The NIFDI Research Department recently released Technical Report 2016-1: Effective Direct Instruction Implementations: The Impact of Administrative Decisions and Time.
This report uses data from different studies and settings to examine two general factors that make DI implementations more effective: 1) administrative decisions and practices and 2) experience with the program. The data show that DI students make significantly more progress at mastery and have significantly higher achievement when:
- teachers implement the programs with greater fidelity
- teachers have been trained for the specific programs they are teaching
- teachers are given time and support to prepare lessons
- teachers have more experience in teaching the programs
- DI has been implemented for a longer period of time
- students are taught for the recommended time each week
- at-risk students are given extra instructional time ("double dosing")
- students start learning with DI in kindergarten
The report is free and can be downloaded from the NIFDI website, or pdf click here .