How long did the Follow Through educational program last?
Follow Through (project)
Follow Through was the largest and most expensive experimental project in education funded by the U.S. federal government that has ever been conducted. The most extensive evaluation of "Follow Through" data covers the years 1968–1977; however, the program continued to receive funding from the government until 1995. "Follow Through" was originally intended to be an extension of the federal "Head Start" program, which delivered educational, health, and social services to typically disadvantaged preschool children and their families. The function of "Follow Through", therefore, was to provide a continuation of these services to students in their early elementary years.
Follow Through (project)
Direct Instruction model. Developed by Siegfried Engelmann and Wesley Becker of the University of Oregon, direct instruction is scripted and specifies precisely what the teacher says and what the students' responses should be. Moreover, the program designers carefully sequenced the instruction so that students do not progress to higher-order skills unless they have mastered prerequisite basic skills. There is a high degree of interaction between teachers and students so the teacher may receive continuous feedback about how well the students are doing, and adjusts instruction accordingly. The program makes a specific distinction between on-task and off-task behavior: instruction is arranged so that students are fully engaged in learning (via frequent checking for understanding and praises by the teacher) the majority of the time. According to the program sponsors, anything presumed to be learned by students must first be taught by the teacher.