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 educators somewhere to turn.
In this Interview:
- How Stephanie first encountered DI and Project Follow Through in graduate school in the late 1980s
- Why precision in program design leaves nothing to chance
- Why people focus on DI’s delivery techniques but miss how the lessons are built
- How the Reading Science Academy gives “lone wolf” teachers a community and trusted advice
▸Show full transcript
[00:04] Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Direct Instruction Podcast. I’m here at the National Direct Instruction Conference in Eugene, Oregon, in 2026. It’s just awesome to be here. I’m always smiling ear to ear. And I’m also happy because I’m with Stephanie Stollar. You’ve been on the podcast before — it’s great to see you live and in person. How are you doing today?
[00:29] Doing well. I’m very happy to be at this conference. I’ve always wanted to attend, and this is the first time that it’s worked out for me to be here.
[00:37] And so you’re here and you get to see all of these different program trainings happening at once. There’s also some advanced coursework and all sorts of things. Tell me, what is your history with capital DI — big DI, Direct Instruction?
[00:54] I learned about Direct Instruction when I was in graduate school in the late 1980s. We had the opportunity to hear about Follow Through and learn the history of that research project. So this is my origin — I feel like I’m coming back to my roots here. When I worked as a school psychologist, I used Corrective Reading myself, and later I worked with schools as a consultant that used Corrective Reading. And it was life-altering, not just for the students, but for the teachers. I remember specifically one special educator — she was maybe in her 27th year as a special ed teacher — and she said, “I have a group this year, and I don’t think two of the students in this group will ever be readers.” I convinced her to try Corrective Reading, and she was completely transformed. She could not believe the way her students were reading after implementing that program. And that’s the kind of story I want every teacher to experience: that the design and delivery of this instruction is so precise and so effective, and yet so unknown, or even misunderstood. In my Reading Science Academy, I have the opportunity to support lots of educators from all around the world, and they tell me what some of their misconceptions are about DI. It’s a really nice community, because the people who do use DI get to give their firsthand experience and debunk some of those myths.
[02:41] I think it’s interesting, because you can focus on the kids’ behavior or classroom management. You can focus on the teacher’s delivery and techniques. But at the end of the day — what is it that they’re learning, and how is that information crafted? That’s so underrated. And so that brings us into the world of programs. We have all these different programs you can choose from, but you have to actually open the pages and analyze them. And it’s very hard to evaluate the strength of design across many, many lessons.
[03:17] Yeah, I think it’s hard to even grasp and comprehend the design. I went to Evan Haney’s training on the new Corrective Reading program on Monday, and my mind was blown. Again, precision is the word that just keeps coming to mind. The way it’s structured leaves nothing to chance. It is almost impossible, if you do it correctly, for students to not learn what you’re teaching them. So yes, the surface level — what people hear about and maybe think they know about DI — are the delivery techniques, which are important, essential. But the construction of every lesson, with just 10% being new information, and the series of lessons over time, and how they build — starting with acquisition of new skills, then building fluency, and then application of them — it’s this beautiful tapestry of content woven together. It’s like nothing else. No other programs are built this way, and therefore I don’t see any other programs accomplishing what these programs do.
[04:29] And it’s so easy, if you’re in the marketplace of different programs, to just ask: which one is teacher-led? Which one is sort of explicit? But in the details — because there’s not really an overarching theory around how information should be presented — they often leave a lot to chance. Like you said, it’s almost impossible to fail as a student given this kind of faultless design.
[05:00] Yeah. That’s been my experience too.
[05:03] I want you to talk a little bit before we go about the Reading Science Academy and the various ways you can engage with it. Because for me, it’s like a safe space for people who want to be online and want to engage with others, but they don’t have a home just yet, and they’re looking for that.
[05:21] Yeah. Well, thanks for calling it a safe space, because I’ve tried really hard to make it that for people. It’s a subscription membership community. People subscribe annually or monthly, and I provide content for them every week. It’s not an online course — I’m responding to what they say they want to know more about: the questions they have, the issues they’re encountering in their schools. Once you join, you get access to an archive of now six years of that content, and with every piece of information, I’m expecting that they use it and share it. So if you’re a coach and you have to do PD for your school, there’s material there you can use. If you’re the one lone-wolf teacher in your school who’s interested in changing instruction, there are materials there — things you can share in a presentation, recordings you can share. I bring in experts like yourself; you’ve been a guest for the group. And then we have this amazing Facebook group that members get access to. “I have to go to a staff meeting in three hours and I need to know more about handwriting research,” or whatever it is — and somebody in the group will come to the rescue. People often post, “My administrator is telling me XYZ. Is this accurate information? How should I respond if I’m being told this?” It’s like an in-the-moment phone-a-friend — get some vetted, trusted advice from your community of people who are either right there where you are in trying to implement the science of reading, or a couple of steps ahead of you and can give you really solid advice.
[07:07] That’s the paradox of education: a lot of people feel very isolated.
[07:13] Yes, that’s so sad.
[07:14] And at the same time, the internet has almost too much choice in terms of where you can go. I recommend it — you brought me into the Reading Science Academy probably three years ago, and I just absolutely adored it. I’ve got to get more involved, because every time I post something, I kind of hide, and then everyone is so supportive and giving resources. So definitely check it out. And listeners, check out this conference as well — nifdi.org. Check out DI, see what we’re talking about. On the surface, it’s an explicit program, but underneath it are all of these layers of design features that have given me so much fulfillment, researching and figuring them out. So go check out nifdi.org, and they’ll set you straight. Stephanie, thanks so much. Great to see you.
