"While Steubenville’s high school students do well on state reading tests, statistics available on the state report card website show that only about 7 percent scored high enough on the ACT or SAT to be considered ready for college-level coursework. And none got an AP score of three or better—the threshold for college credit. Only about 27 percent of the graduating class of 2017 graduated from college within six years, compared to a state average of about 30 percent."
It would be great to have a follow-up article on a high-poverty high school that has better much better data than this--and then find out what programs/methods they use. It's really important to drill down on contributing factors so that teachers know what's in their control and what isn't.
Yes...I've been thinking a lot these days about long term transfer and how we assess for that. Also, how do we figure what is a school's role and the community's role in making that happen.
I agree that it would be great to have longitudinal data that follows kids through high school and beyond. One problem is that conducting studies that last that long is extremely expensive, so we basically don't have them.
A place like Steubenville would make a good case study, since they've been using Success for All for so long -- but what would you compare it to? If you want to know the impact of an elementary curriculum on later achievement--which is what we're talking about here--you'd have to find another demographically similar district that has been using a different elementary curriculum or program for a long time that has better high school outcomes and compare it to Steubenville.
Or you could just look for high-poverty high schools that have been able to turn things around at the high school level. I don't think you'll find many of them. One example, though, is what happened at New Dorp High School in New York City after they adopted the Hochman Method, now known as The Writing Revolution. Here's a link to an article in the Atlantic about that, from 2012: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-writing-revolution/309090/
I have not been to Steubenville, but I am from a depressed Ohio town. I am kind of like a cousin. Nondirect experience, but somewhat related.
My son's school district has been including phonics for awhile and started CKLA this year. I am not an educator, just a knowledge nerd, and from my perspective it is wonderful. My son comes home ready to discuss all the amazing things he's learned, truly if nothing else it's worth these moments with him.
But despite the curriculum, or any curriculum the school could have, the biggest problem is lack of cultural capital. We have a good library system here (with amazing librarians!), a little science museum that is trying to fill the gap on STEM, a history museum that does some stuff for the kids, and some programing in the arts. The people behind the scenes are stellar, but it's not a lot. Our kids are left without those rich experiences that synthesize what they learn in the classroom and make it stick.
I imagine a similar problem may exist in Steubenville. The children can read, the parents can read, but what they do with that skill may be stunted by geography.
It's like making sure your seed gets plenty of sunlight and water, but if you don't put the sprout in some good soil you aren't going to see any more growth.
We need curriculum AND community. I don't know if the lack of adult success means that Success for All isn't beneficial past reading scores, but I do know the struggle of trying to give my child every opportunity possible while being part of an under served population.
If the foundation of literacy set up under Success for All just isn't sufficient to promise success, I would love to know why. We have to ask ourselves if literacy alone is enough to the overcome socioeconomic disadvantages that students face.
My intuition is that this is a combination of student demographic issues and lack of career prospects. Comparing Steubenville to state averages instead of similar socioeconomic areas may obscure real impacts.
That said, a curriculum that imparts key knowledge would be even more important for many of the students described in Sold a Story (the ones coming from homeless shelters, etc.) than the average.
I would love to know more about these students' secondary and tertiary experiences.
I had all of these same questions when I read the "Sold A Story" article about Steubenville and Success for All. I also went on to wonder, why if it was so successful, was it not more widely used. It is apparently the cost, but also, as you point out it does not provide indepth instruction in building background knowledge and systematic explicit writing instruction. Structured Literacy requires the components mentioned. A solid K-12 curriculum formed upon Structured literacy is needed to meet every students learning needs, to build background knowledge, explicitly teach writing, on top of the core necessity of phonics instruction.
I appreciate your research. - Tai Smith M.A Ed and the Science of Reading
I’m wondering if UDL is used in Steubenville High Schools and if results are better than the meta-analysis that show just mediocre achievement with UDL. Is it because too many schools use it instead of teaching kids to read?
