A book by Douglas B. Downey (The University of Chicago Press, 2020)
Reviewed in the New York Times
I am always looking for good, current educational research.
“The prevailing view about schools and inequality in America goes like this – children learn more in school serving high-income and white children than in schools serving low-income and minority children.” P. 1
Downey examines research that provides two layers of data: progress made when in school and progress made when children are out of school. Looking at data this way provides shocking results, results counter to the prevailing assumptions about schooling and inequality.
“The gaps in skills between high- and low-income children grew faster when schools were out versus in.” p 5
The gap between high- and low-income remains pretty much the same during the school year. Not only that, but there is evidence of school being slightly compensatory for low-income children.
These results go counter to the prevailing theory.
This data was used to analyze the claim that schools promote inequality between advantaged and disadvantaged children. I find it thought-provoking from another point of view.
What kind of learning is going on at home?
The learning being assessed in school is primarily standardized testing of math and reading. This kind of assessment is advantageous to those students who test well, in that particular area of cognitive learning. How representative is this of ‘learning’?
One might wonder how advantaged children would do if they just remained at home…didn’t even go to school. Have you ever asked a child when they come home from school what they learned that day? It’s uncanny how hard this question is for children to answer. It would be interesting to research just what children are aware of learning in school. For all the hours spent in school, how much are they really learning. And if they are unaware of what they learned, what does that mean?
This is an unpopular approach to thinking about school. It is not politically correct to pose these kinds of questions about advantaged children. We aren’t supposed to be looking for ways to help them. We must equalize the playing field as much as we can. But I’m curious about how learning actually happens, and to do that one must ask questions, hard questions.
Before reading this book an assumption I held about school, but couldn’t put my finger on a source, was that a child’s home environment – the social and cultural world in which he/she lived played a much bigger role in their achievements than school did. Downey references the 1966 Coleman report’s controversial claim that:
Schools were mostly neutral when it comes to explaining gaps in children’s cognitive skills the report famously concluded: ”One implication stands out above all: That schools bring little influence to bear on a child’s achievement that is independent of his background and general social context: and that this very lack of independent effect means that the inequalities imposed on children by their home, neighborhood, and peer environment are carried along to become the inequalities with which they confront adult life at the end of school: p. 66
In chapter 5 Downey argues that schools are more reflectors than generators.
We would be better off addressing the large inequalities in children’s early childhood environments and preventing large achievement gaps from emerging in the first place. P.78
There are lots of reasons to believe that it is less expensive to improve children’s lives early on than to wait and address problems later in life. P. 79
There is reason to believe that achievement gaps are mostly formed by age three. P. 80
Downey’s conclusions arise on page 80,
It may be that reducing the financial stress in homes that endure poverty is the single most effective way to improve the learning environment for disadvantaged children.
Early investments reap the most benefits.
CONCLUSION: A DIMINISHED ROLE FOR SCHOOLS, AN ENHANCED ROLE FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD
It is easy to confuse the inequalities we observe in schools (like the achievement gaps) as a product of the schools themselves when they really are due to the unequal social environments in which those school exist. P. 81
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