When success seems like failure
Flashback: TE post from 2006 on Engelmann book
On 24 February 2007 I posted a brief note on Teach Effectively about an editorial in a US newspaper. The post simply applauded Ms. Linda Seebach’s praise of a book by Zig Engelmann, a book she identified as “The Outrage of Project Follow Through: 5 Million Failed Kids Later.” More about that book after I reprint the post for TE from 2007:
Linda Seebach, an editorial writer for the Rocky Mountain News, published a column recounting the story of Zig Engelmann’s book, The Outrage of Project Follow Through: 5 Million Failed Kids Later. Here’s her lead.
“I’ve been reading one of the most important education books you’ll likely never have a chance to read. It’s by Siegfried Engelmann, and it’s about Direct Instruction, the structured curriculum he began to develop in the early 1960s, how DI participated in a federal study called Project Follow Through, and how the results of that study – which demonstrated that DI produced superior outcomes for at-risk children – were essentially disappeared from the educational landscape by hostile educators and bureaucrats.”
It’s good to see that some of the mainstream press is picking up this story. Kudos to Ms. Seebach. Link [outdated] to her column.
As she noted, Ms. Seebach’s editorial sprang from reading Engelmann’s “The Outrage of Project Follow Through: 5 Million Failed Kids Later.” Zig published the book originally in serial fashion. It’s no longer available on Zig Site, because it was later published as Teaching Needy Kids in Our Backward System (link points to the store for National Institute for Direct Instruction).
The book recounts Zig’s history in education, beginning with his work in Illinois and following through (ahem) his time at the University of Oregon, the Engelmann-Becker Corporation, and NIFDI. An important theme in the book is what one might politely call Zig’s pique about how his efforts to build instructional procedures that benefitted kids got so little respect. That Ms. Seebach recognized the legitimacy of Engelmann’s work seemed to me at the time to signal a possible change in the regard for DI. I called my post “Traction” because I hope he was getting some acceptance.
I remember a time, probably 1974 or 75, when Zig and I met for a couple of beers at a watering hole at the corner or 13th and Alder streets in Eugene. Zig sounded pretty sad and he explained that he was wondering why he kept doing what he was doing, writing curricula, giving talks, publishing books (I was helping him with one called Your Child Can Succeed: How to Get the Most Out of School for Your Child at the time)—simply hoping to make education effective. It was an overcast afternoon and we sat at a dim booth; his mood matched the sky and lighting. Playing counselor, I asked him why he kept on going. “The kids,” he replied. “It’s those kids who aren’t going to get a fucking fair shake….”
Fast forward to 2026…and my optimism seems to have been unrealized. One can still find pockets of people saying admirable things about DI, but it’s only in small pockets. Despite the fact that Zig pioneered and refined many of the instructional practices that these days are described as “systematic, explicit teaching,” it’s rare to read articles that include references to his work when the authors tout that sort of teaching. And, even when you find one (e.g., Barbash, 2021; Pearson, 2019), the author almost certainly will note that Big DI continues to be anathema to those educators who advocate the still-popular zeitgeist founded on developmental and constructivist theories.
It’s pretty damn disappointing.
On the good news front, though, I have seen some posts that are applicable to the matter of why success fails, about why DI hasn’t become the gold standard. Here are four good takes about the failure of success.
David Didau, 18 June 2025, “What the biggest education experiment ever really tells us: Inside Project Follow Through: why methods matter, why implementation fails, and why Direct Instruction still divides the profession”;
Barbara Oakley, 12 February 2026, “The Teaching Method That Can’t Fail (and Why That’s the Problem)”;
Robert Pondisco, 19 February 2026, “What Happened to the Miracle Schools? Studying successful schools matters. Studying enduring success matters more”; and
Doug Carnine (Zig’s co-author on Theory of Instruction), 23 February 2026, “Studying the Attempted Destruction of a Successful School: why we fail to replicate successful schools.”
Reference
Barbash, S. (2021). Science in the service of humanity: The astonishing contributions of Siegfried Engelmann. Perspectives on Behavioral Science, 44, 139–146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-021-00293-z
Pearson, N. (2019). Siegfried Engelmann’s legacy: Teach first and ask questions later. The Australian, 23 February 2019. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/inquirer/siegfried-engelmanns-legacy-teach-first-and-ask-questions-later/news-story/ce26d120ea3bfc45af79b2afd8feb680