Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Do more bad education ideas add up to a good one?
President Obama wants to improve education in America by extending the school year, which is sort of like improving a bad recipe by adding more of the same ingredients.
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Malcolm Gladwell's book _Outliers_ had a very interesting insight to this. Students do make reading gains during the school year, despite what you are inclined to grumble about. All students do, rich, poor, and middle class. But during summer vacation, rich and middle-class students' reading continues to improve, which poor students' reading ability backslides. So yes, a longer school year (possibly a shorter school day) is likely to improve education for those who need it most.
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