The Effects of Deeper Learning Opportunities on Student Achievement: Examining Differential Pathways Across Network and Nonnetwork Schools

• In Event: 34.018 - Excellence in Education Research: Early-Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

It is well established that “non-cognitive skills”, such as a person’s interpersonal and
intrapersonal attributes, social and emotional skills, and self-regulatory competencies are critical
and that lay the foundation for lifelong wellbeing, and more positive cognitive and social
outcomes (Bridgeland, et al., 2013; CASEL, 2014; Farrington et al., 2012). Given the importance
of these skills, there has been a growing interest in establishing conceptual models and schoolbased
programs that promote deeper learning (DL) experiences, practices, behaviors, and
outcomes for students. The Hewlett Foundation has led these efforts to broaden our
understanding of DL, funding the Study of Deeper Learning (SDL), which compared a network
of schools that were identified as implementing deeper learning approaches to non-network
comparison schools. Research using this data is promising and has found that students in DL
network schools had: 1) more opportunities to engage in deeper learning; 2) stronger
interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes; 3) higher academic outcomes; 4) higher on-time
graduation rates; and 5) were more likely to attend 4- year colleges than students in non-network
schools. Further, these effects were equitable across a diverse group of students (gender, race,
prior achievement, and socio-economic status (Bitter, Taylor, Zeiser, & Rickles, 2014;
Huberman, Bitter, Anthony, & O'Day, 2014; Zeiser, Taylor, Rickles, Garet, & Segeritz, 2014).
While these studies provide strong initial evidence that opportunities for deeper learning are
associated with non-cognitive and achievement outcomes, the pathways by which DL
opportunities lead to these outcomes, or the sources of these network verses non-network
differences are not clear. Further, while all of the measures of opportunities for DL were
significantly related to non-cognitive outcomes, interestingly, only one measure of opportunities
had a significant relation with achievement scores in math and science (Bitter et al., 2014),
suggesting that models that test direct effects on achievement may not accurately depict what is
happening in the complex instructional system. Thus, there is a need for additional work
examining plausible mechanisms for those effects.
The goal of the present study was to examine the direct and indirect relations between
four latent constructs of opportunities for deeper learning, two latent constructs of non-cognitive
outcomes (interpersonal and intrapersonal), and student math achievement, and to consider the
effect of DL network schools for changing these relations. The present study integrates and
extends research by investigating the mechanisms by which opportunities for deeper learning and
improved interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes contribute to student mathematics
achievement in the presence and absence of deeper learning approaches (network vs nonnetwork
schools). Using student reported data and direct assessments from the Study of Deeper
Learning, the following three research questions were examined separately in network and nonnetwork
samples in the 11th grade.
RQ 1: To what extent do cognitive, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cross-cutting
opportunities for deeper learning relate to student intrapersonal and interpersonal
outcomes and student achievement?
RQ 2: To what extent do student intrapersonal and interpersonal outcomes relate to
student achievement?
RQ 3: How do these relations differ in DL network vs. non-network schools?
Participants were 1,096 11th grade students from 20 California schools (10 network, 10
non-network) who participated in the Study of Deeper Learning. A series of six multi-level
multi-group structural equation models (SEM) were conducted to test a theoretical model that
hypothesizes plausible direct and indirect pathways between deeper learning to interpersonal,
intrapersonal, and cognitive outcomes. Further, I examined differences in these relations between
network and matched non-network schools to determine whether being in a network school
differentially affects the relations among classroom opportunities for deeper learning, noncognitive
outcomes, and student achievement, compared to non-network schools. Analyses
controlled for gender, ethnicity, and prior mathematics achievement.

Author

• Erin R Ottmar, Worcester Polytechnic Institute