Promoting Deeper Learning in High School: Evidence of Opportunities and Outcomes

Abstract

Policymakers and practitioners are increasingly interested in students’ deeper learning skills, or the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills students need to succeed in school, careers, and civic life. This article presents evidence about whether the concept of deeper learning—applied across a variety of approaches—has potential merit as a means for education improvement. The analysis, based on 16 high schools implementing a school-wide approach to promoting deeper learning within the context of small schools, indicates that students who attended schools focused on deeper learning reported greater opportunities for deeper learning, greater competency in some deeper learning domains, had higher rates of graduating from high school, and were more likely to enroll in 4-year colleges than similar students who attended comparison schools.

Keywords

educational reform high schools learning processes/strategies quasi-experimental analysis

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