Impetus for Change

1
Impetus for Change

• Change is never easy. Its especially difficult
  in education because so much current practice is
  based on tradition rather than compelling
  evidence of effectiveness. We continue to use
  certain practices not because weve thought about
  them deliberately or evaluated them thoroughly
  but, rather, because it is easier to continue
  doing what we have always done.
• (Guskey and Bailey 2001)

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Instructional Time AllocationBalancing the
Demands

• Shared by
• Dean Ficken Dennis McClellan
• Kent School District

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Prisoners of Time - 1994

• The first issue is not How much time is
  enough? but What are we trying to accomplish?
  As witnesses repeatedly told the Commission,
  there is no point to adding more time to todays
  schools if it is used in the same way. We must
  use time in new, different, and better ways.
• -Prisoners of Time, Report of the National
  Education Commission on Time and Learning, April
  1994

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Origin

• Teachers Principals
• Principals Instructional Services

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Developments that Compel Change

• Educators today are no longer satisfied with
  instruction that focuses on only basic skills.
  Instead, they want students to engage in
  authentic problem solving tasks that require
  them to think, plan, analyze, integrate, and
  construct.
• Guskey and Bailey 2001

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How do you use your time?

• Data gathering How do you currently allocate the
  time available in your instructional day?
• Given no constraints, what would be your ideal?

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The Ideal?
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Instructional Time Reality

• In a day, from 290-315 minutes
• In a week, from 1450-1575 minutes
• The Gap?
• 384 minutes- more than one day each week
• 13, 824 minutes in a year
• About 45 additional days of instruction wanted by
  teachers!

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Charge

• How can we best schedule and allocate the limited
  resource of instructional time in order to met
  the high standards of the Kent School District
  and the State?

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The Data
Music includes General Music and Band/Orchestra
minutes at 5th 6th grades Content areas
include Health, Science, and Social Studies
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Membership

• Dean Ficken, KR
• Dennis McClellan, KL
• Cathy Dormaier, KW
• Vi Erickson, KM
• Jan Matheny, Gifted
• Esther Onishi, 3rd
• Lisa Moore, 1st
• Eileen Crasper, K
• Ann Durham, 6th
• Pam Johnson, 4/5

• Marcella Hunter, 6th
• David VanHoomissen, 5/6
• Kathy Herrmann, Inst. Music
• Jennifer Moser, Gen. Music
• Randy Furukawa, PE
• Irma Perez, Special Ed
• Lynn Willis, ELL
• Marie Moran, Lib./Media
• Dee Green, Reading Spec.
• Stephanie Lyon, Admin. Asst.

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Products

• Suggested time allocations
• Scheduling models
• Areas needing further studies

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Parameters

• Workday
• Negotiated agreements
• Instrumental music during the day (5 6)
• Policies, RCWs, WACs

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Research

• Is it Just a Matter of Time?
• Aronson, Zimmerman, and Carlos
• Educational Time Factors
• Kathleen Cotton
• Prisoners of Time
• TIMMS
• Organizing for SuccessMath

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Research

• Allocated Time vs. Engaged Time vs. Academic
  Learning Time
• Relationship between academic learning time and
  achievement
• Large differences between schools and across
  classrooms

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Research

• Time has significant impact when coupled with
  good teaching methods (Quartarola 1984)
• particularly timely and specific feedback
• attention to what the student already knows
• the active participation of the teacher
• Only half the school day used for instruction?!

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Research

• Additional time coupled with effective teaching
  strategies and curricula designed to engage
  students enhances learning (Moore and Funkhouser
  1990)
• More time alone brings modest results

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Research

• Three key quality factors in conjunction with
  time contribute to improved student learning
• Classroom Management 70 of teachers need to
  improve (Brandt 1982)
• Appropriateness of Instruction (Walberg 1988)
• Student Motivation (Harnischfeger 1985)

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Research

• Increasing allocated or engaged time is more
  beneficial to lower-ability students than
  higher-ability students
• Increasing time-on-task is more beneficial in
  highly structured subjects
• Finally, time is needed for teachers to learn and
  plan

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Research

• Quality vs. Quantity170 vs. 180 vs. 200 vs. 220
  vs. 243
• In cases where time is already well utilized,
  such that there is a high proportion of engaged
  and academic learning time, extending the length
  of the school day or year is likely to have the
  desired outcome of increasing student
  achievement. Aronson, Zimmerman, and Carlos,
  1998

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Time to Reflect(Think, pair, share!)

• How does this research support or change your
  thoughts about the use of time in your school or
  district?
• Does this information prompt you to consider any
  changes in your school or district?
• How can you help your colleagues expand the
  amount of Academic Learning Time they provide the
  children in your schools?

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Time Allocations

• K
• First Third
• Fourth
• Fifth Sixth

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Assumptions about Recommendations

• Targets
• Not to be taken lightly, however
• Transition times not built in
• Have to make best use of these times
• Averages
• Not all days look the same
• Integrate technology

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Recommendations K
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Recommendations 1-3
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Recommendations 1-3
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What would I do with the time?

• Reading
• Macmillan program
• Guided reading
• Skills strategies
• Decoding strategies
• Independent reading
• Vocabulary

• Read aloud
• Fluency activities
• Informal assessments
• Formal assessments
• Literature circles
• Reciprocal teaching
• Paired/shared reading

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Recommendations 4th
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Recommendations 4th
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What would I do with the time?

• Writing
• Process
• Conventions
• Grammar
• Handwriting/ keyboarding
• Six traits
• Teach a form or genre

• Steps
• Immersion
• Discovery
• Modeling
• Sharing
• Interactive writing
• Guided writing
• Independent writing
• Peer editing
• Reflection

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Recommendations 5th 6th
32
Recommendations 5th 6th
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What Would I do with the Time?

• Math
• Everyday Math Program
• Arithmetic Done Daily
• Problem Solver
• Math Exemplars

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Percentage of Instructional DayCore Subjects
35
Percentage of Instructional DayOther Subjects
36
What Would I do with the Time?

• Science
• Inquiry
• Hands-on
• Scientific Process
• Experiments
• Material Preparation

• Health
• Physical
• Emotional
• Personal Safety
• Body Systems

37
What Would I do with the Time?

• Social Studies
• Civics
• Geography
• History
• Communities
• Regions
• Economics
• Ecology/Environment

38
What Would I do with the Time?

• Art
• Techniques
• Mediums
• Material Preparation
• Discipline Based Art Education
• Seasonal Art
• Art Appreciation
• Picture Person Program

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Sample Schedules
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Scheduling Tricks

• Ways to increase instructional time
• Music Choice (gains 75 minutes per week)
• Library checkout only (15 minute gain)
• Shorten lunch recess to 15 minutes (gains 75
  min.)
• Shorten or eliminate primary afternoon recess
  (gains 50 min.)
• Make recess optional
• Six-day PE/Music/Media/Library rotation
• 20 minute lunch recess 10 minute SSR

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Instructional Time Savers

• Minimizing the non-instructional time drain
• Sponge activities
• Lunches ordered before school begins
• Line up at the kindergarten bell
• One-minute bell in staff lounge
• Announcements that scroll on the TV
• Report cards due after last day of school
• Looping/multi-age classroom assignments
• Consistent school-wide procedures

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What are your tricks and tips?

• Please share your creative ways of saving time
  and making the best use of a crowded schedule!

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Adding Time In

• Where would we add any additional time?

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Next Steps

• Model potential schedules
• Study impact of music/ band/ orchestra on the
  5th- and 6th-grade schedule
• Study implications and impacts of lengthening the
  school day and year. For some? For all?

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Prisoners of Time - 1994

• Research confirms common sense. Some students
  take three to six times longer than others to
  learn the same thing.
• For the past 150 years, American public schools
  have held time constant and let learning vary.
• American students will have their best chance at
  success when they are no longer serving time, but
  when time is serving them. -Prisoners of Time

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Observations on Learning and Time

• Mastering world-class standards will require
  more time for almost all students
• -Improving Student Achievement by Extending
  School Is it just a Matter of Time? 1998

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Are we going to be Prisoners of Time?

• The key to liberating learning lies in unlocking
  time. from Prisoners of Time

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References

• Improving Student Achievement by Extending
  School Is it just a Matter of Time? 1998
  Aronson, Zimmerman, and Carloshttp//www.wested.o
  rg/wested/papers/timeandlearning/
• Close-Up 8 Educational Time FactorsKathleen
  Cottonhttp//www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/4/cu8.html
• Prisoners of Timehttp//www.ed.gov/pubs/Prisoners
  OfTime/Prisoners.html
• Presentation resources (presentation,
  spreadsheet, schedule)http//www.kent.k12.wa.us/s
  taff/dficken/