Describes the Direct Instruction model, which has been effective in teaching mathematics to disadvantaged students. Results of the national Follow Through and the University of Oregon evaluations are reported, and implications of the findings for improving classroom practices are discussed. (RH)

The present study examines the impact of the Direct Instruction (DI) program on the high school careers of the economically disadvantaged students who participated in the DI model of Project Follow Through. The study involves six sites: East St. Louis; New York City; Flint, Michigan; Williamsburg County, South Carolina; and Uvalde, Texas. A…

Describes "Start Making a Reader Today" (SMART), a volunteer tutoring program that helps K-2 students at risk of reading difficulties. Finds that the program improved students' word reading, reading fluency, and word comprehension, though level of performance at end of second grade was still much lower than that of average-achieving…

Fifteen hundred high school students who had taken part in the Direct Instruction (DI) Follow Through Program in elementary school were studied to examine the impact of DI on their high school careers. Positive effects were found in each of the six sites studied. Two sites demonstrated positive effects in both achievement and graduation/dropout…

This consideration of effective ways to educate low-income, educationally at-risk students in kindergarten documents an approach that has been effective in accelerating academic growth. Results of a longitudinal study of children who received Direct Instruction in primary school indicated benefits when participants were in the ninth grade. (RH)

The evolution and evaluation of an elementary level structured immersion program in English as a second language are described. The program provides all academic instruction in English, but at a level that students can understand. It is ungraded, uses bilingual teachers who speak the students' native language, and has both developmental and direct…

The later effects of the Direct Instruction Follow Through program were assessed in five diverse sites in the United States. Low income fifth and sixth graders who had completed the full 3 years of this first through third-grade program were tested on the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT), Intermediate Level, and the Wide Range Achievement Test…

A study assessed and compared the effectiveness of two distinct approaches of bilingual education used within a single school district in El Paso (Texas). The program designs, one a traditional transitional bilingual and the other a bilingual immersion, were implemented under similar conditions of resources, school year length, class size, and…