Direct Instruction got its start at the University of Illinois when Siegfried "Zig" Engelmann -- creator of Direct Instruction and Senior Author of the DI programs -- debuted DI, teaching at-risk preschoolers at the Institute for Research on Exceptional Children. Students in the preschool learned remarkable skills, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, basic algebra, fractions and how to solve area problems. These students, some who attended the preschool for two years and others who only attended for one year, are shown demonstrating their skills in a video available on Zig's site.

The National Institute for Direct Instruction has developed a guide for the video that is free for download.

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The following is a summary with selected quotes from Controversial teaching method brings hope and social change to Cape York published in The Australian in May of 2013. Note that the schools profiled in the article have been implementing the full immersion Direct Instruction model with guidance and support from the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI). For more information on implementing Direct Instruction, contact NIFDI at 877.485.1973 or info@nifdi.org. 

In his May 11, 2013 article, Controversial teaching method brings hope and social change to Cape York published in The Australian, author Nicolas Rothwell captures the social reform efforts in Aboriginal communities of Cape York Australia, including the remarkable educational reforms in Queensland using none other than Direct Instruction (DI). Noel Pearson – a primary leader in the reform efforts – is seeing his vision for creating a successful remote-area indigenous school come to fruition with the partnership of Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy (CYAAA) and the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) working to implement DI successfully for all students.

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The Baltimore Curriculum Project (BCP) hosted their version of Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader? as Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawling-Blake, City Schools CEO Andres Alonso, Actress/Dancer/Storyteller Maria Broom and Economist Anirban Basu matched wits with fifth graders from four neighborhood charter schools in East Baltimore operated by BCP. Actor and Baltimore City School Board Commissioner Robert Heck served as Master of Ceremonies. The fifth graders upheld their winning title, beating these local leaders! Last year BCP students bested Dr. Alonso, Comedian Mickey Cucchiella, Houston Texans Wide Receiver Bryant Johnson and Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

The four BCP charter schools -- City Springs Elementary/Middle School, Collington Square School of the Arts, Hampstead Hill Academy and Wolfe Street Academy -- all implement Direct Instruction (DI) programs schoolwide with NIFDI support. City Springs has had particularly remarkable success working with NIFDI to maximize student performance with DI. Learn about City Spring's success with DI here.

See video footage of this remarkable event here.

Have you ever discovered an error in the DI programs? The programs are thoroughly vetted and field tested before publication, but sometimes errors still appear.

If you've found an error in a DI program, email the authors at info@engelmann-becker.com. The Engelmann-Becker Corporation (named after the founders of DI) is devoted to designing, field testing and refining the DI curricula both before and after they are published. The E-B Corp would be eager to learn of any errors you've found in the programs so they can note them and work with the publisher to correct errors before the next printing.