Learning Time in America: Trends to Reform the American School Calendar

Learning Time in America: Trends to Reform the American School Calendar
Author: David Farbman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 56
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

The National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL), an organization dedicated to redesigning and expanding school time to improve opportunities and outcomes for high poverty students, and the Education Commission of the States (ECS), with a mission to foster both the exchange of ideas on education issues among the states and long range strategic thinking, have joined forces to produce this review. Their goal is to help education leaders to better understand the complexities of time related policy and its far reaching educational implications. In exploring how policymakers and educators have dealt with the matter of school time at the federal, state, and local levels, NCTL and ECS hope to accelerate the national conversation on how they can best leverage the power of time to realize the vision of a high quality education for all. This paper offers a number of recommendations highlighting fresh ways that policy and research can best support efforts to expand learning time in schools. State policies on instructional time are appended. (Contains 82 notes and 51 footnotes.) [This paper was supported by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.].

Learning Time in America

Learning Time in America
Author: David Farbman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 38
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

The National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL), an organization dedicated to redesigning and expanding school time to improve opportunities and outcomes for high-poverty students, has again teamed up with the Education Commission of the States (ECS), whose mission it is to foster the exchange of ideas on education issues among the states, to produce this snapshot of public school time in America, the third since the original in 2011 (See ED521518). By focusing on some of the key actions that have taken place at the federal, state, and local levels since 2013, these organizations seek to advance the national conversation about how the nation's schools can harness the power of time to realize a vision of high-quality education for all. This brief concludes with an updated version of a number of public policy recommendations that appeared in the original report. These revised recommendations take into account the rapidly shifting policy context and provide policymakers with a roadmap guiding how they can best support efforts to effectively provide students with the learning time they need to be prepared for future success. Also included in the report is the appendix: "Number of Instructional Days/Hours in the School Year."

School Calendar Reform

School Calendar Reform
Author: Charles E. Ballinger
Publisher: R & L Education
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2006
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781578862788

The element of time is crucial in the discussion of school reform. Modifying the school calendar is a primary reform effort that enhances the academic agenda of the schools and responds to current issues in American education. School Calendar Reform: Learning in All Seasons reviews all aspects of restructuring the school-year calendar: presents concepts and research pertaining to school-calendar reform; and examines the theory of year-round education so the general public, educators, and policymakers might better understand the issues involved. It also includes definitions of the various types of year-round education, the historical background and recent developments of calendar restructuring, responses to common questions posed by those involved in calendar reform, an explanation of program evaluation, and indicators of school quality. This book will be of interest to administrators, educators, school officials, parents, and the general public. Book jacket.

Balancing the School Calendar

Balancing the School Calendar
Author: Carolyn Kneese
Publisher: R&L Education
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2009-01-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1578869773

Today, educators are looking for ways to utilize classroom time more effectively. Many thoughtful and forward-looking educators have reorganized the school calendar from the traditional nine-month model to one which is more balanced, and they have experienced the effects of calendar modification in the classroom, school, district, and community. Balancing the School Calendar is a compilation of perspectives and research reports from those who have experienced the urgent necessity of reorganizing time to effectuate better learning situations for students. Chapter authors have implemented, studied, or contemplated school calendar change and the results of the change.

Expanded Learning Time and Opportunities

Expanded Learning Time and Opportunities
Author: Helen Janc Malone
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2011-11-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1118167538

Expanding the learning day is gaining national momentum as an important school-improvement and whole-child development strategy. This issue focuses on school-community partnerships that provide a seamless, longer learning day that best meets the academic (Expanded Learning Time or ELT) and developmental (Expanded Learning Opportunities or ELO) needs of high-poverty students in resource-poor communities. First it draws attention to the importance of ELOs and offers contours of the ELT-ELO partnerships through research evidence and policy analysis. It then covers both in practice and features a spectrum of ELT-ELO partnerships, from less to more integrated models. The issue pays close attention to: The central role ELOs play in ELT schools The changing safeguards for community-based organizations Ways in which current education policy is shaping the approach of schools and community partners to learning and development. This is the 131st volume of New Directions for Youth Development, the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series dedicated to bringing together everyone concerned with helping young people, including scholars, practitioners, and people from different disciplines and professions.

Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business
Author: Anne-Marie Slaughter
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2015-09-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0812994574

Includes a new afterword by the author • “Slaughter’s gift for illuminating large issues through everyday human stories is what makes this book so necessary for anyone who wants to be both a leader at work and a fully engaged parent at home.”—Arianna Huffington NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, AND THE ECONOMIST When Anne-Marie Slaughter accepted her dream job as the first female director of policy planning at the U.S. State Department in 2009, she was confident she could juggle the demands of her position in Washington, D.C., with the responsibilities of her family life in suburban New Jersey. Her husband and two young sons encouraged her to pursue the job; she had a tremendously supportive boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and she had been moving up on a high-profile career track since law school. But then life intervened. Parenting needs caused her to make a decision to leave the State Department and return to an academic career that gave her more time for her family. The reactions to her choice to leave Washington because of her kids led her to question the feminist narrative she grew up with. Her subsequent article for The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” created a firestorm, sparked intense national debate, and became one of the most-read pieces in the magazine’s history. Since that time, Anne-Marie Slaughter has pushed forward, breaking free of her long-standing assumptions about work, life, and family. Though many solutions have been proposed for how women can continue to break the glass ceiling or rise above the “motherhood penalty,” women at the top and the bottom of the income scale are further and further apart. Now, in her refreshing and forthright voice, Anne-Marie Slaughter returns with her vision for what true equality between men and women really means, and how we can get there. She uncovers the missing piece of the puzzle, presenting a new focus that can reunite the women’s movement and provide a common banner under which both men and women can advance and thrive. With moving personal stories, individual action plans, and a broad outline for change, Anne-Marie Slaughter reveals a future in which all of us can finally finish the business of equality for women and men, work and family. “I’m confident that you will be left with Anne-Marie’s hope and optimism that we can change our points of view and policies so that both men and women can fully participate in their families and use their full talents on the job.”—Hillary Rodham Clinton

Prisoners of Time

Prisoners of Time
Author: United States. National Education Commission on Time and Learning
Publisher:
Total Pages: 76
Release: 1994
Genre: Education
ISBN:

The Education Council Act of 1991 established the National Education Commission on Time and Learning as an independent advisory body and called for a comprehensive review of the relationship between time and learning in U.S. schools. This document serves as a supplementary volume to the commission's first report released in May 1994, which found that most school-reform designs are structurally flawed by their adherence to a traditional school calendar. This volume describes innovative approaches to the use of school time. It provides nearly 40 examples of exemplary efforts to make better use of available time and extend the amount of time students spend learning. The brief program descriptions are from 15 elementary schools, 15 middle and senior high schools, 4 districtwide efforts, and 6 special programs. They include public and private schools in rural, urban, and suburban areas from 26 states. Information for reaching contact persons is provided. A review of the programs indicates that many different kinds of schools and districts have already implemented many of the commission's recommendations. The most common approaches in descending order include: (1) redesigning available time; (2) employing technology; (3) extending the school day or year; (4) providing time for professional development; and (5) providing support services for children or families. Finally, the approaches to the redesign of time usage differ by school level. (LMI)

Telling Tales Over Time

Telling Tales Over Time
Author: Joel Weiss
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2013-06-13
Genre: Education
ISBN: 946209263X

How do calendars and clocks influence considerations of school effectiveness? From the creation of compulsory education to the future of virtual schooling, Weiss and Brown trace two centuries of school practices, policies and research linking the concept of time with ‘opportunity to learn’. School calendars and clocks are shaped by both the physical and social worlds, and the ‘clock of schooling’ is shown to be one of the ‘great clocks of society’ that helps to frame school effectiveness. School time does not operate in a vacuum, but within curriculum, teaching and learning situations. The phrase ‘chrono-curriculum’ was devised by the authors as a metaphor for exploring issues of school effectiveness within the time dimension. Using American and Canadian sources, stories are created to illustrate four themes about time and school effectiveness. The first three stories utilize access, attendance and testing as criteria associated with these eras of schooling. How will the story read in the fourth era, the digital age, which forces us to a reconsideration of time and its influence on education? Quoting David Berliner in his Foreword: “ this is an opportune time for these authors to bring us insights into the reasons we in North America created our public school systems, and how the chrono-curriculum influences those systems. The authors’ presentation of our educational past provides educators a chance to think anew about how we might do schooling in our own times.”

The Fate of Liberal Arts in Today's Schools and Colleges

The Fate of Liberal Arts in Today's Schools and Colleges
Author: William Hayes
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2015-12-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1475817800

It is the purpose of this book to examine the ever-changing meaning of the term “liberal arts” and to trace its development from antiquity to the present. In doing so, the text will compare and contrast the values of such an education with the other important objective of schools and colleges, which is to prepare students with appropriate occupational training. The book will highlight the arguments of both points of view. In doing so, attention will be paid to the contributions to society of those who have been exposed to a variety of educational curricula. As part of the study, the impact of the community college will be considered, along with the impact of recent initiatives such as the Nation at Risk Report, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the Common Core. Finally, the text will conclude with an attempt to suggest the direction that will determine the fate of liberal arts in schools and colleges.