What More Time Can (and Can’t) Do for School Turnarounds

What's important to know about ELT? Click image to enlarge.

Today Education Sector releases Off the Clock: What More Time Can (and Can’t) Do for School Turnarounds. You may recall, in 2007 ES analyst Elena Silva wrote On The Clock: Rethinking the Way Schools Use Time, where she argued that improving the quality of instructional time in school is at least as important as increasing the quantity of time in school. Time (pardon the pun) hasn’t changed her argument much. In her new  report,  Silva takes a look at what the research says… and doesn’t say… about the impact of ELT on student learning and how low-performing schools, some 90% of SIG grantees, are proposing and implementing ELT policies. The hard truth is that there is far more research showing the ill effects of unequal time than research showing that ELT policies can make up the difference, says Silva.

“New designs for extended time should be a part of the nation’s school improvement plans,” Silva adds. “But policymakers and school leaders must recognize that successful schools use time not just to extend hours and days but to creatively improve how and by whom instruction is delivered. In the end, the ELT movement is more likely to leave a legacy of school and student success if it becomes less about time and more about quality teaching and learning.”

Be sure to read the full report for all of Silva’s research and insights.  But, if you only have a moment, we’ve pulled together a handy infographic that helps to explain the issue of extended learning time, and outlines many of her key points.