Teaching Needy Kids in Our Backward System

This is Engelmann's memoir, and it reads like a war diary. For over forty years, he fought to get schools to use teaching methods that actually work for disadvantaged kids — and for over forty years, the system fought back. The vignettes are what make this book special. You get the full story: the excitement of watching kids learn who everyone else had given up on, the frustration of bureaucrats who chose ideology over evidence, and the heartbreak of knowing that millions of kids suffered because adults couldn't get out of their own way. Project Follow Through is the centerpiece — 180 communities, 200,000 at-risk kids, and Direct Instruction came out on top in every measure. And the education establishment still ignored the results. If that doesn't make your worm blood boil, nothing will. Four worms — a deeply personal and important book.