Broad Foundation Awards $1.5 Million to National Center on Time & Learning to Double Partnerships

[tonysam]

with Districts, States Expanding School Calendars

More no-nothingness from the billionaire brigade which still peddles the garbage from the debunked A Nation at Risk about how we aren't competitive with other countries.

If the school year is lengthened, say like a 9-5 job, 12 months a year, because, after all, teachers are lazy shits with a easy, cheesy job, will their salaries go up? I doubt it. While the article mentions what a "boon" it would be for teachers to make more money, there won't be any unions left to negotiate for higher salaries.

Anyway, the excerpt:

The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation has awarded $1.5 million to the National Center on Time & Learning to ensure that 1 million American public school students within the next 10 years have access to high-performing public schools that offer internationally competitive academic learning time through longer, modernized school calendars, the foundation and center announced today.

The National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) is the leading organization helping public schools across the nation expand academic learning time. NCTL works with local, state and national education leaders to ensure that longer school day and year schedules – which research shows is a core strategy widely used by other nations and many successful U.S. public charter schools to raise student achievement and close achievement gaps – are likely to yield student gains.

"We must stop shortchanging our children. American students receive only a fraction of the academic time of many of their international counterparts. As a nation, we cannot afford to allow our children to be at a competitive disadvantage in the 21st century global economy," said Eli Broad, founder of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which in 2007 provided more than $1.1 million to NCTL's sister organization, Massachusetts 2020. "We are encouraged that a growing number of states and districts are choosing to modernize their school calendars, thanks to the Obama administration, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy and the founders of NCTL, Jennifer Davis and Chris Gabrieli."

...

Teachers benefit from an expanded day too. NCTL works with teachers unions to negotiate new contracts that compensate teachers for the additional hours worked. Under the NCTL model, teachers receive more opportunities to collaborate professionally during the day, have greater access to professional development, and report higher job satisfaction.

"Our ELT schools, teachers, and students are more energized, more empowered, and more involved," said Dr. Paul Dakin, superintendent of Revere Public Schools in Revere, Mass., a city with two expanded day schools. "We see expanded time as a means to accomplish what is necessary to provide public education students with the skills and knowledge to be successful in the 21st century."

More

More burnout of teachers, who already spend lots and lots of time working off the clock. By the way, KIPP is known as a bunch of crap.

Get a load of this quote from Arne Duncan from ten months ago:

During his visit, Duncan said American schools should be open six days a week, at least 11 months a year, to improve student performance.

"Go ahead and boo me," Duncan told about 400 middle and high school students at a public school in northeast Denver. "I fundamentally think that our school day is too short, our school week is too short and our school year is too short."

"You're competing for jobs with kids from India and China. I think schools should be open six, seven days a week; 11, 12 months a year," Duncan said.

There is NO evidence these countries have better school systems. What a miserable sack of shit Duncan is.

Just think of it: Teachers will work 9-5 year round, and there will be far, far, far more burnout because of the extra hours.

[Catshrink]

1. It still won't solve the "problem"

and nothing will change. Idiots like Duncan can't see the forest for the trees. Failing schools are only a symptom of a much larger set of problems that include poverty, under/unemployment, etc. Blaming the teachers is convenient but hardly a solution. They'll find that out once they've managed to destroy public education with their "solution" and find at best no change in the holy test scores.

I'm wondering how long it will take for this wholesale destruction to permeate the nation. It will succeed because no one is telling the other side of the story, that is, the teachers' perspective. The unions aren't speaking up and are routinely vilified. Teachers aren't speaking up because we fear for our jobs. Administrators aren't speaking up for fear of their jobs. Parents aren't speaking up because they either don't know what's happening or don't care. The public isn't speaking up because they're fed a constant stream of misinformation and skewed statistics.

I never thought I'd see a Democrat do this.

[tonysam]

4. ONLY a Democrat could have gotten away with this.

There is no way a Republican could have gotten away with what Obama and Duncan are proposing. Yet people think it is okay because somebody has a "D" beside his name.

It's still evil no matter who is proposing it.

[Starry Messenger]

2. Can it really be called "competing"?

Those jobs get shipped over there because of greed not because of kids not knowing enough. Good lord, what outright bull.

[mzteris]

3. "year round schools"

are VERY popular in Wake County, NC. Partly because the schools are so severely overcrowded and building new schools can't keep up with the population. The other reason is that the kids "learn more" due to shorter breaks. You don't spend Sept-thanksgiving reviewing the year before!

They're not "12 months a year" - they're still 180 days of instruction - but teachers actually suffer LESS burnout, while students learn more due to more - shorter - breaks.

Typically a year runs from July until early June (but there are "modified calendars for some schools"). There are four tracks that rotate in and out so that at any given time three tracks are "in" school and one is "tracked-out". There are four nine-week quarters in the instructional year. Each nine weeks is separated by three weeks off. (45 days in and 15 out).

"Families can use track-out time for vacation, or track-out can be used for additional learning. Many elementary schools offer intersession programs during track-out for pupils who are behind and need to catch up in their studies. Child care providers in our community offer child care during track-out. " (Note - good for the community as well. Year round trackout programs rather than just "summer camp".)

One building serves more students: "To see a capacity gain, schools need to have at least four classes of students per grade level; schools with more classrooms see more of a gain. Depending on the number of classrooms, a school on the multi-track year-round calendar can hold 20 to 33 percent more students than a school on the traditional calendar. For every three schools on the year-round calendar, that’s one less school that has to be built."


For more info Wake County Public School Systems year-rounds: http://www.wcpss.net/year-round/ http://www.wcpss.net/faqs/departments/year_round_schools.html

[Hannah Bell]

5. what don't you understand about: 'I think schools should be open 6, 7 days a week; 11, 12 months a

year' said Duncan"??


Who gives a rip about what the schools in wake forest nc do?