September, 1996
Volume VIII, Number 1

Direct Instruction

From the Editors: So what's a school to do?

Main story: Direct Instruction making waves
Ideas about the brain are at the heart of differences between DI and progressive approaches.

Parent talk can make kids 'school smart'
What research shows about at-home conversation and in-school success.

Snapshots from the different camps
In preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade.

What it takes to make a program succeed
Problems and pluses of the two approaches.
See also: Little testing of basals

Built on the basics, Wesley now striving for more
Direct Instruction's most celebrated school is adding hands-on teaching to its repertoire.

Reform Phase II:
The Gage Park Chronicles
How an individual school is affected by the school system's new leadership and policies. Eighth of a series.
Bridge Program wins raves, rehab work lags

Exemplary Schools winners still waiting for rewards.
Title I 'windfall' to be used for Bridge Program.
Union files grievance over privatization.
Victors in Gale election turn back legal challenge.
In-school arrests for violent crime continue to decline.

Comings and goings

Teaching more important than teacher's race, by Norman Gelfand

Gimmicks spark more student reading.