on key points made in the video. Users should allocate approximately three hours time to review both parts of the tutorial and complete the “Check Your Understanding” components. You don't have to do the tutorial in one sitting. You can stop it at any time and log in again later at your convenience.

Feel free to share this resource with others who might benefit from its content. The tutorial is completely free and can be easily located on NIFDI’s homepage.

Contact us at info@nifdi.org if you have any questions. We hope this tutorial will provide you with background information that will help you ensure that all of your students will be successful with the DI approach!

A Common Problem
Examining new standards for Oregon students

When Macey France’s second-grade son brought home his math homework, France couldn’t believe that he was already working with fractions. “The sad thing is, my eight-year-old doesn’t know what a fraction is yet,” she says, “and he’s reading it out loud, saying, ‘one and then a line and then a four,’ and I realized, oh my goodness, they’re asking for a quarter of something.”

France, chief operating officer of Parent Led Reform Oregon, is drawing attention to a set of new achievement standards that are coming to Oregon schools, including Lane County, as well as across the nation. Teachers around the state are modifying their classroom strategies to meet these new standards — sudden adjustments that parents are surprised to see. “People have compared it to the Affordable Care Act,” she says. “It hit, and it’s too much, too fast.”

Known as the Common Core State Standards, this set of benchmarks specifies the target knowledge and proficiency in math, reading and writing that children should attain in grades K-12. Along with the change in standards comes a change in testing. Starting in the 2014-15 school year, students will leave the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS) testing behind and transition to the more rigorous and expensive Smarter Balanced assessments, designed to measure student progress in meeting the Common Core standards.

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The National Institute for Direct Instruction has 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, simply enter the quantities for each title and component into the worksheet and the total estimated cost is automatically calcuated at the bottom of the sheet. NIFDI does not sell programs directly and recommends this worksheet as a tool for estimating only. Users need to verify actual pricing from the publisher or through their sales representative.

Need teacher materials? Now is the time to buy! McGraw-Hill Education is running a special on teacher kits now through December 16, 2013. Buy 2 teacher materials packages of your favorite SRA Direct Instruction programs and get 1 FREE! Call 800-344-7344 and mention promo code FALL2013ESSENTIALS.