Alternative Approaches to ORGANIZING the School Day and Year

A National Commission Examines New Structures for Improving Student Learning

In the last decade, our nation has watched young people from other countries outpace our own in scholastic achievement. At the same time, business and industry have cited our students' lack of academic skills to keep our nation technologically and economically competitive.

While the current commitment to improving the U.S. educational system is to be applauded, true and lasting change will not occur unless and until we address time and learning issues. Time as an educational variable has yet to capture the attention of school reformers.

In its landmark 1983 report A Nation at Risk, the National Education Commission on Excellence in Education urged America's schools to allocate significantly more time" to learning: "This will require more effective use of the existing school day, a longer school day, or a lengthened school year." Of all the recommendations made in A Nation at Risk, the commission s suggestion regarding the use of time probably has received the least attention.

Attention to time issues has increased with the establishment of the national goals and the concomitant effort to establish curriculum frameworks, new assessments, and standards for all students.

These developments in education have combined with changes in the social demographics of the United States to place new demands on schools. In the 1990s, most women work outside the home and 82 percent of the women in the workforce have school-aged children. In addition, the number of single-parent families has risen to 14.9 million and the number of at-risk students is expected to grow by more than one-third in the next few decades.

Using time as the lens, or prism, through which to view education reform, several schools have responded to the increased demands by experimenting with reorganizing time. These experiments offer a fresh perspective on creative time use in schools to increase student learning.

By varying the ways in which time is used for learning, schools have the capacity to refine--and even redefine--their role, shaping themselves to meet the goals of the education reform movement and the needs of a changing population.

Federal Analysis

Since 1991, the National Education Commission on Time and Learning has been examining the quality and the adequacy of the time U.S. students devote to learning. The commission has studied:

* length of the school day and year;

* how time is used for learning academic subjects;

* use of incentives to increase student achievement within available instructional time;

* how children spend their time outside school, including time spent on homework;

* year-round professional opportunities for teachers;

* how states might change rules to facilitate a longer day and year;

* analysis and estimate of costs; and

* use of school facilities for extended learning programs.

What follows is not intended to suggest the commission has reached its final conclusions (which will be issued in a report in April), nor does it necessarily represent the views of commission members. Rather, it constitutes a personal reflection on information heard in the course of our work.

At the time the commission began its work in April 1992, we identified only 10 schools with "extended learning programs" that offered 210 days or more of schooling. Since then, a number of other schools and districts have been experimenting with innovative time arrangements, indicating, perhaps, the beginning of a trend.

In an effort to adapt to new expectations, schools throughout the nation are developing and implementing alternative models of school time. The commission has visited a number of these sites.

Possible Options

During the last year, the commission also has listened to the views of a broad range of practitioners, researchers, policy makers, representatives from business, parents, and students regarding time and learning. We also have received testimony from acknowledged luminaries in education.

Through public hearings we have reached out to communities across the country for innovative ideas. This consultation process has allowed us to identify many schools that provide creative time use at the grassroots level. Some models demonstrate imaginative uses of existing time allocations, while others are based on providing extended time--a longer school day, a longer school year, or both.

Innovative programs of time use address one or more of the following concerns:

* provision of additional learning opportunities for enrichment or remediation;

* parents' interest in their children's well-being;

* business interest in having employees focus their attention on productivity rather than worrying about the safety of their children;

* efficient use of school facilities and other resources; and

* use of the school building as a locus for services by community agencies.

Defining Time

Alternative time uses can take various forms--extended day, extended year, year-round, and reorganized day or week. Many schools, of course, offer a combination of alternative time uses.

Schools with an extended-year program also may offer an extended day or a reorganized day to provide additional learning opportunities for children, including remediation and enrichment. Some school districts have adopted a shortened week (four days), another type of alternative time use.

Some of the innovations based on time allocations include these:

* Extended Day: A longer school day and/or before- and after-school programs; usually includes a traditional academic day (e.g., 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.) with extended time for learning opportunities and support services for social needs.

* Extended Year: School years in excess of 200 days for various reasons, including those cited above.

* Year-round: Schools that redistribute the 180 days, allowing for shortened summer breaks and several breaks during the school year; schools are categorized as single-track or multitrack. (Multi-track means students attend on a rotating basis because the school cannot accommodate all students at one time.)

* Reorganized Day. Varying the length of the learning experience based on student need or curriculum demands, i.e., block scheduling.

Promising Practices

The following alternative models of school time are illustrative; neither the list of models nor the list of schools is comprehensive. The purpose here is to provide information on such practices to stimulate schools and communities around the country to undertake their own experiments in allocating time for improved learning.

Selected as representative examples are the Murfreesboro, Tenn., district, extended day; the Beacon schools in Oakland, Calif., extended year; Emerson Elementary School in Albuquerque, N.M., year-round; and Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford, Maine, reorganized day.

Extended Day

The Murfreesboro City Schools run an extended day program on a year-round basis. The program operates from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Three schools are open an additional three hours for adult learning). The academic day is from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The district serves more than 4,000 children in eight elementary schools; more than half participate in the Extended School Program.

The Extended School Program provides academic learning experiences, skill-building, exploration, experimentation, and problem-solving. It also provides increased learning time for those students who require remediation. All students, moreover, receive individual attention from trained adults and child care at a minimal cost to parents (maximum $26 a week). Only families that use the service pay for it.

