LearnmoreMN Blog

Separate but equally important?

By Dale A. Blyth, Ph.D., February guest blogger

In my earlier post this month I spoke of the necessity of equal learning opportunities in not only the formal but also the informal and non-formal learning approaches available to young people beyond the classroom. For more on that inequality theme you might want to read recent blogs by John Kuhn.

But today I want to ask whether all three types of learning opportunities are separate and equally important? Do the inequities in these informal and non-formal learning opportunities really matter? Briefly consider results from four studies:

• One found 75% of Nobel-prize winning scientists (PDF, 23 KB) first got excited and engaged in science in informal and non-formal ways — not in the classroom.
• Another estimates that over 25% of the achievement gap in 9th grade test scores can be explained by differences in learning opportunities before they started school (inequality in early childhood learning opportunities) while almost half can be explained by difference due to summer learning loss (PDF, 328 KB) (inequalities in informal and non-formal learning opportunities over the summer from first to sixth grade). The gap actually closed during the school year.
• Another study that beeped youth at different times during the day and asked whether they were concentrating and motivated (two important conditions for learning) found that youth in schools were concentrating slightly more but not very motivated, youth with friends were highly motivated but not concentrating, and only youth in non-formal learning opportunities were both concentrating and more motivated.
• Finally, when elementary and middle school youth who are typically on the wrong side of the achievement gap became engaged in quality non-formal afterschool learning opportunities, over two years their math achievement scores improved more than three times as much as seen in a study that lowered student teacher ratios in math classes.

Each approach to learning adds to both the learning process and its outcomes.

We often think about formal educational opportunities as the “engine” of learning — and rightly so. But what research shows us is that we need a car not just an engine if learning is to go anywhere.

Perhaps if we recognized that informal learning opportunities provide the structure that learning needs for an engine to deliver its power we would invest more in it.

Perhaps if we recognized that non-formal opportunities put wheels on learning that allows it to go, we would think more about the ways communities, including schools, support youth programs, camps, and other community learning opportunities beyond the classroom.

And, perhaps most importantly, if we recognized that a young person’s engagement and passion for learning provides the very fuel needed to drive learning anywhere, we would pay more attention and allocate more resources to understanding, assessing and improving how youth become engaged youth in their own learning in all these approaches.

Just like for effective transportation, we need a complete vehicle and road system to get anywhere. Learning requires more working “parts” than just an engine — no matter how powerful — that play separate but equally important roles in moving learning along. These parts need to come together in comprehensive systems as a recent report on supporting youth success (PDF, 1.9 MB) notes.

One final point on the “separate and equally important” idea — it also applies to what we must measure and monitor for success. Just as one cannot keep a car working and moving forward by only assessing the odometer that tells you how far it has gone (like achievement tests do for learning), if we want to close gaps in learning outcomes, we must find separate but important measures that tells us how our learning vehicle is working and how far it is getting in its journey.

While this must include assessing the effectiveness of the formal engine of schooling, it also includes monitoring the support from the people in our youths’ lives to make sure the appropriate lubrication is there and the “pressure” is there for performance. It includes a fuel gauge that monitors whether the young person is on empty or full of a passion for learning. It might mean assessing our communities to ensure they have multiple on ramps to learning through a systematic approach to informal and non-formal community learning opportunities.

Perhaps in the end it is important to simply recognize that a successful learning journey takes more than good schools. It takes many separate but equally important parts that come together effectively and interesting places to go. Perhaps as John Kuhn argues in the blogs noted earlier that it is time to recognize poverty and its effects on learning are not inevitable. Isn’t it time for policy “mechanics” to recognize that it requires more than tuning up schools to close the learning opportunities gap.

Middle schools: Strengthening the connection

By Sally Wherry, September guest blogger

Can we act on what we know? Research has identified the strong link between a student’s experience in the middle grades and the likelihood of graduating from high school (Balfanz). Specific risk factors for dropping out include course failures in math and/or reading, missing more than 20% of school time, and receiving poor behavior grades in a core class. Studies have also indicated that during the middle grades it is possible to identify up to 50% or more of eventual dropouts. Advances in technology now allow us to gather powerful information leading to targeted help for middle school students. And Minnesota has been responding with policies and programs to assist our middle schools.

Beginning in 2006, the Minnesota Legislature appropriated funding to reimburse districts for the cost of assessing 8th grade students with the ACT’s EXPLORE test and 10th grade students with the PLAN test. Aligned to the ACT, these assessments provide parents, students and teachers with valuable early college and career readiness benchmark information. Of the more than 40,000 Minnesota 8th graders who tested in 2010-2011, 40% of these students met three or four of the four readiness benchmarks, however 25% of those tested met none of them. Since the fall of 2008, MDE has trained over 700 counselors to use EXPLORE and PLAN data to promote college and career readiness. To apply a medical analogy, it’s not enough just to take your child’s temperature...appropriate treatment is necessary if he registers significantly above 98.6.

