Intended Audience: District and building-level administrators and supervisors
Experience Level: All
Presenters: Kurt Engelmann and Sheri Wilkins
A successful Direct Instruction (DI) implementation requires the active participation of a fully engaged administrative team. The role of these individuals is to ensure student achievement by setting up the implementation for success, providing ongoing support to teachers and paraprofessionals, monitoring the effectiveness of instruction, and solving implementation problems as they arise. This intensive five-day session provides a deeper understanding of the rationale for the comprehensive DI schoolwide model as it guides administrators through the practical and proven steps that promote student learning. The afternoon of the final day will include an optional consultation time, allowing participants the opportunity to meet with the trainers individually or in small groups. During the consultation, the trainers will address concerns or questions related to the participants’ specific needs.
The goal of the Administrator Institute is for participants to become familiar with 1) what steps are needed to ensure that DI is implemented effectively for all students and 2) when these steps should be taken. The institute is structured around a calendar that provides a month-by-month breakdown of the major actions to take for a successful implementation of DI. Year-to-year changes that need to occur in order to build the school’s capacity to provide effective implementation support will also be discussed. In addition, the session addresses how to avoid some of the pitfalls that can hamper a schoolwide implementation of DI and prevent schools from maximizing student achievement.
The session references DI Senior Author Siegfried Engelmann’s guidelines for the full implementation of
Direct Instruction curricula as it addresses the following questions:
- What results can schools expect from the comprehensive Direct Instruction schoolwide model?
- How do the design features of the Direct Instruction curricula lead to improved student outcomes?
- What are the advantages of implementing Direct Instruction schoolwide?
- How can instruction be adjusted to meet different student needs through DI?
Participants engage in several activities that simulate specific actions to be taken in schools, including conducting observations of videos of actual classroom instruction. A particular emphasis of the session is on analyzing student performance data on student placement, mastery, and lesson progress for a wide range of instructional levels and classroom situations. Participants learn how to utilize these data to guide adjustments in instruction as a means of improving outcomes for all students.
This session is appropriate for both school administrators who are new and those who are experienced with DI.
Return to the National Direct Instruction Conference and Institutes page.