In recent years, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have become a universal language for schools across our nation and play a significant role in instructional decisions made in schools, including curriculum selections. The Common Core State Standards were developed with the intent to provide a clear framework of what students are expected to learn and to ensure consistent standards, regardless of where students attend school.

Read more about Direct Instruction's alignment with the Common Core State Standards here.

The National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) is proud to announce the awarding of Research Fellowships to two graduate students doing research on Direct Instruction. Julie Thompson, a doctoral student in Special Education at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, has been awarded funds to study the ways in which Direct Instruction techniques and curriculum can make instruction more efficient and effective for students with autism spectrum disorder. Her work will examine the use of Connecting Math Concepts in small group settings. Jennifer Weber, a Masters student in the Applied Behavior Analysis program at Columbia University, will examine the impact of Corrective Reading on reading fluency and comprehension of low achieving upper elementary students in a school that uses a behavioral analysis model.

NIFDI Research Fellowships are available for masters and doctoral students, as well as postdoctoral scholars. Applications are accepted on an on-going basis. Additional information can be obtained here or by e-mailing the NIFDI research office at research@nifdi.org.

Zig's 2011 book, Could John Stuart Mill Have Saved Our Schools, is now available as an e-book for your iPad, Kindle or other reading device. In a matter of minutes, you can be learning how sound, scientific approaches can lead to successful teaching! Order now on Amazon.com!

Although it's not an article on DI, a recent feature in the Wall Street Journal titled "Practice Makes Perfect -- And Not Just for Jocks and Musicians" provides some good support of DI program practices, such as:

• You can be creative when you've mastered material: "Rote learning and conceptual thinking often feed synergistically on each other, freeing our brain capacity for those tasks that require the maximum amount of attention and creativity."
  
  
• The importance of the correction procedure: "...fast, simple feedback is almost always more effective at shaping behavior than is a more comprehensive response well after the fact."
  
  
• The value of practicing skills over time and introducing them systematically: "What drives mastery is encoding success - performing an action the right way over and over."
  
  
• Why the small-step design of DI programs is effective: "The brain likes to learn - but it prefers to in manageable leaps."

You can find the article here.