Top educators consider more school time

State Superintendent Sandy Garrett, Tulsa Superintendent Keith Ballard and Oklahoma City Superintendent Karl Springer went to Boston on Wednesday to visit the National Center on Time and Learning and to see urban schools where more time on task is already making a difference in achievement.

“This is not just about adding minutes to a day or months to a year. It’s about redesigning how you go about the organization of your school and making good use of time. Are you making effective use of the time you have presently?” Ballard said in a telephone interview.

“The National Center on Time and Learning is the epicenter of the studies and research on extended learning time. We are here to explore opportunities, realizing of course that any movement in this area would first require board approval and teacher union approval and parent support.”

Garrett has long advocated more school days and fewer interruptions to instructional time. She cites the fact that Oklahoma’s 175 school day-minimum is lower than the national average of 180 days and that nearly all European and Asian countries offer up to 260 school days a year.

“Title I stimulus dollars can be used for this, but we will also be helping our two urban school districts write (federal) school improvement and school innovation grants for this,” Garrett said Wednesday. “This would be money that could be used to extend the day and not just that, but also redesigning the school day to provide interventions and other opportunities to incorporate academics that are not necessarily studied in the core of the day.”

Ballard said he was impressed with what he saw and learned about schools that have participated in a statewide initiative to expand learning time in Massachusetts schools, called Massachusetts 2020.

“It is important to note that the initiative in Massachusetts is voluntary and they are having extremely positive results in high-challenge, urban settings. Our KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools have also been highly successful, and expanded learning time is an important component of those schools,” he said.

Both Tulsa and Oklahoma City have a KIPP school in typically underserved parts of the cities. The program features mandatory summer school, an extended school day from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday school every other week, and as much as two hours of homework per night.

Ballard said any proposal to expand the school day or school year in local schools would require “extensive planning and input from parents, the community, teachers, the teachers union and the school board.”

“If adopted, extended learning time would not be a district-wide initiative. We’re only looking at this for high-challenge schools and there must be total buy-in for this to be successful,” he said.

Expanded Learning Time

The National Center on Time and Learning defines an Expanded Learning Time school as one that:

• Offers all students an expanded schedule (at least 300 additional hours across the school year).
• Volunteers to add time to the school schedule and conducts an inclusive planning process (e.g. involving teachers, unions, parents, school partners) to design the new school day and/or year.
• Offers students a wellrounded, balanced education with the added time dedicated to more core academic time; additional enrichment programming such as arts, music, apprenticeships, and P.E.; and time for teachers to plan, meet together, and participate in professional development.
• Is funded by the state to implement the expanded schedule for all students.

Source: The National Center on Time & Learning