Why is it next to impossible to identify schools in a given area that use DI
either for certain subjects, or as a whole-school model?
In all likelihood there is no "master list" of DI schools. A few months ago ADI was soliciting the members of the DI Listserv to send in which schools where they were working to create such a list. You might want to contact ADI again to see if that effort was successful.
To find out about whole school implementations you might want to companies that do them: Nifdi and J/P Associates (There may be one more).
There are also a few private schools using DI I've seen mentioned on the DI Listserv.
Other places I've seen DI schools mentioned is in DI News. If you join ADI for $40 a year, you get both DI News and The Journal of Direct Instruction.
Not sure how much this helps, but it's all I have.
4 comments:
I might suggest joining the DI listserv and asking there.
Take a look at the very bottom of this page:
http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/DI.html
It's a terrific resource.
jh,
I already belong to the DI listserv -- and they were of no use. Hence, my post.
ADI was of no help, and NIFDI refers people to ADI. And round and round it goes.
My point is one shouldn't have to hunt and peck to find out where DI is in schools. The DI proponents and curricula peddlers themselves should be selling it.
Have no fear that if one inquired of the TERC math people if TERC was being used in a particular district, the TERC people would know. Likewise, it is fairly easy to find out if Saxon Math is being used in a particular school or district.
But for some, strange reason, finding out about DI is difficult. The question has been posited on the DI listserv several times over the last 7 years I have belonged to the list -- and it never produces more than a couple of responses (I can't speak to private replies -- but then again why wouldn't someone want the whole list to know? What is there to hide?)
About two years ago, a public school official asked a question of the list wanting to know how to present data about DI so its introduction to the public would be smooth and seemless. I emailed the individual to find out which schools were going to be using it.
The public employee told me she couldn't "disclose" that information without the consent of the PUBLIC school district.
That was my first introduction into the strangeness of it all... that strangeness hasn't abated.
--4trogan
P.S. I cited Kozloff in my original post; he is often the best source of info, but like I said his info is dated.
4trogan,
I agree that the listserv isn't a comprehensive resource.
I also agree that (for some odd reason) it's hard to find out if DI is being used. For example, I've found that it's much easier to find out if schools use Core Knowledge than DI.
But I did want to mention just one more resource in case it might help.
And one more note . . . I've come to believe that charter schools are the last great hope for programs like DI. It's much easier to adopt and implement a DI program if you're a charter school than if you are a public schools. I don't have empirical evidence for this. But it matches my observations.
We are homeschooling our son now. If we had a comprehensive (or even 50% accurate) list of schools using DI, I'm sure we would have approached them.
This seems like a gap that the DI community should fill. Otherwise, it will remain on the margins of instruction.
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