The Obama administration required low-performing schools that got federal money intended to spur a turnaround to add time to their school day or school year. Years into the effort, however, school leaders who accepted federal millions say the added teaching time was only moderately helpful.
Stepped up teaching, often resulting from teachers being given more time to collaborate, yields a much bigger payoff, they report.
That is a primary conclusion of a new study of 17 schools in four states, including three in Oregon, released Monday by the Washington, D.C.,-based Center on Education Policy: "Expanded Learning Time: A Summary of Findings from Case Studies in Four States."
The experience of Portland's Madison High, Woodburn's Washington Elementary and the Eugene-area alternative school Kalapuya High all are covered in depth in the study. Schools and districts in the study are given fictitious names, but The Oregonian/OregonLive was easily able to deduce their identities.
To satisfy requirements of its federal School Improvement Grant, Washington Elementary added 30 minutes to every school day, paying teachers extra to work a longer day than all other teachers in Woodburn. It also offers three weeks of summer school to students who most need it.
Madison High, in Northeast Portland, offers after-school academics and enrichment via the county-funded SUN School program, which is a much cheaper approach than paying certified teachers to work hours more per day. Madison also holds school on eight Saturdays per year, with attendance mandatory for students who need to raise their grades or demonstrate mastery of reading, writing or math to qualify for a diploma.
Principals at both schools said they don't foresee a way to afford longer school days or school years after the federal grants run out. But they also say teacher training, teacher collaboration and improved instructional techniques – not more time in class – have had the biggest payoff for student achievement and will be most essential to continue.
"Any effort to expand learning time should go hand in hand with a plan for improving the quality of instruction," said Maria Ferguson, executive director of the center that conducted the study.
At Washington Elementary, teachers developed and learned to use more accurate tools to measure what each student knows and doesn't know, so instruction can be pitched to the level that students need, Principal Juan Larios told researchers conducting the study. By putting all hands on deck at certain times during the school day, including teachers, instructional coaches, reading specialists and educational assistants, the school can break students into small classes and small groups to better address their specific needs, he said.
Deploying highly sensitive assessments to detect levels of student learning, and matching the correct intervention to students who are behind, has ramped up the speed and effectiveness of student learning, Larios said.
Madison High's successes in driving up student achievement, particularly in math, have been documented in The Oregonian/OregonLive. Madison Principal Petra Callin (referred to in the study by the pseudonym Pamela Clarkson) told the researchers that adding Saturdays to the school year proved less important than making better use of teaching time the school already had. Key to that, Callin said, has been to help teachers work together to scrupulously examine what students need to learn and what techniques work best to teach them those things.
The study quotes Callin at length on that point:
"When people are looking at improvement for schools, I don't think that (lengthening the school day or school year) is the central strategy. I think it is a peripheral strategy. I would never say that giving kids more time is a bad thing, ever. It's a great thing. ...I believe other strategies ... are more important. ... I think the two things that make the most sense to really focus on are the instruction that happens in the classroom during the school day -- the quality of that instruction -- as well as safety nets for when kids are falling through the cracks. "
The Oregon Board of Education is weighing whether and how to enforce state rules requiring students ....
Prompted by Oregon schools chief Rob Saxton, the panel is considering a plan to require some elementary schools to offer more teaching time. And it is looking at withholding some money from high schools that don't deliver a full teaching day to some students. Currently the state pays high schools the same amount of money, about $6,500, for a student who takes five courses and has three free periods in an eight-period schedule as for a student who takes eight courses.
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