VantagePoint: by CSBA President Kathy Kinley

It's time to talk time

It is already June, the end of another school year. Where has the time gone? Contrary to the song lyrics, time is not on the side of many of our students as they struggle to meet high academic standards.

Increasingly, time is being recognized as a major factor in student achievement:
• When President Bush recently tried to prove the No Child Left Behind Act is working, he visited a New York City charter school that runs on a 10-hour day—keeping students off tough streets and resulting in higher test scores.
• Calls to lengthen the school day and year are a significant part of “Ed in ’08,” Bill Gates and Eli Broad’s multimillion-dollar effort to elevate the education issue in next year’s presidential campaign.
• Amid concerns that some students are not graduating from high school on time, calls are increasing to give them more opportunities to be engaged through career technical education, as well as opportunities to come to school until they learn what is expected of them.

Unfortunately, pressure to increase instructional time for the subjects that are tested has often squeezed the time allotted to subjects such as science, social science and the humanities. The arts are among the areas hit hardest. Reports indicate that insufficient instructional time has limited arts instruction in some two-thirds of California schools, and enrollment in music courses dropped by more than 250,000 from 2001 to 2006.

Many education leaders want to give kids more time through extended learning opportunities before school, after school, on Saturdays and in the summer, but resources are lacking. The U.S. Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers program has been chronically shortchanged, and California had to turn down more than 1,700 schools last year that applied for California’s After School Education and Safety Program, authorized under Proposition 49, for lack of funding.

CSBA’s Instructional Time Task Force is addressing all of these issues and more. We are collecting best practices and  sample policies for local boards regarding the use of instructional time and adjustments in school schedules and calendars to enhance student achievement.

We’ve sent surveys to all district superintendents to seek their input. Please be sure your district has responded. The task force will issue its guide for board members in the late fall and present findings and recommendations at CSBA’s Annual Education Conference in San Diego Nov. 29-Dec. 1. The time has come to provide our students with a complete curriculum and the opportunities they need to achieve.