How to add a default "Select" option to this ASP.NET DropDownList control?

The reason it is not working is because you are adding an item to the list and then overriding the whole list with a new DataSource which will clear and re-populate your list, losing the first manually added item.

So, you need to do this in reverse like this:

Status status = new Status();
DropDownList1.DataSource = status.getData();
DropDownList1.DataValueField = "ID";
DropDownList1.DataTextField = "Description";
DropDownList1.DataBind();

// Then add your first item
DropDownList1.Items.Insert(0, "Select");

Although it is quite an old question, another approach is to change AppendDataBoundItems property. So the code will be:

<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" AutoPostBack="True"
                  OnSelectedIndexChanged="DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged"
                  AppendDataBoundItems="True">
     <asp:ListItem Selected="True" Value="0" Text="Select"></asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>