The History of DI Research

DI Programs are based on years of research on how children learn and the most effective ways to teach. This work produced the basic principles of effective instruction: All children can learn when instruction is systematic, explicit, and efficient. Poor achievement does not result from poor students, but from poor teaching. Direct Instruction programs, developed by Siegfried Engelmann and colleagues, incorporate all of these elements of effective instruction.

Over 40 years of scientific research has supported the development of Direct Instruction. Many studies in a wide variety of settings demonstrate that children who receive Direct Instruction have significantly higher achievement, make more rapid educational progress, and have higher levels of self-esteem than students in other programs.  Project Follow Through, the largest educational experiment ever conducted, first documented DI's superiority in the 1970s. See Project Follow through.

NIFDI's searchable database provides access to dozens of studies that assess DI curricula. These individual articles provide important details on the efficacy of each program. Search for articles by type of curricula, author, year of publication, and numerous other criteria. See The DI Research Database.