Measuring Explicit Instruction Using Classroom Observations of Student-Teacher Interactions (COSTI)

This article describes the development and technical adequacy of the Classroom Observations of Student Teacher Interactions (COSTI) instrument, a tool for measuring the frequency and rate of explicit instructional interactions, such as those used in Direct Instruction curricula, for teaching children basic reading and math skills. COSTI was originally developed to provide teachers with coaching feedback to improve their explicit reading instructional practices, and has been shown in multiple studies to be a reliable and valid predictor of student gains in beginning reading and math skills. This article discusses potential uses of the instrument for training and coaching across curricula with varying instructional design features, and lays out a future research agenda to further improve COSTI and related observation tools for studying explicit instructional practices and their contribution to student learning.