Fifteen Thousand Hours: Secondary Schools and Their Effects on Children

TLDR: Rutter as discussed by the authors found that the factors contributing to the difference between effective and ineffective schools included emphasis on academic concerns amount of homework, use of library, time spent on instruction, amount of teacher planning, expecta tions of student performance, and others.

Abstract: Michael Rutter. a professor of child psychiatry, led a University of London research team in preparing this promi nent work. For three years, a field study collected massive amounts of informa tion on all of the students entering twelve inner London secondary schools. The research conclusively demonstrates that schools only a scant distance apart with almost exactly the same "pupil intakes" (social background and intel lectual ability) engender widely diver gent educational results. American research over the last 15 years has advanced the proposition that schooling makes little difference in the lives of children. In 1966 James Coleman's Equality of Educational Op portunity deduced that variations in school experiences did not affect educa tion attainment. Christopher Jencks led another large scale study. Published as Inequality i n 1972. it further embedded the concept that "Variations in what children learn at school depend largely on variations in what they bring to school, not on variations in what schools Offer them." On the other side of the Atlantic, Sir Cyril Burt has had a major influence through the English B lack Paper m ove ment in promoting the neutrality of schools in fostering individual growth. Some deterioration in support of the genetic determinism part of this theory has occurred with the discovery that Burt forged many of his examples in the research on identical twins reared apart. Nevertheless, the hereditarian viewpoint is still being held by some with only slightly less fervor than when Burl's "discoveries" were considered genuine. Rutter's examination contradicts these prevailing opinions. According lo Rick Rogers I New Statesman, 2 3 March 1979) "The special contribution ... in Fifteen Thousand Hours i s to shatter that proposition [that schools produce no measurable changes in their pupils] beyond any obvious hope of repair." Parents and many practitioners have passionate convictions about the value of school attendance. Common sense, educational lore, and lay opinion have consistently labeled the costly research conclusions of Colcman. Jencks, and others as misleading. Practitioners may feel that Fifteen Thousand Hours i s ". . . a tremendous amount of hard work just to demonstrate what we knew already on the basis of experience or common sense" (p. 204). However, the debate can best be carried on with the kind of empirical data set forth in this study. Spending 15,000 hours engaged in any endeavor (even sleep) has to have an effect' Attending school is no excep tion. Why then, up until now, have formidable research efforts not pro duced these common sense answers? In other studies variables within schools such as values, teaching style, the qual ity of organizations, discipline, and pupil-teacher relationships have often been ignored. Rutter's research team re vealed these factors to be important. Joanna Mark ( New Society, 2 2 March 1979) believes that Fifteen Thou sand Hours has "started to answer what is perhaps the crucial question in educa tion: what is it about a successful school that makes it successful?" The New York Times probed this question with Janet Ouston, one of the coauthors of the book. The answer, ac cording to this University of London researcher, lies in the "ethos" of the school the overall tone. Moreover, she said the study found that schools could be improved to make them more effec tive. The factors contributing to the dif ference between effective and ineffective schools included emphasis on academic concerns amount of homework, use of library, time spent on instruction, amount of teacher planning, expecta tions of student performance, and others. Student behavior was found to be better "where discipline was based on general expectations set by the school (or house or department), rather than left to individual teachers to work out for themselves" (p. 192). Positive encouragement by teachers during lessons or displaying student work on walls was related to good be havior and exam results. The extent to which children were given duties of responsibility and were able to consult teachers about personal problems like wise contributed to successful outcomes. These ingredients of a successful school have some direct implications for school-based educators. School policymakers would have more difficulty con trolling some of the significant external forces such as a reasonable proportion of higher ability children in the school, and a higher proportion of nonmanual (higher socioeconomic) parents. There was also no relationship between the parents' choosing the school and any of the measures of success. This latter point is interesting because it comes at a time when many parents in England and the United States want more con trol over which school their children attend. The inequities in society were not overcome by the good schools studied. However, students of a ll a bility ranges had higher examination scores in the best schools. Joanna Mark concludes her analysis of F ifteen Thousand Hours by stating: