Governor Andrew Cuomo: Another conclusion I have made based on information presented in Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell follows. It is not the quality of education that is the problem. It is the quantity of education. The number of school days in two Asian countries are 220 and 243. If we want to keep a 180(ish) day school year, we have to adjust our expectations accordingly. There are references to studies of CAT scores at the beginning of the year and the end of the year and then again in September following summer vacation. Students from poverty learn more than students from better off situations during the school year as represented by gains in scores. These same low income students lose learning over the summer as measured by the CAT while those in better economic circumstances showed average test scores that went up more than 50 points after summer vacation. This seems to have implications for school districts in high poverty areas. And it isnt implementing common core or moving teachers in from higher achieving districts. In fact, if this research is representative and can be generalized over a wide geographic area, transferring teachers whose students are doing very well to school where students are not doing well will have no impact on achievement because its not the teachers or the curriculum; its the time spent teaching and learning that makes the difference. While I dont think extending the school year is an easy change due to our culture, if what you really want is better outcomes for students, the evidence suggests what has been happening in recent years is not quite on point. And to think that this conclusion took only reading a book that I didnt set out to read for information about education. When you read a lot, you end up with many serendipitous reading experiences like this.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 03:06:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015