Dr. Bonnie Grossen, Principal Investigator. Dr. Grossen is Project Director for this research grant entitled "Reaching Standards with Traditionally Underserved Groups of Students:Expanding the Effectiveness of the Direct Instruction Model"
(Award No.S332B050017). She is Executive Director of CARE, a non-profit organization devoted to improving student achievement. She is an expert DI implementation manager and a nationally recognized researcher, with a focus on the performance of vulnerable learners, especially SWDs. Through CARE Grossen has become a leading implementer of the DI Model in the nation. For at-risk middle school students who have already fallen critically behind their mainstream peers, Grossen and her colleagues have proved that the middle grades still offer a viable opportunity to catch up (Grossen, 2002a). For the last 8 years, Grossen and her colleagues have implemented the DI model in middle schools and high schools serving high poverty populations.

Dr. Grossen recently worked in a federally funded research center for improving the performance of high school SWDs, the Institute for Academic Access (IAA). The IAA was a collaborative research project between the Universities of Kansas and Oregon. In the IAA project, the Oregon team produced benchmark measures for monitoring progress of older SWDs toward high school exit exam goals. These measures will be used to measure periodic student performance in this research.

Grossen has over 50 scholarly publications and over 30 reports of original research studies comparing the effects of instructional interventions on the performance of students with disabilities. She has published in peer-reviewed journals such as Exceptional Children, International Review of Education, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Learning Disability Quarterly, School Psychology Review, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, over 10 chapters in books, and 20 reviews and syntheses of research. The thrust of her research work is to improve higher level thinking and problem solving of SWDs and to gain acceptance for the knowledge gained through research on SWDs in major school reform.

Dr. Grossen has directed 4 federally funded research grants from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), totaling over $4,000,000 on topics related to effectively teaching higher level reasoning to SWDs, effective science and mathematics instruction for SWDs, reading instruction in middle and high school, and achieving standards with SWDs.

Dr. Kurt Engelmann, Investigator. For the last 5 years, Engelmann has headed the National Institute for Direct Instruction. He and his colleagues have implemented the comprehensive DI model in elementary schools and middle schools serving highly at-risk populations in a variety of settings, including all elementary and middle schools in the territory of Guam. Under Engelmann’s leadership, NIFDI became affiliated with New American Schools in 2002 and the Coalition for Comprehensive School Improvement (CCSI) in 2004. Engelmann currently serves as the Treasurer of CCSI as well as the President of NIFDI..

Dr. Zig Engelmann, Senior Advisor. Dr. Siegfried Engelmann is the creator of the DI instructional methodology, senior author of the DI programs and theory, senior designer of the DI implementation model and training process. Engelmann will participate in quarterly collaborative meetings to review results and progress, discuss obstacles, and lay plans.

Dr. Mack Burke, Investigator. Dr. Burke is an Assistant Professor at the Texas
A & M University. He is Project Director of a current OSEP grant entitled "Project CBIS Outreach — Comprehensive Behavioral and Instructional Support: An Outreach Model for Diverse Learners" (Award No. H324R020067).

Dr. Michael Rebar, Investigator. Dr. Rebar is an Assistant Professor of Counseling, Educational, and Developmental Psychology at Eastern Washington University and a Research Associate at the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI). He specializes in the use of technology to improve early childhood and school outcomes for at-risk learners. Rebar is Project Director on one current research grant entitled "Beginning Reading Fluency: A Computer Assisted Approach to Measure Validation, Progress Monitoring, and Intervention" (Award No. H324N02009) funded by U.S. Department of Education on early literacy development using technology. Last year Dr. Rebar served as Project Director on a multi-year contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Contract No. CMK0E040043) to improve early literacy outcomes, a project which also emphasizes the use of technology. He has served as an investigator on an NIH research grant that studied early literacy and is the co-author of a one million dollar grant from the Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA). Over the past 15 years, Dr. Rebar has served as key personnel on more than 15 research grants at the University of Oregon, Eugene Research Institute, Pacific Institutes for Research, Eastern Washington University, and the National Institute for Direct Instruction.