Outliers
I just finished Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (on my new kindle). Interesting book. If you aren't familiar with it, the basic idea is an investigation about why some people are successful and others aren't. Chapter 9 deals primarily with educational opportunities. Gladwell discusses a group of schools called KIPP schools (in New York). Any fourth grader can apply, and students are chosen in a random lottery. They get tremendous achievement results from a seemingly random population. Why? Here are some key "differences" that I think might sound familiar from many of our readings:
- Longer Day - One profiled student arrived at school at 7:30 and could leave at 5pm, but clubs and extra-curriculars start at 5, so she stays until 7pm...then stayed up to 9:30 or 10 doing work (on a light work night).
- Longer class periods - ELA and Math get at least 90 minutes each day! Plus 60 minutes of science and Social Studies, one hour of music, plus 30 minutes of thinking skills....EVERY DAY!
- Zero tolerance for misbehavior.
- Adult Advocates
- And no huge summer vacation.
There is compelling research outlined in this book that uses reading testing data for upper, middle, and lower income subgroups. What they find is that during the school year, lower income students make the biggest growth (by far!). The thing that drags their scores down is summer vacation. When you look at tests given in June, then again the analogous tests in the following September, the lower income students have a significant decline, presumably because they aren't at school. Upper and middle class students, with more resources available at home, don't make as significant drops. Interesting research...interesting book. I liked a few of his other books better than this one, but it was a good read, and the education component was certainly valuable.
My husband is a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell and his various books. He tells me all about them and I think the ideas he researches are all very interesting. You have definitely done a good job selling me on this one. Since we already own it, maybe I will add it to my summer reading list :)
ReplyDeleteI wonder more about the "zero tolerance for misbehavior". Is a consequence getting kicked out of the program? In public education we are required to service everyone so I wonder how that would translate into a school like where I work. I think the scheduling sounds terrific. We need to rethink how we look at our traditional scheduling and how it is working for our students.
KIPP schools are getting a lot of favorable publicity...and a certain degree of skepticism from some critics. They certainly do some important work with a population of kids who haven't necessarily been successful in the past.
ReplyDeleteI visited a KIPP school in NYC several years ago for a day...very interesting! You really have to see it in person to see how it works.
I think the key is that we shouldn't have all schools emulate KIPP...but maybe it is ONE good model for a certain population.
Glad you found this book.