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.

Can our youth succeed with unequal learning opportunities?

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

The idea of equal educational opportunities in America has been a driving force for a long time. From the Brown vs. Board of Education decision that separate schools are inherently unequal — to a variety of present day efforts to improve schools, we continue to believe educational opportunities are the key to a better future. Education still benefits from its image as the great equalizer even if schools are decreasingly seen as delivering on that goal.

Today these efforts more often are denoted by the poor result — the achievement gap — than by the cry for equal opportunity. And unfortunately Minnesota is a leader in almost all the wrong ways in this area with the second worst achievement gap in the nation. It is not just that our white students do better but that our minority students do worse.

What would happen if we shifted back to a social justice approach that emphasized the importance of equal opportunities — but with an important twist. What if we called for equality in LEARNING opportunities?

Why shift from “education” to “learning” language? Because our society has shifted to a 24/7 array of learning opportunities related to technology, media and fundamental changes in our economy and way of life. In the report A New Day For Learning there is a call to rethink the learning day as well as the time and places where learning occurs. We must begin to shift from an emphasis on education as formal schooling only and learners only as students. Instead we need to recognize that learning takes place in many ways, at many different times, and in many different places. We need to move from only caring about the equality of opportunities for students in school and begin to think about equalizing opportunities for children and youth as active engaged learners in families, schools, programs and communities.

Youth as engaged learners with equal access to an array of learning opportunities should become our driving goal. Youth certainly need opportunities to become engaged in school as students focused on learning content and skills. But they also need opportunities to become engaged in informal settings with parents, mentors, peers and community members in learning about new places and ideas such as visiting museums or engaged in community service. And just as important, and perhaps an area where we can make more systematic progress, are opportunities to become engaged in non-formal settings such as youth programs where youth choose what they want to learn and can develop a sense of mastery, belonging and confidence that they are important actors in their own learning and that what they do matters.

Perhaps dramatically increasing the percentage of youth at age 14 who are constructively engaged in their own learning through multiple learning opportunities is just as important a goal as reading by third grade.

We must find ways to shift the debate from a narrow focus on equal educational opportunities through schools designed to close a test score gap, toward the far larger problems of inequality in access to quality LEARNING opportunities — opportunities that are a mix of informal, non-formal and formal. Such a debate must come to recognize and address the inequalities in access to and the value of engagement in summer, afterschool and the variety of community learning opportunities beyond the classroom. It is these inequalities that are both a major cause of the achievement gap as well as a major source of young people’s disengagement from the learning process.

It is this OPPORTUNITY GAP that we must close from cradle to career if we are to not only close the achievement gap but support success for all youth in college, work, citizenship and life.

Learning Beyond the Classroom

By Laura LaCroix-Dalluhn, April guest blogger

Many of us remember participating in afterschool or summer programs growing up. In many cases we met new friends, learned about the environment, arts, science, sports or even learned a new trade. As youth, these enrichment programs provided us places and spaces that were fun and sparked our interests and our passions. They provided us relevant and timely learning experiences. As parents, we want these enrichment programs to provide our children and youth with opportunities to explore new things that interest them and engage them in meaningful ways.

What you may not know is that children and youth who regularly participate in quality afterschool or summer programs perform better in school compared to their peers who do not. Research has shown that not only can summer enrichment opportunities minimize learning loss but they can actually help children and youth continue to make progress over the summer. There is also a growing body of evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of afterschool programs. Children and youth who regularly participate in quality afterschool programs are less likely to engage in negative behaviors in and out of the classroom, they tend to have a better sense of who they are and what they want for themselves in their future, and they have higher attendance rates in school. A recent national study demonstrated increases in grades and math scores among primary and middle school students who regularly attended quality afterschool programs.

Unfortunately, not everyone has equitable access to quality afterschool and summer programs. A recent survey done by the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Youth Development found that children and youth from middle- and upper-income families participate in more afterschool and summer programs than children and youth from lower-income families. The survey also found that white, non-Hispanic children and youth are more likely to participate in afterschool and summer programs than children and youth from communities of color and newly arriving families. These findings indicate there is an opportunity gap.

Learning opportunities beyond the classroom can provide children and youth powerful experiences that can help shape who they are and who they will become in the future. Think of what could be accomplished if quality afterschool and summer programs were made available to all children and youth! Join Youth Community Connections efforts to ensure all young people have access to quality learning opportunities beyond the classroom. Visit our Web site to learn how to improve the quality of your afterschool or summer program; or learn more about starting an afterschool or summer program in your community.