Sipley School Weekly Howl
Week of April 8, 2018
We said at the start of the year, that through purposeful planning and well executed and engaged lessons that our students will be successful on our benchmark assessments, which we referred to as our playoffs. We also said that through purposeful planning and reteaching that our students would be ready for their Super Bowl, PARCC. All that hard work and wise planning is going to pay off when our students play their Super Bowl, beginning tomorrow.
Outliers and Schooling
Gladwell gives us his general thesis, the argument of his book in broad strokes: he points out that there is something “profoundly wrong with the way we make sense of success.” We often attribute success to a rare and triumphant collection of individual qualities—talent, motivation, genius—when in fact, success stories (successful outliers) feature people who are “the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies” that enable their success.
Gladwell does a study on hockey players and birth dates and I lived this study first hand. Tyler, my son, has a December 30th birthday. Other than December 31, this is the worst possible birthday in the world of hockey because the cut-off is January 1. So, he always competes against older kids who are bigger and stronger. Could he have overcome this? Of course. Had he put the extra time and work in by practicing, he could have filled some of the gaps, such as hockey IQ, agility, speed, and muscle. He needed to gain an extra twelve months worth of work over the kid who was born two days after him. Gladwell says, "The difference in strength and ability between someone who is almost eleven-years-old and someone who has just turned ten is significant. These bigger, older players make an impression on talent scouts at a young age. Then they are moved to better teams, receive better coaches, have more opportunities to practice—and this makes them better."
It got me thinking about schooling. Our cut-off date to enter kindergarten is September 1. So, anyone born in August, just before the cutoff are our youngest students. A kid born on August 31, has twelve months less life experience than the student born on September 1. This is a huge difference at our early grades. Gladwell explains, "These arbitrary age cut-offs don’t only affect youth sports. Economists have recently looked at the relationship between birth month and performance on standardized tests on fourth graders, and found an average difference of 12 percentile points between the oldest (who performed better) and youngest students. 12 percentile points is easily the difference between being admitted to a gifted program or not. Maturity is seen as innate ability, and success is rewarded with better training, and more success. Something as arbitrary as an age cutoff translates into persisting disadvantage for younger students, and no one seems to be taking this fact seriously."
I took a look at our student's birth dates. Here is what I found (Sorry in advance Kdg. - My initial attempt at this was quite wrong).
- Kindergarten - The average birth month is 7.7 (Early February) and 20% of the students are born in the first quarter prior to the age cut-off (between June and August). 39% of the students are born in the last quarter of their age (Between September and November).
- First Grade - The average birth month is 6.1 (Late March) and 35% of the students are born in the first quarter prior to the age cut-off. 20% of the students are born in the last quarter of their age (oldest quartile).
- Second Grade - The average birth month is 7 and 21% of the students are born in the first quarter prior to the age cut-off. 33% of the students are born in the last quarter of their age (oldest quartile).
- Third Grade - The average birth month is 6.4 and 27% of the students are born in the first quarter prior to the age cut-off. 20% of the students are born in the last quarter of their age (oldest quartile).
- Fourth Grade - The average birth month is 7 and 22% of the students are born in the first quarter prior to the age cut-off. 24% of the students are born in the last quarter of their age (oldest quartile).
- Fifth Grade - The average birth month is 6.6 and 29% of the students are born in the first quarter prior to the age cut-off. 25% of the students are born in the last quarter of their age (oldest quartile).
- Sixth Grade - The average birth month is 6.5 and 31% of the students are born in the first quarter prior to the age cut-off. 25% of the students are born in the last quarter of their age (oldest quartile).
When looking at age cut-offs, this makes the first grade cohort the youngest and the kindergarten cohort the oldest. They both appear to be outliers as we compare them to other grades in our school. Our first grade cohort may be at a disadvantage due to their birth date while the kindergarten cohort may be at an an advantage due to their birth date. But there is more to consider.
While Gladwell starts the conversation on birth dates and schooling, there is more to consider. He points out that when gaining expert status, you need time, particularly, 10,000 hours in a specific area. When we consider early learning opportunities prior to kindergarten, we see students who have spent more time on early literacy through early childhood classes or being raised in a literature rich home that starts at birth. Some early birth dates have overcome any disadvantage associated with respect to the timing of their birth through the good fortune of being raised in a literature rich home and/or valuable social experiences between birth and kindergarten.
But there is even more to consider. From the Center for Evidence-Based Practice: Young Children with Challenging Behavior: "Social and behavioral competence in young children predicts their academic performance in the first grade over and above their cognitive skills and family backgrounds (Raver & Knitzer, 2002). Science has established a compelling link between social/emotional development and behavior and school success (Raver, 2002; Zins, Bloodworth, Weissberg, & Walberg, 2004). Indeed, longitudinal studies suggest that the link may be causal….academic achievement in the first few years of schooling appears to be built on a foundation of children’s emotional and social skills (Raver, 2002). Young children cannot learn to read if they have problems that distract them from educational activities, problems following directions, problems getting along with others and controlling negative emotions, and problems that interfere with relationships with peers, teachers, and parents. “Learning is a social process” (Zins et al., 2004)."
Have students had the social opportunities that others have to acquire the behavioral skills such as following directions and getting along with others? Did they acquire the good fortune of those experiences prior to kindergarten?
As educators, it has to be a desire to delve deeper into all of this. We need to explore this more. This section highlighted things that we (educators) need know. I can speak for myself and say that I am not acquiring this information, but I will start. We should know the age of our students within their school year and understand the advantages or disadvantages that are aligned to age. We should know what academic and social learning looked like between birth and kindergarten. With that information, we can cross reference our early assessments of students both academically and socially. Then quickly begin support so that over time, we can help students overcome disadvantages that they enter school with, whether that is an early birth date, less experience with literature, or less experiences playing with others in structured settings where they learn how to share, take turns, listen, and talk respectfully.
I hope that you found this section interesting and perhaps sparked questions and possible answers as we focus on early learning and ensuring that all students read at grade level by the end of grade three.
This Week
Please keep hallways quiet as students are testing in grades 3 - 6 classrooms, room 105, my office, Miguel's room, and our offices. Whole class, silent washroom breaks by grades K - 2 must take place.
A Glance at the Week Ahead
Monday - Content Block #6 Begins
Monday - School Leadership Team Meeting - 11:30 - 12:15 - Spent finalizing our presentation
Tuesday - 4th Grade SS Input - 3:30 - District Office
Wednesday - 3rd Grade SS Input - 3:30 - District Office
Wednesday - Woodridge Parent Safety Meeting
Thursday - 2nd Grade SS Input - 3:30 - District Office
Friday - STP Family Game Night - Please try to attend this - 7:00 - 9:00