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.