Out-of-School Activities Play Role in Helping Close Achievement Gap, Experts Say: WASHINGTON— Public policies that help communities provide the spaces and activities for after-school play, exploration, and social interaction should help close racial, ethnic and economic achievement gaps, according to experts at an Educational Testing Service (ETS) conference Monday.
Researchers and educators said in the current system, children are showing deficiencies in both cognitive skills like literacy and noncognitive ones, such as goal-setting, that bolster academic success. As enriching playtime and after-school programs are reduced, they have called for reform not only inside the classroom but outside as well.
Dr. Edmund W. Gordon, a leading researcher of supplemental, or complementary, education, said during the opening session of the ETS 12th Addressing Achievement Gaps Symposium that improving student achievement includes reaping the benefits of nonschool activities that stimulate learning beyond the brick and mortar.
“We cannot depend so heavily on schools,” Gordon said, adding that education reform should be viewed as a public health issue that challenges the public to respond to growing education needs at every level of society.
