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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   3051 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 2, 2022

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A few weeks ago I found this article shared on twitter, with a reference that 4-day school weeks were bad for kids. I though this was interesting, so I read the actual paper and was surprised to find this quote

For context, in fifth grade, student achievement is estimated to improve about 0.40 SD over the course of the academic year (Bloom et al., 2008), and schools only account for around 40% of these achievement gains (Chingos, Whitehurst, & Gallaher, 2015; Konstantopolus & Hedges, 2008; Luyten et al., 2017).

Can someone please tell me I’m wrong in my interpretation of this? It looks to me like studies show that, at least in 5th grade, the majority of academic improvement is not due to schooling.

That makes sense. A lot of academic improvement is just down to getting older and smarter.

Is this surprising? If anything 40% is a vast overestimate. Schools just don't teach as much as life and experience do.

Honestly? Yes. 40% is lower than I would have hoped.

While reading will improve with practice, and language skills will improve with age and exposure to language, my intuition is that math and science skills don’t just magically increase due to the passage of time.

Hmm... I very much do think that all skills "magically" increase due to the passage of time. Science skills in school are basically just reading comprehension + basic logic. And yeah, kids don't absorb math skills via osmosis, but a vast share of kids just don't absorb math skills period, in or out of school.

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