How Much Time Do You Have?
Research is clear that more time on task benefits students. That seems obvious – more instruction and more practice should produce higher achievement. But protecting time is no small task. Interruptions are inevitable. Some, in fact, seem justified. Even with the best intentions it is easy to lose valuable instructional time. Administrators must, however, take control of the time they have available.
Either by state or district policy, schools are allocated a specific number of days in which to deliver instruction. Similarly, the length of the school day and duration of class periods are mandated. With that limited time teachers are expected to teach to standards that are rising every year. It is clear, then, that time is a precious commodity in education and administrators must protect every minute.
At JBHM Education Group we call this Maximizing Academic Learning Time (MALT)*. It’s so important that it is one of our Five Essential Practices.
So how does a school begin to manage this important task? The process starts with an understanding of the time that is available and the litany of things that disturb instruction. From pep rallies to senior class pictures and professional development to career day, the list of interruptions is long. Once identified, though, one can control and organize those factors in order to increase the time students are actively engaged in learning.
Take a look at one example (click here) of the results of an exercise JBHM Education Group led for a partner school. We helped the school list all of the items that reduced instructional time. Individually, many of these items appeared insignificant, but their cumulative effect is stunning.
As demonstrated, routine events such as student activities, state testing, and club meetings all cut into allocated time. Your school may not lose the amount of academic learning time to these distractions as the school in this case, but it’s probably more than you imagine.
At this point you may be thinking, “I’m sure we do a good job utilizing the time we have.” Well, how do you know? What data do you have to confirm your belief? We asked those questions of the school in our example and the truthful answer was that they had never done an in-depth analysis of the use of time. The reality was much different than their perception.
We encourage you to conduct a self-audit. Our experience is that even the most seasoned administrators are surprised by what they see.
To get started, gather the school calendar, class schedule, sports schedules, listing of activities for clubs and organizations, and information on all other events during the school day. The purpose of this step is to identify those things that reduce instructional time, not place blame or judge the value of an activity.
Using the form accompanying this story, enter the information and calculate your Available Learning Time and the % of Allocated Minutes Available for Instruction. Some of our partner schools have seen enough at this point in the analysis to realize the impact on students. However, we also recommend conducting multiple sweeps through multiple classrooms over several days and documenting the % of students actively engaged in learning.
Apply the % of engagement to the Available Learning Time, yielding the % of allocated time that is actually used for instruction – Academic Learning Time at My School. Eye opening, isn’t it? This exercise provides valuable insight into the factors that hinder learning in your building.
The good news is that with this information, you can now begin the process of changing how you Maximize Academic Learning Time. Through implementation of strategies such as an instructional focus calendar and other tools, you take back control of instruction. We did just that with the school illustrated here…and student achievement increased beyond their expectations.
To find out more about how JBHM Education Group can assist your school, call 866-792-5879.
