Same Minutes, Different Experiences: Analyzing How High School Students Experience Learning Time

• In Event: 61.036 - Exploring Learning Time as a Core Resource for Educational Equity and Achievement

Abstract

One resource that many schools are working to obtain in order to increase student achievement is more time – minutes in the school day and days in the school year that can be used to accomplish learning goals. Less attention is paid to determining how students actually experience learning time and the extent to which it benefits them academically. This paper argues that students in California public high schools experience learning time differently and inequitably depending on the impact of socioeconomic factors on their families and schools and the ways that teachers and administrators perceive their academic ability.

This paper explores the ways that California public high school students experience learning time over two spans:

1. During the school year (including engagement in classes, participation in clubs and other after school activities, and time spent on homework)

2. During the summer (including their participation in organized enrichment programs, level of engagement with adults, and college preparation efforts)

A great deal of research confirms the commonsense notion that learning time matters – that what students learn is related to the time they spend learning (Carroll, 1963; Berliner, 2007) - and it often does so by demonstrating how lack of access to learning time negatively impacts student achievement (Alexander, 2007; Borman & Dowling, 2006). Specifically, more recent studies have indicated that academic learning time varies widely across classrooms and schools (Phelps et al., 2011; Corey et al., 2012) and that students in classrooms with the most academic learning time were significantly more likely to be white and have fewer special needs (Roth, Brooks-Gunn, & Linver, 2003). Evidence shows that more affluent families use their wealth to provide children with access to a broader range of enriching learning opportunities than children of low-income families (Putnam, Frederick, & Snellman (2012) and that neighborhoods of concentrated poverty negatively affect student attendance and engaged learning time (Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012).

Our study uses mixed methods to explore the ways that these research findings play out in California schools by documenting how high school students from various school contexts experience learning time. We will present findings from a statewide survey conducted in June 2014 with a representative sample of 500 students detailing how learning time is distributed across California schools and how factors inside and outside of schools shape learning time.

We will also present findings from interviews and time diaries that we conducted in summer 2014 with 80 students from four high schools serving distinctive socio-economic communities (two high-poverty communities, one economically diverse community, and one affluent community). This data details how students from these distinct communities spend their time during the summer months when school is not in session.

Our findings will provide evidence about the extent to which learning time is distributed unequally along lines of race and social class and will start a conversation about what classroom, school, and community conditions could enhance learning time in a manner that is associated with positive outcomes for young people.

Authors

• Nicole Mirra, The University of Texas - El Paso

• John S. Rogers, University of California - Los Angeles