So what are we doing? We know that Minnesota’s student to counselor ratio is almost 800:1, making the implementation of additional support systems and networks critical. In order to assist every Minnesota middle school student to not only graduate from high school, but also be prepared to successfully pursue postsecondary education and career opportunities, we need to increase their awareness of the importance of the choices they make.

• When students choose a sequence of more rigorous courses, it opens up the widest variety of choices for colleges and careers. In 2010-2011, MDE launched a campaign to provide Minnesota 8th graders with information regarding college and career readiness in order to encourage more rigorous course-taking in high school, especially for students in underrepresented groups. This project provides information to students and parents in a variety of ways. Additionally, a framework of tools, resources, strategies and WebEx presentations related to the research-based core components of preparing students for postsecondary success has been developed for middle school educators.
• Ramp Up to Readiness a program of the University of Minnesota’s College Readiness Consortium, also aims to increase the number and diversity of students prepared for postsecondary success. Students develop personal postsecondary plans and are then supported by a multi-year framework of specific goals, steps, curriculum, rubrics, and an evaluation system. This program spans the middle school/junior high grades through high school, providing a much needed link.
• Beginning in 2006, MDE and McREL partnered with four Minnesota high schools, to launch a pilot program, the Minnesota Model of Systemic High School Redesign. Since then, working in collaboration with the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP), more than 86 principals and schools across Minnesota have become involved in training and networking. Middle school principals then indicated they desired an aligned model as well, so in 2010, MDE launched a middle level school redesign initiative. The goal of both of these efforts is to provide cost-effective, research-based support for our secondary schools, leading to increased success for all of our students.

A new opportunity for community involvement with middle school issues is coming up later this month. Consider attending a conference on Sept. 27 at TIES in St. Paul that aims to promote community and statewide collaboration leading to high school completion and postsecondary success. And of course, efforts to support our students do not begin and end at the doorstep of our schools. This month’s issue of Blueprints, MDE’s online high school newsletter, identifies additional collaborative efforts occurring across Minnesota.

We must combine and leverage our efforts to ensure that all Minnesota’s students not only graduate from high school, but are also effectively supported during their middle school years on the path leading to postsecondary readiness and success.

The Power of Community-Engaged Learning

By Julie Plaut, August guest blogger

What have been the most powerful learning experiences of your life?

In my work at Minnesota Campus Compact, I frequently ask people that question, and only rarely does someone highlight a classroom lecture or textbook exercise. Instead, they tend to talk about experiences that engaged them as whole people, forced them to learn new skills, even made them uncomfortable — experiences like adapting to another culture or collaborating on a challenging project.

The diverse colleges and universities that come together in Campus Compact offer community-engaged learning experiences in part because they support student success. One excellent example involves Nekima Levy-Pounds, who leads the Community Justice Project (CJP) at the University of St. Thomas. As she asserted effectively on this blog in May, circumstances both within and beyond schools contribute to an unacceptable opportunity gap in Minnesota. CJP also demonstrates that engaged teaching and learning can help change those circumstances. In collaboration with the St. Paul NAACP and community members, law students have conducted research on issues of community concern and successfully advocated for changes in local criminal justice policies and practices.

Those are law students, you might think; they’ve already "succeeded.” Yet they are developing critical skills while building community relationships, educating youth about their rights, and addressing systemic problems that can affect others’ educational paths. Other partnerships illustrate the power of engagement for students who might have been struggling. Northfield TORCH (Tackling Obstacles and Raising College Hopes), for example, involves high school as well as college students and adult volunteers in academic support and civic engagement activities; since this effort began in 2005, the graduation rate among Latino students has risen from 36% to 90%. A recent assessment of youth organizing in three cities also found that participation improved students’ performance and increased their educational aspirations.

Expecting students of all ages and backgrounds, in all types of educational institutions and programs, to contribute something of value to others should not be a radical idea. Inviting those students to address issues that matter to them is motivating. So is holding them accountable — emphasizing that more than their own grade or degree is on the line. No surprise, then, that many students are eager for community-engaged learning. In a 2010 survey of 1,600 randomly selected University of Minnesota students, for instance, 86% agreed that "opportunities to connect my academic work with community-based experience are important to me.”

Employers also want to see students engaged in real projects that develop and demonstrate the communication, teamwork, and problem solving skills they most highly value. In national surveys by Peter Hart & Associates, employers emphasized the importance of opportunities for students to apply their skills and knowledge and identified community-based projects as the best evidence of their skills and knowledge. MnSCU leaders’ interviews with 352 Minnesota employers yielded recommendations for more experiential learning opportunities as well.

Meaningful community-engaged teaching and learning is not necessarily easy. It usually involves partnering with others and thus giving up some control. The issues that arise can be contentious and often extend beyond a teacher’s expertise. Students may seek to change our own institutions’ policies and cultures. Yet all these challenges actually help achieve our core educational purpose.

What other powerful examples do you know about? What else might we do to engage students in hands-on learning that not only supports their success, but also strengthens our democracy?