Elementary Schools Fail to Provide High Quality Instruction

Given everyone's obsession with No Child Left Behind and student achievement, you'd think that today's kids are getting a better education. Not so, says a new study, which calls the quality of elementary education mediocre at best. "Any given child has less than a 20 percent chance of having a rich classroom experience consistently through elementary school,"and for low income children, the percentage is even lower, says Robert Pianta, the lead researcher in "Opportunities to Learn in America's Elementary Classrooms." The report was published in the March 30 issue of Science magazine.

Based on observations of more than 1,000 children in first-, third-, and fifth-grade classrooms, the report concludes that students simply aren't getting the kind of rich, challenging academic experiences that would enhance their learning and improve their test performance.

"If you asked educators what's the most effective way to teach in a classroom, they would probably include small-group instruction, for example, but we found it occurred less than 10 percent of the time in those three grades," Pianta says, adding that by fifth grade, small group instruction took place only 7 percent of the time.

Elementary school classrooms tend to be passive environments, with teachers lecturing to large groups, Pianta says. But high-quality teaching involves just the opposite—it should challenge children to use reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, with lots of teacher-student interaction. It should also involve emotionally supportive interactions and engaging activities, which are mostly lacking in today's schools.

When it came to instruction time, fifth-grade teachers spent 37 percent of their time on basic literacy skills, 25 percent on math, 11 percent on science, and 13 percent on social studies. These time commitments were inconsistent with stated national aims to improve math and science education, the study adds.

The study calls for more observation-based studies that examine what goes on in classrooms, because they may reveal ways "for improving classroom teaching and the preparation of teachers." For a copy of the report, visit here.