Unlock the Power of Direct Instruction

Wesley Becker was one of the original developers of Direct Instruction and the director of the Direct Instruction Follow Through Model. His research continues to be an important foundation for Direct Instruction curriculum. Wes passed away in October 2000.

Elaine Bruner has contributed to Direct Instruction reading programs and has written extensively on and trained teachers in Direct Instruction classroom methods.

Douglas Carnine is a former professor of education at the University of Oregon and director of the National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators. Carnine was a National Science Foundation Fellow in Psychology as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, where he graduated with distinction and as Phi Beta Kappa in 1969. He completed his M.A. in special education at the University of Oregon in 1971 and his Ph.D. in educational psychology at the University of Utah in 1974. A man with many varied research interests, Carnine has directed or co-directed over 20 federally funded grants totaling over 15 million dollars. Carnine is a co-author of Connecting Math Concepts, DISTAR Arithmetic, and Corrective Mathematics. He also co-authored texts in elementary and middle school science, world history and U.S. history and secondary English language arts.

Linda Carnine holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon with specialties in curriculum and instruction, special education, and educational research. She has done extensive research in the field of reading where she took a longitudinal look at the reading errors made by students in kindergarten and first grade. As an educator for over thirty years, she has taught at the preschool, elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels. After completing her Ph.D., she entered school administration, where she served as an elementary principal, a director of special services, and curriculum coordinator. Dr. Carnine is now working as a private educational consultant.

Karen Davis received her master’s degree in education from the University of Oregon. A former elementary classroom teacher, she was a co-author of Direct Instruction programs in reading and language arts. She also conducted “rough draft” tryouts of programs that were under development. She taught preliminary versions of programs to students in her classroom, kept detailed notes on problems students encountered during lessons, collected data on student performance, and modified lessons. Karen passed away in November 2016.

Robert Dixon wrote a numerous and diverse selection of educational materials, including spelling programs published by SRA. His experience in education extended to the designing of computer-based educational courseware, which is used by schools throughout the country. Because of this expertise, government officials asked for his help with many important educational issues. He worked with Siegfried Engelmann to develop computer-driven support for the revision of Reading Mastery, Language for Learning, Corrective Reading, and Connecting Math Concepts. Bob passed away in July 2013.

Julie Eisele worked with children, teaching reading to students with traumatic brain injuries. She also worked with teachers on a school-wide project to improve academic achievement, helping teachers to develop their teachings skills, to reach out to at-risk students, and enhance their classroom-management skills.

Owen Engelmann has worked with the developers of the Direct Instruction model since 1984. He has co-authored programs in math and reading. He has also acted as an implementation consultant in schools with diverse populations, including Hispanic-American students in Utah and African-American students in Baltimore.

Bonnie Grossen has over 30 years of experience working in intervention and special education as a teacher, administrator, and program author. She is a frequent keynote speaker at educational conferences and has been published dozens of times in professional education journals. Grossen serves as the executive director of the Center for Applied Research in Education, a non-profit organization that provides implementation guidance for schools implementing secondary Direct Instruction intervention in mathematics, reading, and writing.

Phyllis Haddox retired from the University of Oregon’s College of Education where she trained and supervised teachers and also served as coordinator of the Direct Instruction Model of the Follow Through Project. Dr. Haddox has done extensive work in designing curriculum including authoring DI instructional programs for schools and parents and produced training videos. With school districts, she worked with administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, students, and parents. She worked directly in classrooms as well as provided needs assessment, evaluated curriculum implementation, and designed management and teacher support systems for schools, districts, and agencies.

Susan Hanner has worked with the developers of the Direct Instruction instructional model since 1970 and has co-authored direct instruction programs in reading. Her work with Siegfried Engelmann has focused on designing effective strategies for memory development and reading comprehension. At present, she is focusing her efforts on naturalistic classroom studies which examine how students acquire vocabulary and concepts associated with science and social studies.

Gary Johnson holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon and previously worked as a teacher and vice principal of an elementary school. He has extensive experience in planning and conducting in-service training sessions and supervising and evaluating instruction. For many years, he has focused his work on developing school-wide implementations of Direct Instruction programs in schools serving at-risk students in Chicago, Salt Lake City, and Portland, Oregon.

Bernadette Kelly is an expert in mathematics. She co-authored Levels C and F of Connecting Math Concepts: Comprehensive Edition and Levels E, F, and the Bridge level for the 2003 edition. She was a co-author on the 1994 revision of Connecting Math Concepts. She also co-authored Essentials for Algebra, which SRA published in 2008. Bernadette has been a teacher-trainer, presenter, and consultant working with school districts in several states to provide in-service training and classroom coaching with at-risk populations. She has lived and worked in the U.S., the U.K., and South Africa.

Linda A. Meyer, Ph.D., passed on December 31, 2019, in Urbana, Illinois. She held B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Oregon. Linda worked on the Follow Through Project. She also worked with Engelmann and others in the development of the Corrective Reading Program. Linda returned to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and directed longitudinal research on children and learning at the Center for the Study of Reading. In 1996, she received the Harold Mitzel Award for Educational Practice from the Journal of Educational Research for the results of that study.

Jean Osborn, a well-respected educator and textbook author, passed away on June 20, 2021. Jean Osborn was the director of the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois. Known for research based on classroom observations and analysis of reading materials, she has served as a consultant to the states of California and Texas regarding textbook adoption and the National Commission on Reading for Becoming a Nation of Readers. She is a frequent speaker at conferences sponsored by publishers of educational materials, the Department of Education, and the International Reading Association. Jean was also appointed to the advisory board for the National Institute for Literacy.

Steve Osborn’s exceptionally strong writing skills, as well as his specialization in children’s literature and educational materials, complements the skills of other contributing authors. He holds degrees in English literature and fine arts from Sonoma State University and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Don Steely has spent 40 years working with Direct Instruction, during which he has been a classroom teacher, teacher trainer, bilingual program director, consultant, researcher, and instructional designer/author. He has developed print and multimedia instructional programs for both hearing and deaf students in science, math, reading, spelling, and history. Steely has degrees from the University of Illinois, University of Oregon, and Honolulu University.

Leslie Zoref is a contributing writer who has a strong teaching background. She has worked with elementary and middle schools students. She holds degrees in psychology, school psychology, and curriculum and instruction from Michigan State University, Western Michigan University, and the University of Oregon.