The traditional classroom educational approach has been unsuccessful in helping special education and non-special education students who are not proficient readers. The problem addressed in this study was that a large number of American children are experiencing difficulty learning to read. One possible way to help students learn to read is through programs that use direct instructional techniques based on the instructional theory into practice model. One such program, the Corrective Reading Program, has been successful in some situations, but the differential effectiveness of this program for special education students and non-special education students has not been addressed. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to determine if a direct instructional technique based on the instructional theory into practice model was effective for both special education and non-special education students in terms of phonological awareness improvements and attitudes toward reading. A quantitative, quasi-experimental research design was used in the current study. The population of interest in this study consisted of third-grade through fifth-grade students in rural school districts in the Northwest region of the United States who were currently engaged with the Corrective Reading Program. The sample consisted of all students in third through fifth grade in a Northwest rural school district who were enrolled in the Corrective Reading Program. There were 125 of these students in the target school district, of which 88 students were in the Corrective Reading Program based on at-risk status for academic failure and consequent participation in the Learning Assistance Program in the school district (the non-special education group), and 37 had a disability, determined through eligibility for special education services (the special education group). The results showed that there were larger gains in Phonological Awareness scores for the special education group (M = 29.43, SD = 9.11) than for the non-special education group (M = 24.12, SD = 9.68) based on the Mann-Whitney U test, U = 1,046.50, p = 0.002, r[superscript 2] = 0.08. Whether this represents a meaningful difference in the comparison of the two groups is a subjective question, but a difference of more than 5 points (which is over one-half of a standard deviation of the pretest/posttest difference scores) may have practical significance. Thus, in the context of instructional practice, it appears that direct instruction can be more effective with some types of students (i.e., special education students) than with others (i.e., non-special education students), based on the statistical differences between the groups. However, the null hypothesis for no difference between the groups for reading attitudes was not rejected, U = 1,480.00, p = 0.419, r[superscript 2] = 0.01. Pre-test to post-test differences in reading attitude were not statistically significant for either group. It is recommended that researchers continue to explore the effectiveness of the Corrective Reading Program with a variety of types of students, address the apparent lack of progress in reading attitudes, and perform case studies on Corrective Reading Program implementations. It is also recommended that educators differentiate between special education students and non-special education in determining the most appropriate reading intervention. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]