I’ve written a lot about how active learning is more effective than lectures (see The Best Research Demonstrating That Lectures Are Not The Best Instructional Strategy).

A big New York Times article headlined Active Role in Class Helps Black and First-Generation College Students, Study Says discusses yet another study that reinforces that view.

Here is how it begins:

The trend away from classes based on reading and listening passively to lectures, and toward a more active role for students, has its most profound effects on black students and those whose parents did not go to college, a new study of college students shows.

Active learning raised average test scores more than 3 percentage points, and significantly reduced the number of students who failed the exams, the study found. The score increase was doubled, to more than 6 percentage points, for black students and first-generation college students.

For black students, that gain cut in half their score gap with white students. It eliminated the gap between first-generation students and other students.

I’m adding it to the “Best” list mentioned at the beginning of the post.