Students receive up to four hours and 45 minutes of additional learning time a day during the regular school year, and they can participate in a rewarding summer program.

The Murfreesboro program represents a highly efficient use of costly school facilities by providing additional learning time for elementary students as well as adult learners. Interested adults can take computer training courses as well as basic reading, math and, GED courses during the hours of the extended program.

Murfreesboro finances the program through a combination of parent fees, creative staffing, and Chapter 1 funds.

The program started in January 1986. (Contact: Becci Bookner, Murfreesboro City Schools, Extended School Program, P.O. Box 279, Murfreesboro, Tenn. 37133-0279, 615-893-2313)

Extended Year

The Beacon Day School and Beacon High School in Oakland, Calif., operate for 10 1/2 hours a day, from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The academic day is from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The elementary school is open 240 days a year; the high school provides 215. Beacon can be categorized as extended year, extended day, and reorganized day.

Beacon schools are private, non-denominational, ethnically and economically diverse, and designed around the concepts of developmental education and year-round education.

Both schools offer a 12-month program in which students, grouped in multi-age, multi-skilled ability groups rather than by age or grade, progress at their own rates. Each class has at most a 24-month chronological age span. Children remain in a given class until they have mastered the skills necessary to move on to the next level.

Mastery is demonstrated through regular classroom work; formal testing rarely is used, letter grades never are used at the elementary level, and classes are cooperative and non-competitive. No homework is assigned until the ninth grade. Because so much time is spent on task, individual study habits are developed during the day.

The curriculum includes four major components: core skills, integrated studies; advisory; and experiential studies. Teachers are trained in developmental education methods and participate in site-based management through a teacher council. The faculty teaches for 210 days a year but is paid for 260 days. Teachers on a rotating vacation schedule are covered by eight permanent, full-time substitutes (called flex teachers).

No set vacation is established. Instead, families plan vacations to meet their own schedules. Students returning from vacation simply pick up where they left off since the school provides individualized instruction.

Approximately 95 percent of the parents participate in volunteer activities at the Beacon schools and the schools offer classes on parenting and child development. Tuition is $490 a month for elementary and $575 for high school, comparable to per-pupil costs of the Oakland Public Schools.

Fifteen percent of the student body receives financial aid. The schools are funded by tuition from parents and by corporate and private contributions.

The program began at the day school in September 1982 and at the high school in September 1991.

(Contact: Leslie Medine, Beacon Day School and Beacon High School, 2101 Livingston St., Oakland, Calif. 94606, 510-436-6462)

Year-round

Emerson Elementary School in Albuquerque, N.M., operates on a 12-week-on, 15-day-off, multi-track schedule. The cycle occurs three times a year. The entire Albuquerque school district is on vacation for three weeks in July.

During the 15-day breaks between sessions, the school offers intersessions to provide additional learning opportunities (extended time) for some 150 "off-track" students who are between 12-week regular school sessions.

Emerson serves about 800 students. Seventy-seven percent of these students are minorities, and 90 percent qualify for the free lunch program. The school views itself as a community of learners and strives to integrate its activities with the surrounding community, exposing the students to relevant life experiences whenever possible.

In addition the school offers English as a second language, Chapter 1 reading program, group and individual counseling, and a literacy program. Emerson houses a pre-kindergarten and a Chapter 1 program for four-year-olds.

Although the school district is reevaluating the year-round schedule, Emerson wants to maintain its year-round calendar (at least a single-track schedule) because the staff and administrators are convinced that it provides continuous uninterrupted learning for students.

The program began in September 1989.

(Contact: Anna Marie Ulibarri, Emerson Elementary School, 620 Georgia S.E., Albuquerque, N.M. 87108, 505-255-9091)

Reorganized Day

Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford, Maine, with 350 students, serves a small, rural industrial 141 community. Classes are scheduled for double periods to offer students more opportunities for collaborative learning.

The school's Project 2000, an RJR Nabisco-funded program, also emphasizes small group instruction and hands-on learning opportunities for all students. The number of nontracked, activity-based courses has increased.

Project 2000 is designed to prepare students and staff for life in the next century by implementing a program of coordinated and constructive change at the school level. The curriculum is based on Maine's Common Core of Learning, a statement of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes all Maine high school graduates should possess.

Project 2000 also includes the computer networking of classrooms, staff development opportunities, and the development of participatory and interdisciplinary learning activities.

The program began in September 1991.

(Contact: Norman Higgins, Piscataquis Community High School, P.O. Box 118, Guilford, Maine 04443, 207-876-4625)

Common Factors

Administrators, teachers, and other professionals in these schools, in addition to having a clear vision of the purposes of their school, appear to share underlying beliefs. Some of these commonalities include:

* a belief that all children can learn at a high level even though children have different learning styles and rates. This means that being fair doesn't always mean being equal; rather, each child should get what he/she needs. School staff reorganize their programs in order to have the flexibility to provide additional resources (especially time) as needed;

* the realization that social realities in the community can interfere with students' ability to reach their potential. In response to these realities, the schools have accepted the challenge of providing non-traditional services to families, with the ultimate goal of enhancing learning;

* strong leadership, a vision of what is possible and a willingness to try something new;

* the ability to reach out to the community for services that could be offered by community organizations through the school.

COPYRIGHT 1994 American Association of School Administrators
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group