Why Time Matters

Every child in America deserves an education that prepares them for success in college and career and sets them on a path to a rich, fulfilling life. Unfortunately, our antiquated school calendar is too limiting to provide millions of children with the breadth and depth of educational experiences they will need to thrive.

Author(s): 
Roy Chan

Once among the highest-performing schools in Palmdale, a city 60 miles north of Los Angeles, Tumbleweed Elementary had fallen on tough times over the last decade. Then, in 2010, California labeled Tumbleweed “persistently low achieving,” ushering in a new era of school-wide transformation, featuring an expanded-time schedule, supported by federal funds. Today, with the benefits of more learning time and other key reforms, Tumbleweed is demonstrating dramatic improvement. This case study, the second in a series, takes you inside Tumbleweed’s turnaround.

Massachusetts 2020 recently released the 2010-2011 Update on the Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT) Initiative. Schools with four years of expanded time are demonstrating impressive increases in their proficiency rates across all grades and all tested subjects, including over 8 point gains in ELA and nearly 20 points gains in Math. As the ELT Initiative Update illustrates, ELT Schools are proving that, when combined with quality teaching and a commitment to student achievement, expanded learning time can be a powerful lever for change.

The Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time 2007-2008 Annual Report looks at the continued success of ELT and explores how redesigned school days are engaging students, teachers and the community and enhancing the educational experience.

The Expanded Learning Time 2006 - 2007 Annual Report documents the first year success of Massachusetts' pioneering effort to expand learning time by 300 hours in public schools. Included are the promising academic results and survey data from teachers and parents from the first year of implementation.

This report analyzes the effective practices of eight public schools which feature at least fifteen percent more time than the conventional schedule. The study dissects how these schools – which we chose specifically because they had demonstrated success – managed to organize, staff, pay for and sustain a school built around more time and to understand how these educators believe the additional time strengthens their capacity to enable all students to achieve proficiency. The research was conducted with generous support from the L.G. Balfour Foundation, a Bank of America Company.

Massachusetts 2020 and the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, along with education, civil rights and child advocacy leaders, submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in support of the plaintiffs in the Hancock vs. Driscoll school financing case. In the brief, we argue that to meet its constitutional obligation to provide all children with the level of education to which they are entitled, the state must ensure adequate learning time for all students, especially those at risk of failing, by expanding the time public school children spend in productive learning environments.

Pages

Subscribe to Time and Learning RSS