Direct Instruction (DI) is often used to help students who are struggling academically. DI can be used to accelerate the learning of higher performing students, too. This 16-minute video, "Helping Kids Soar: Children Reaching Their Full Potential with Direct Instruction," portrays two schools in different parts of the country that have used DI successfully with all children, including high performing students: Emerson Elementary in Alliance, NE and Ficket Elementary in Atlanta, GA.

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Gering Public Schools, a small district in northeast Nebraska, used to suffer from an achievement gap in reading.  In 2004, 36 percent of all Hispanic students in second grade met fluency benchmarks compared to 59 percent of all white students in the district's three elementary schools.  Low literacy performance was also a problem at the district's sole junior high school.

That was before the district implemented the comprehensive Direct Instruction model with the support of the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI).  Now the achievement gap in reading has been closed.  Over three-fourths of all students meet second grade fluency benchmarks, with a higher percentage of Hispanic students meeting benchmarks than white students!  At the junior high school, the need for remedial reading programs has declined drastically as students are much more able to comprehend content area texts.

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Teaching Needy Kids in Our Backward System documents the often-outrageous experiences of a man some consider the most important educator ever, Siegfried (Zig) Engelmann.

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NIFDI's new website features a searchable database of DI research articles. We think this is the most comprehensive library of DI research on the web. Take a look and see if you agree.