Time On Our Side

As I mentioned last week, on Friday I spoke at the Massachusetts 2020 and the Massachusetts Department of Education's "A New Day for Schools: The Expanded Learning Time Summit" in Boston. I enjoyed meeting and talking with the diverse crowd of 600 school and district leaders, teachers, union leaders and policymakers from around the country who attended.

At the summit, Massachusetts 2020 released its first Expanded Learning Time Initiative 2006-2007 Annual Report called "Time for a New Day: Broadening Opportunities for Massachusetts Schoolchildren." They found that in schools that expanded learning time, the results for students are extremely promising and teacher and parent approval is very high:

• Student proficiency rose 44 percent in math and 39 percent in language arts;
• 6 out of 10 expanded learning time schools made AYP in math;
• 77 percent of parents and 70 percent of teachers say that expanded learning time has had a positive effect on their students .

I'm pleased to see how quickly Massachusetts has mobilized around the positive benefits that result from providing more time and support for its students, touting the success of pilot programs around the state.

An editorial in Friday's Boston Globe begins: "For 9,000 students in 18 Massachusetts public schools, the secret to success is basic: more time. Instead of making do with an old-fashioned six-hour day, these schools have done a substantial overhaul, creating a school day that is both longer and richer."

What's more, another article in the Globe emphasized the success of extended day programs, stating: "The extra time appears to be working. As a whole, schools with longer days boosted students' MCAS scores in math, English, and science across all grade levels [...] And they outpaced the state in increasing the percentage of students scoring in the two highest MCAS categories."

As other districts and states around the country are implementing or discussing expanding the learning time for their students, they should take note of these hopeful findings from Massachusetts - a great example of how state and local leaders can use federal incentives to raise student achievement! My colleague Marc Lampkin has blogged about this over on The Huffington Post, and as more develops in Massachusetts and elsewhere, I'll be sure to keep you posted.