This paper illustrates an approach for Direct Instruction (DI) practitioners and researchers for enhancing the value of DI implementations beyond that obtained through student test performance alone. The importance of such enhancements is based on perspectives from scale-up research linking intervention value with sustainability. In this study, improved reading achievement resulting from a 6-year school-wide DI intervention in a low-socio-economic status (SES) elementary school provided the setting for investigating those components that could enhance DI value. Results showed that DI teaching experience significantly increased teachers' academic expectations for low-SES students. In comparison, the academic expectations of teachers in low- and high-SES non-DI schools in judging representative DI reading content were found to underestimate the potential curricular mastery their students could accomplish. Implications for enhancing the institutional value of DI for sustainability were considered within a framework of school-based scale-up dynamics. (Contains 7 tables.)