California Department of Education
Taking Center Stage – Act II

DOCUMENT LIBRARY

Professional Considerations
Providing Time

Adapted from Taking Center Stage, California Department of Education, 2001, p.153.

  • An examination of middle school master schedules frequently reveals major priorities that serve as the basis for allocating time. Consider your own middle school master schedule. What is the basic core value guiding its structure? Does it facilitate instructional activities known to work well with young adolescents? Does it honor the role of teachers in a standards-based system by maximizing flexibility in making decisions, planning time, and evaluating student work? Does it minimize classroom interruptions? Are the rigorous academic goals of standards-based education facilitated? Based on the above, suggest ways to improve your present master schedule. Share your PLC findings with the entire staff.

  • Is there a program element that would improve or enhance your school’s schedule? Is it explained away as being “a good idea but we can’t schedule it”? Is that program element a priority in the minds of other staff members? Using a modified version of the mosaic strategy, explore ways of solving the scheduling problem and suggest the best options to fellow staff members.

  • The United States Department of Education’s Commission on Time and Learning estimates that in many schools students actually spend less than half their time in the classroom on academics. Among reasons given for this situation are excessive interruptions from outside the class and too much time spent on activities such as drill and practice routines that contribute little to the mastery of academic content standards. Effective schedules provide more time for rigorous assignments that engage students in tasks that move them toward academic proficiency. Evaluate your own teaching. Can you make better use of the instructional time allotted to you? Consider to what extent your instruction focuses systematically on the content standards. Be generous with yourself in terms of what you are doing well. Be equally candid in identifying (1) ways in which you might improve; and (2) things others might do to eliminate unwanted interruptions into your teaching time. Share your thoughts in a faculty seminar on the subject.

  • Analysts of school master schedules estimate that as much as one hour each day could be redefined for instructional purposes through the more creative use of time and the elimination of disruptive routines. Consider how you can create an extra instructional hour each day for each student by the most ingenious and workable ways you can devise. If you are the principal, challenge all teachers to do the same and reward the best ideas. Then plan ways to implement them.

  • This chapter identifies the master schedule as the single most important factor in communicating a school’s philosophy. Think through this assertion with a group of colleagues. Compare your educational commitments with schoolwide priorities reflected in the use of time. Are they congruent? Can there be a better match? How might it be achieved?

Other quotes about TIME from the original Taking Center Stage:

  • “Time must be closely managed and tightly focused to ensure that all students have maximum opportunities to learn and demonstrate their ability to meet or exceed the standards.” [p. 149]

  • Instructional time must be viewed as a malleable resource --- altered, refined, lengthened, shortened, banked, rotated, molded or reconfigured --- to be used in pursuit of goal of increased student learning. [p. 152 – paraphrased for emphasis]

  • “The master schedule is the most basic expression of a school’s philosophy. It must facilitate the access of all students in a middle school to the full array instructional resources and opportunities to learn.” [p. 149]

  • “Time is no longer viewed within the context of six- or seven-period days repeated five times per week. Rather, the total number of available instructional hours becomes the primary resource for creating a school’s schedule.” [p. 151]

  • Emphasis on: (1)  the finiteness of time and the urgency of using time well and (2) the intrinsic relationship between standards-based education and school schedules.  [pp. 150-151]

  • “Time is allocated differentially to allow for courses that require setup and takedown time for instructional purposes. Science laboratories, exploratory programs, school-to-career courses, instrumental and vocal music classes, visual arts programs, physical education activities, and computer laboratories fall into this category.” [p. 151]

  • “Analysts of school master schedules estimate that as much as one hour each day could be redirected for instructional purposes through the more creative use of time and the elimination of disruptive traditional routines.” [p. 153]

  • The “Mosaic” metaphor on p. 154