Zach Groshell – ER Education

S6E1: Kurt Engelmann and Alisa Kerr on Sold a Story, Season 2

https://educationrickshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/PI-Aslisa-and-Kurt-Final-edit.mp3 Welcome to the Progressively Incorrect podcast. I’m Dr. Zach Groshell, and in this episode, I welcome Kurt Engelmann and Alisa Kerr of the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) for a conversation about the second season of Emily Hanford’s Sold a Story, which turns its attention to Direct Instruction. This is also the first…

3 days ago 0Comments

Taking On a Wicked Problem: DI in London Secondary Schools

I caught up with Tehrim Valabai and Mouhssin Ismail of City of London Academies Trust at the NIFDI National Conference on Direct Instruction in Eugene. They had flown in from the UK to talk about bringing DI to their secondary schools. We discussed the reading problem that pushed them toward Corrective Reading and why a…

4 days ago 0Comments

Big Questions, Small Steps: Frank Vasquez on the Instruction Debates

Frank Vasquez already uses plenty of DI programs, and this year he finally made the trip to Eugene, also known as "the mothership." Frank and I often end up in the same online debates about instruction. Here we got into the big questions behind them, along with what his special education work has taught him…

November 6, 2026 0Comments

New Zealand Educators Discover Project Follow Through, and Decide to Act

Adrienne Kinder, Kirsty Tatere and Femke Castles flew halfway around the world from New Zealand to Eugene to find out whether Direct Instruction could help the teachers they support back home. They were the only attendees from their corner of the world and proudly called themselves "newbs." They gave an honest picture of what teachers…

November 2, 2026 0Comments

Kristopher Boulton on Theory of Instruction

Few people have spent more time working through Engelmann and Carnine's Theory of Instruction than Kristopher Boulton. Kris uses it to design math sequences for topics no DI program covers. In this episode he explains what a theory of instruction is, why the book is so famously hard to read, and how he and his…

October 30, 2026 0Comments

“I Knew It Worked Because I Taught It”: Michael Smith on Returning to DI

Michael Smith is a school board president, and his story starts long before this week in Eugene. About three decades ago he taught DI in Chicago and watched it work, only to see the district drop it without explanation. Now he's back at the NIFDI conference with his superintendent, deciding whether to bring DI to…

October 26, 2026 0Comments

Every Writer Supported: A Baltimore Curriculum Project Teacher on DI Language Programs

Jared Brewer is a classroom teacher with the Baltimore Curriculum Project who just moved from second grade up to fourth. At the NIFDI conference, he spent the week in sessions on upper-level reading and language programs. We talked about a side of DI people rarely picture: how it builds students from short, well-formed sentences up…

October 21, 2026 0Comments

“Precision Is the Word”: Stephanie Stollar on Direct Instruction

I was joined by Stephanie Stollar at the NIFDI National Conference on Direct Instruction in Eugene. It was her first time at the conference, although she's tried to come for years. We talked about her roots in DI, why the design of these programs is so precise, and how the Reading Science Academy gives isolated…

October 16, 2026 0Comments