Providing Opportunities for Deeper Learning. Findings from the Study of Deeper Learning Opportunities and Outcomes: Report 2
Author: Bitter, Catherine
Date: 2014-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Transformative Learning,Critical Thinking,Comparative Analysis,High School Students,Secondary School Teachers,Educational Opportunities,Academic Achievement,Gender Differences,Low Income Groups,Student Diversity,Disproportionate Representation,Outcomes of Education

The &quot;Study of Deeper Learning: Opportunities and Outcomes&quot;--funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation--aimed to determine whether students attending high schools with a mature and at least moderately well implemented approach to promoting deeper learning actually experienced greater deeper learning opportunities and outcomes than they would have had they not attended these schools. In this report--our second in a series of three--we focus specifically on the key question: Did students who attended deeper learning network schools have more opportunities to engage in deeper learning than would likely have been the case had they not attended the network schools? This question addresses a fundamental assumption that underpins the deeper learning initiative: that a well implemented approach to deeper learning can result in greater opportunities for students to develop deeper learning competencies. This analysis includes 11 pairs of matched deeper learning network and comparison schools in California and New York. While we collected a wide range of data for this study, we relied primarily on student survey data and examples of the work teachers assigned to students (teacher assignments) for this analysis. Key takeaways include the following: 1. On average, students who attended the network schools in the study reported greater opportunities to engage in deeper learning than did similar students who attended non-network schools. Positive effects were found across all measures including opportunities for complex problem solving, opportunities to collaborate, opportunities to communicate, opportunities to learn how to learn, opportunities for creative thinking, opportunities to receive feedback, opportunities for assessments aligned with deeper learning, opportunities for interdisciplinary learning, and opportunities for real world connections. 2. Since the study schools served substantial populations of students living in poverty and, in some cases, large populations of English language learners, the results demonstrate that these opportunities were provided to a diverse group of students, including traditionally underserved subgroups of students. 3. The effects of attending a participating network school on deeper learning opportunities were similarly positive for initially high- and low-achievers and for students who did and did not qualify for free or reduced price lunch. 4. Teachers' most challenging assignments collected from the network schools exhibited greater opportunities for independent learning in mathematics and for real-world connections in English language arts than those collected from the non-network schools, but were not significantly different on other opportunity measures (including complex problem solving, communication, and conceptual understanding of mathematics). 5. The opportunities for deeper learning experienced by individual students, regardless of the school they attended, were associated with those students' deeper learning outcomes. [See: Report 1 at ED553360; and Report 3 at ED553364.]