Olivia Chilkoti

In the 1960s, the United States government wanted to find the best way to teach kids who were behind. A federal study called Project Follow Through found an answer. But 60 years later, few schools use it.

Interviews with former students offer a rare firsthand account of one of the largest education experiments in history, challenging decades of criticism of Direct Instruction.

An instructional program that originated in the 1960s has become one of the most effective and heavily researched in existence.

The school reform program, first developed in the 1980s, has been declining in popularity for the past two decades — even though a mountain of research shows it gets great results, especially when it comes to elementary reading skills. Schools that have dropped the program cite logistical challenges, cost, administrative turnover and a perceived lack of flexibility.