With its profiles of numerous districts and
states successfully engaged in longer school days and/or years, this report from the National Center on Time and
Learning and the Education Commission of the States is a boost for those pushing
to keep intact—and even expand—learning time in this austere climate. It
illustrates this with a few real programs (Massachusetts’ Expanded Learning Time
Initiative) and initiatives (Oklahoma City’s move to a continuous school year)
that have successfully upped hours of student learning. There’s a lot here. But
the most useful section offers cost-effective strategies to retain and expand
learning time and shows where these strategies are already working. Among them:
Stagger staff schedules, use technology as a teaching tool, free schools from
restrictive CBAs, and increase class sizes. (For more on each of these, I recommend our Stretching
the School Dollar volume.) The report has an obvious agenda
and distinct message. But, given the short-sighted
and irresponsible cuts
to learning time that are all-too-common in states and districts at
present, it’s one that is worth heeding.
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Click to listen to commentary on the loss of school time in CA from the Education Gadfly Show podcast |
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National Center on Time and Learning and Education Commission of the States, “Learning Time in America: Trends to Reform the American School Calendar: A Snapshot of Federal, State, and Local Action,” (Boston, MA: National Center on Time and Learning; Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States, Summer 2011). |
