Schools Do Teach

Reviews the book, Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling by Barbara Heyns (1978). The research reported in this book makes an important point about schooling--that students are learning. This point has been in doubt in recent years, partly because of pessimistic conclusions in major evaluations of school programs. Heyns reminds us to think clearly and to differentiate two questions: (a) Does schooling itself make a difference, compared to no schooling; and (b) Are some schools better than others? Both questions are considered from the viewpoint of equity--the relative standing of students with different background characteristics. Heyns points out that previous studies have compared different schools, but have been overinterpreted as indicating that schools in general have little effect on academic achievement. The book is organized to include summary chapters that provide a good overview for a general audience and additional chapters that report the analyses in detail. Heyns also discusses many of the methodological issues that arise in conducting this type of analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)