"While Steubenville’s high school students do well on state reading tests, statistics available on the state report card website show that only about 7 percent scored high enough on the ACT or SAT to be considered ready for college-level coursework. And none got an AP score of three or better—the threshold for college credit. Only about 27 percent of the graduating class of 2017 graduated from college within six years, compared to a state average of about 30 percent."
It would be great to have a follow-up article on a high-poverty high school that has better much better data than this--and then find out what programs/methods they use. It's really important to drill down on contributing factors so that teachers know what's in their control and what isn't.
Yes...I've been thinking a lot these days about long term transfer and how we assess for that. Also, how do we figure what is a school's role and the community's role in making that happen.
I agree that it would be great to have longitudinal data that follows kids through high school and beyond. One problem is that conducting studies that last that long is extremely expensive, so we basically don't have them.
A place like Steubenville would make a good case study, since they've been using Success for All for so long -- but what would you compare it to? If you want to know the impact of an elementary curriculum on later achievement--which is what we're talking about here--you'd have to find another demographically similar district that has been using a different elementary curriculum or program for a long time that has better high school outcomes and compare it to Steubenville.
Or you could just look for high-poverty high schools that have been able to turn things around at the high school level. I don't think you'll find many of them. One example, though, is what happened at New Dorp High School in New York City after they adopted the Hochman Method, now known as The Writing Revolution. Here's a link to an article in the Atlantic about that, from 2012: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-writing-revolution/309090/
I have not been to Steubenville, but I am from a depressed Ohio town. I am kind of like a cousin. Nondirect experience, but somewhat related.
My son's school district has been including phonics for awhile and started CKLA this year. I am not an educator, just a knowledge nerd, and from my perspective it is wonderful. My son comes home ready to discuss all the amazing things he's learned, truly if nothing else it's worth these moments with him.
But despite the curriculum, or any curriculum the school could have, the biggest problem is lack of cultural capital. We have a good library system here (with amazing librarians!), a little science museum that is trying to fill the gap on STEM, a history museum that does some stuff for the kids, and some programing in the arts. The people behind the scenes are stellar, but it's not a lot. Our kids are left without those rich experiences that synthesize what they learn in the classroom and make it stick.
I imagine a similar problem may exist in Steubenville. The children can read, the parents can read, but what they do with that skill may be stunted by geography.
It's like making sure your seed gets plenty of sunlight and water, but if you don't put the sprout in some good soil you aren't going to see any more growth.
We need curriculum AND community. I don't know if the lack of adult success means that Success for All isn't beneficial past reading scores, but I do know the struggle of trying to give my child every opportunity possible while being part of an under served population.
If the foundation of literacy set up under Success for All just isn't sufficient to promise success, I would love to know why. We have to ask ourselves if literacy alone is enough to the overcome socioeconomic disadvantages that students face.
My intuition is that this is a combination of student demographic issues and lack of career prospects. Comparing Steubenville to state averages instead of similar socioeconomic areas may obscure real impacts.
That said, a curriculum that imparts key knowledge would be even more important for many of the students described in Sold a Story (the ones coming from homeless shelters, etc.) than the average.
I would love to know more about these students' secondary and tertiary experiences.
I had all of these same questions when I read the "Sold A Story" article about Steubenville and Success for All. I also went on to wonder, why if it was so successful, was it not more widely used. It is apparently the cost, but also, as you point out it does not provide indepth instruction in building background knowledge and systematic explicit writing instruction. Structured Literacy requires the components mentioned. A solid K-12 curriculum formed upon Structured literacy is needed to meet every students learning needs, to build background knowledge, explicitly teach writing, on top of the core necessity of phonics instruction.
I appreciate your research. - Tai Smith M.A Ed and the Science of Reading
I’m wondering if UDL is used in Steubenville High Schools and if results are better than the meta-analysis that show just mediocre achievement with UDL. Is it because too many schools use it instead of teaching kids to read?