Blog

A few months ago, I wrote about how one of the issues that we’re focused on at NCTL is helping schools to improve student attendance. Of course schools need more learning time, but if there are students who are missing class often, what is the point of a longer school day and year for them? 

This past week, I had the opportunity to visit the Edward Brooke Charter School in Boston. My reason for going to visit was to better understand how this high-performing school designs their educational program and their professional development protocols to generate strong results. And by strong results, I mean really strong results. 

This is a guest post by Jennifer Davis, NCTL's  Co-Founder & President

The recent research brief from the National School Boards Association, an analysis of the quantity of instructional time in various countries, concludes by noting that what really matters with instructional time is “how effectively that time is used.” Here at NCTL, we agree with that point, and also agree that “providing extra time is only useful if that time is used wisely.” 

Last week, I attended (virtually) the release of results of 21 urban districts that participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, commonly referred to as “the nation’s report card”). The Trial Urban District Assessment or TUDA, tests a representative sample of students in 4th and 8th grade to determine how schools in some of the nation’s largest districts are faring.  Overall, the findings were framed with a kind of cautious optimism because there were many positive signs—a rise in scores in both subjects at both grade levels for most districts—amidst the basic reality that most districts still trail national averages and exhibit yawning achievement gaps between students of different racial backgrounds.