As demands on teachers increase, schools across the country are expanding their calendars to give teachers more time to collaborate and develop new skills. Recently, NCTL unveiled its newest report at an event in Washington, D.C. co-hosted with Teach Plus.
Time for Teachers: Leveraging Time to Strengthen Instruction and Empower Teachers looks at how expanded-time schools leverage their schedules to support teacher leadership and development. This emphasis on effectively utilizing teachers’ time is particularly important as states implement the more rigorous Common Core State Standards, new teacher evaluation systems, and strategies to turn around persistently low-performing schools.
Time for Teachers examines 17 high-performing and rapidly-improving schools around the country that have taken advantage of expanded school schedules to provide students with more time for engaging academic and enrichment classes while providing teachers with more time to collaborate with colleagues, analyze student data, create new lesson plans, and develop new skills.
The report includes a series of recommendations for practitioners interested in implementing the strategies outlined in the report, along with recommendations for policymakers looking to support teacher excellence.
Three of the recommendations for policymakers include:
- Advance policies that enable schools to implement an expanded school schedule that offers teachers more time for professional learning;
- Incentivize and fund high-quality, school-embedded professional learning communities; and
- Support job-embedded professional development as part of the training for the Common Core
For more information, please visit:
http://www.timeandlearning.org/timeforteachers
