Studies Cite Learning Gains In Direct Instruction Schools

By Debra Viadero

Schools using Direct Instruction, a teaching method sometimes criticized for its tightly scripted teaching lessons, are generally seeing gains in student learning, according to a new package of studies that tracked the program in Florida, Maryland, and Texas.

The studies, published this month in the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk , are important, experts said, because they represent the first published empirical research on the program, or adaptations of it, in more than a decade.

They look at districts in four locations—Baltimore; Broward County, Fla.; Fort Worth, Texas; and Houston—in which anywhere from six to 30 schools began using the...