Learning Time in America: Trends to Reform the American School Calendar: A Snapshot of Federal, State, and Local Action
Chris Irvine
/ July 14, 2011
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.
Click to listen to commentary on the loss of school time in CA from the Education Gadfly Show podcast
