Modesto Elementary School Advances From Underperforming to Distinguished With Direct Instruction

This case study examines the implementation of McGraw-Hill's Direct Instruction reading programs at Eisenhut Elementary School, a public Title I elementary school in the Stanislaus Union School District, located in Modesto, California. The school serves approximately 352 students in grades K–6, with 57% qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. The implementation began in the 2000–2001 school year to address low performance, incorporating Reading Mastery in grades K–2 and Corrective Reading for struggling readers in grades 3–6. In 2001, the school implemented 45 minutes of uninterrupted Direct Instruction programs daily for all students (including Horizons, Language for Learning, and Reasoning and Writing) in addition to Open Court Reading core curriculum. The study utilizes descriptive statistics to track longitudinal growth. Outcomes examined include California's Academic Performance Index (API) scores overall and by student subgroups (maximum score of 1,000, statewide target of 800) from 1999 to 2005, and student percentile rankings on the Stanford 9 assessment. Descriptive results show that the school's overall API score increased from 617 in 1999 to 741 in 2003, and reached 796 in 2005. Performance gains were also observed across student subgroups, with Hispanic student scores rising to 687 in 2005, and socioeconomically disadvantaged student scores rising to 696 in 2005 after a low of 515 in 2002. Eisenhut Elementary School went from an underperforming ranking in 2000 to receiving California Distinguished status in 2004.