Adventures in Direct Instruction Implementation: The Devil Is in the Details
Daily Direct Instruction reading lifted standardized scores for 67 students with autism after two years in a public charter school.
01Research in Context
What this study did
A special-ed charter school gave 67 students with autism a Direct Instruction reading lesson every day.
Teachers followed the full DI script: group signals, choral responses, and fast error corrections.
After at least two school years the kids took the KTEA-II reading test again.
What they found
Average reading scores rose from the low-average range to the high-average range.
One third of the students learned faster than the typical yearly gain, even though they had ASD.
No extra rewards or 1:1 time were added—just solid DI delivery.
How this fits with other research
Sherman et al. (2021) show why the gains happened: they used BST to train DI moves like crisp signals and praise. After four short coach sessions every teacher hit near-perfect fidelity.
Kim et al. (2023) add a tweak: switch to 12-trial mini-sessions and individual mastery checks. Their kids learned sight words in half the time, so you can speed DI even more.
Al-Nasser et al. (2019) give a low-cost back-up: hand staff a picture-rich self-check packet and they still hit high fidelity without a live coach—handy when budgets are tight.
Why it matters
You can run DI in a self-contained ASD room and see real, measurable reading growth in two years. Pair the program with a quick BST booster or a picture packet and you protect fidelity from day one. If a child stalls, cut the set size and use 12-trial bursts—Kim’s recipe—to keep momentum. The combo gives you a classroom-ready path to literacy that does not need extra aides or tokens.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This article tells the story of how a public charter school serving students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) adopted Direct Instruction (DI) as their primary form of instruction. The journey from recognizing the need for evidence-based curriculum focused on academic skills to integrating DI on a daily basis was outlined using a common implementation framework. We measured results of the implementation process on student outcomes using reading scores obtained from the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (KTEA-II Brief). Results for 67 students who participated in a DI reading program for at least 2 years suggest that the implementation of DI led to significantly improved reading scores; with some students demonstrating greatly accelerated rates of learning for their age. Our study suggests that the road to adoption of DI may be long, but the results are powerful for the individuals served. We offer our steps to implementation as a guide and resource to educators and behavior analysts eager to utilize DI in their settings.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2021 · doi:10.1007/s40617-021-00616-1