From Status Quo to Breaking the Mold: Schools Expanding Learning Time

July 21, 2008, 12:30pm – 2:00pm

About This Event

“Expanded learning time is not a silver bullet, but rather a piece of a much larger, comprehensive school reform initiative…but it’s an initiative where you get a lot of bang for your buck,” said Carmel Martin, general counsel and chief education advisor to Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA). On Monday, Martin participated in a panel at the Center for American Progress that discussed efforts to expand learning time in our nation’s schools.

The panel included Martin; Elena Rocha, an education consultant; Marguerite Roza, research associate professor at the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington; and Gretchen Bueter, the principal of Grove Patterson Academy in Toledo, Ohio. Cynthia Brown, the director of education policy at the Center for American Progress, introduced and moderated the discussion.

Rocha began the panel by presenting the findings of her study. Expanded Learning Time, as the name suggests, involves increasing the amount of time students spend in school, although Rocha noted that there is no common definition of ELT, and the effectiveness of these measures is difficult to measure in the absence of long-term data. Emphasizing this, Martin noted, “ELT is not the reform in itself. I think it is the tool by which we execute other reforms.”

Elementary and middle schools implement ELT more often than high schools, Rocha said. Charter schools are the leaders in implementing ELT because they have more autonomy and so can pursue innovative strategies, including expanding both the school day and school year. “The existing school calendar […] is insufficient for 21st century learning,” she said. “ELT is gaining momentum across the U.S.”

Panelists then discussed how to pay for ELT. Roza suggested using federal Title I funds, increasing class size, reducing the use of specialists, and cutting down on expensive electives like photography. “If you were to raise class sizes by 3 students, that could free up 8 percent of school funds. So again, it’s a tradeoff,” she said. Rocha noted that some school districts facing budgetary constraints adopt partial ELT programs.

Roza pointed out that the additional learning time made available by ELT does not correlate directly with costs. “30 percent more time is not 30 percent more spending—it’s half of that,” Roza said. “Given that most districts aren’t going to hire a whole new set of staffs…what we’re thinking about is somewhere between 6 and 16 percent” on top of the school budget, which she said works out to $280 to $720 per student for average school.

The experts talked about the role of federal legislation in encouraging ELT. Rocha said that, while “ELT does not have to be legislated,” government action can encourage ELT. Martin added, “There’s a powerful basis for supporting ELT from a policy standpoint; I think from a political standpoint there are a lot of things that ELT addresses.” Unlike No Child Left Behind, she argued, it does not push teachers to focus on core subjects that are tested, and this flexibility allows for enrichment activities like art and music which also help students to succeed in the information age. “It helps give teachers more breathing room…to go beyond what a standardized test assesses,” said Martin.

Martin noted that much of the attention ELT is receiving in Congress is the result of legislators searching for a “silver bullet” to solve the education problems facing the nation. Roza argued that this type of thinking leads legislators to support politically popular measures over effective policies. “We’ve spent more money on the things we could get approved,” she said.

Bueter, the principal of a school which incorporates ELT, provided a first-person account of how ELT can affect the learning experience. Grove Patterson Academy has an eight-hour school day, 105 minutes longer than average, and is open five days longer than average. Bueter said that the school’s ELT equates to 44 additional learning days in each school year. “It’s not just ‘do we extend the day’, but how do we use it,” she said.

Bueter’s school interviewed and selected the teachers when the school opened in 1999. The school works closely with teachers’ unions and community members, and requires the families of students to pledge 10 hours of time per year to the school. The school incorporates innovative programs, like foreign language lessons for young children and a 90-minute “reading lockdown” every morning.

“We were different by design,” she said.

Read the reports:

• Initiatives in High-Poverty and High-Minority Schools
• The Fiscal Costs of Expanded Learning Time

Featured Panelists:
Gretchen Bueter, Principal, Grove Patterson Elementary School, Toledo, Ohio
Carmel Martin, General Counsel and Chief Education Advisor, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
Elena Rocha, Education Consultant
Marguerite Roza, Research Associate Professor, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington

Moderated by:
Cynthia G. Brown, Director of Education Policy, Center for American Progress

Location

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Resources

Full event video: