{"id":3622,"date":"2015-11-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/extended-learning-opportunities-and-equity\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T12:56:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T17:56:24","slug":"extended-learning-opportunities-and-equity","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/extended-learning-opportunities-and-equity\/","title":{"rendered":"Extended Learning Opportunities and Equity"},"content":{"rendered":"
REL-Northeast and Islands<\/a> sponsored a webinar on October 21 highlighting new research from Research for Action<\/a>, with the support of funding from Nellie Mae Education Foundation. The report is called Preliminary Results from a Two-Year Study of the Effects of Extended Learning Opportunities on Student Outcomes in New Hampshire<\/em>.<\/p>\n The goals of the study of high schools in New Hampshire are three-fold:<\/p>\n With two guiding questions:<\/p>\n Given that New Hampshire is in the process of becoming competency-based, with credits expected to be awarded based on what students learned rather than time, the question about school factors could be quite interesting. As in any state moving to competency education, districts and schools are in different stages of the conversion process, with some approaching it as a transformational process in which new values and assumptions are embraced within the system and others seeing it more as a technical reform. Taking into account the degree and quality of implementation of CBE, might there be a difference in the impact of ELOs on student learning?<\/p>\n The study included over 3000 ELOs with a breakdown of online courses (66 percent), community-based experiences (23 percent), and school-based independent projects (11 percent). During the webinar, Paul Leather, Deputy Commissioner at NH\u2019s Department of Education, noted that in the past year state policy has changed so that online courses are no longer considered ELOs. He also explained that going forward, students doing an ELO is going to be considered a requirement rather than an opportunity.<\/p>\n The types of credits earned were 4 percent credit recovery, 30 percent core courses, and 69 percent electives. The fact that some schools do not allow ELOs for core courses may have implications for the findings.<\/p>\n Some of the findings included:<\/p>\n The discussion about this research made me want to better understand the schools that were getting more positive impacts for the academically challenged students \u2013 what are they doing that is making a difference? We need to learn from them.<\/p>\n As I listened to the researchers describe the study and watched the questions in the chat room, I started thinking about the equity issues related to ELOs that might\u00a0need\u00a0to be considered in shaping an ELO capacity within a district:<\/p>\n That is certainly not an inclusive list. We need to think carefully about this because competency education enables much greater flexibility in where students learn\u00a0\u2013 and we want to make sure we do so in a way that benefits all students.<\/p>\n Thanks to REL-NEI, Research for Action and NMEF for the webinar!<\/p>\n See also:<\/p>\n\n
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