NIFDI is pleased to announce that IDEA Travis Academy has been selected to receive the 2023 Wesley Becker Excellent School Award. Travis was nominated by NIFDI Implementation Manager Kris Althoff. Travis Academy is located in Midland, Texas. Listed as a failing school in 2018-19, in 2021-22, they achieved a “B” rating and are anticipating an “A” rating when the 2022-23 ratings are released. Eighty- three percent of Travis students met or exceeded their individual growth goal on the STAAR exam.

In her rationale, Kris lists some amazing performance statistics achieved at Travis. These statistics reflect the percentage of students meeting their targeted lesson performance at mastery.

• Pre-K has obtained a 98% average for reading, math, and language.
• Kindergarten has obtained a 98% average for reading, math, and language.
• First Grade has obtained an 86% average in reading. With two weeks of better school left and summer school, it is anticipated first grade will reach 90% or
• Second Grade has obtained a 92% average in reading. Congratulations to the leadership, instructional staff, and certainly, just as important, the students. You all put in the hard work and show dedication worthy of this recognition.

Click here to access the podcast.

Some sessions are filling up for the 49th National Direct Instruction Conference and Institutes at the Graduate Hotel in Eugene, Oregon, July 24-28, 2023. The conference includes training on all of the main DI programs. To date, we have 213 registrants traveling to Eugene from around the world!

In response to participant feedback, the Administrator's Leadership Institute has been expanded to 5 full days. We also have brought back the popular pre-conference sessions, including a presentation by Anita Archer based on her book, Explicit Instruction. New sessions include training on Direct Instruction Spoken English, DI and the Science of Reading, Sensible Sequences, and many more!

Click here to view highlights of the conference and what past attendees say about their experience at past conferences.

Mark your calendar now and plan on spending a productive and enjoyable week with our team of expert trainers. To view the schedule, lodging, and cost information, click here. Click here to download the full brochure.

Jean Stockard, Professor Emeritus at the University of Oregon and retired Director of Research for NIFDI, recently presented a webinar titled Direct Instruction: Successful Students and Teachers. Sponsored by the Reading Science Academy, this 30-minute presentation summarizes the book, All Students Can Succeed: A Half Century of Research on the Effectiveness of Direct Instruction. The audience was a group of teacher preparation instructors.

The information provided in the webinar is interesting. Particularly compelling is a table that is discussed at 24:10 in the video. The table shows three columns. The first is current NAEP scores. The second shows how those scores could change if DI were implemented with “average exposure” to DI, based on the meta-analysis. The third column shows the theoretical scores if DI were implemented in an optimal manner. Click here to view the table. Viewers will see that DI, well-implemented, has the potential to have 78% of students at proficient or advanced levels in reading.

We are hopeful that the current groundswell of interest in the science of reading will encourage teacher-educators to examine Direct Instruction as a solution for teacher and student success.