The Gift of Bleak Research

How the Pianta classroom study can help schools improve immediately.

By Mike Schmoker & Richard Allington

Let’s not squander the moment made possible by an important new national study, “Opportunities to Learn in America’s Elementary Classrooms.” In it, the University of Virginia scholar Robert C. Pianta and his colleagues report, in painful detail, the most vital if overlooked fact about our schools: Most teaching is “mediocre,” or worse.

Published in the March 30, 2007, issue of the journal Science , the Pianta study is based on observations of 2,500 classrooms in 400 school districts across the United States. It shows that the typical child in these classrooms has a 1-in-14 chance of learning in a rich, supportive environment. Fifth graders spend 91 percent of their time listening to the teacher or working alone, usually on low-level worksheets. Three out of four classrooms are “dull, bleak” places, the researchers report, devoid of any emphasis on critical reasoning or problem-solving skills.

Decades of school reform have kept us from seeing that simple problems demand simple, direct action. An ever-growing contingent of researchers is beginning to concede that instruction itself probably has more impact on learning, and on achievement gaps, than any other factor. So the key to better schools is not commissions or new commercial curriculum materials, or even professional development. Each of these lacks the most basic, critical ingredient: a willingness to establish clear expectations for instruction, to arrange for teachers to work in teams so they can meet and exceed those expectations, and to institute simple routines for honestly and continuously monitoring teaching...