For more than 30 years, Education Commission of the States has tracked instructional time and frequently receives requests for information about policies and trends. In this Education Trends report, Education Commission of the States addresses some of the more frequent questions, including the impact of instructional time on achievement, variation…

This report calls upon Michigan's state leaders to quickly develop and implement solution-based approaches to both support the long-term recovery of student learning, as well as address the longstanding inequities and underperformance that have plagued Michigan's education system for decades. Building upon last year's recommendations, which called…

This study looks deeply inside 17 schools that stand at the vanguard of the current revolution in teaching. This new National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) report reveals the substantive ways in which these schools are providing their teachers with more time to reflect on, develop, and hone their craft, by very explicitly leveraging an…

Over the last several years, public education in the U.S. has experienced a remarkable growth in the number of schools that have expanded their schedules beyond the conventional calendar of 180 6.5-hour days. Spurred by significant policy activity at the federal, state, and local levels, more and more educators have capitalized on opportunities to…

The National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL), an organization dedicated to redesigning and expanding school time to improve opportunities and outcomes for high poverty students, and the Education Commission of the States (ECS), with a mission to foster both the exchange of ideas on education issues among the states and long range strategic…

One hotly-debated topic related to scheduling is year-round schooling. While still the exception rather than the rule, year-round schooling (also called extended learning) is growing in popularity. According to the National Association for Year-Round Education (NAYRE), 3,180 public schools were operating year-round in 2002-2003. California leads…

Year-round education (YRE) has been brought increasingly to the forefront of the debate over educational reform. Although the results of year-round school studies are mixed, three specific elements are evident in successful programs--reduced curriculum review, increased instructional time, and improved student outcomes. This report introduces the…

This document discusses the rationale for the extended school year (ESY) and describes the basic types of extended school year plans. It presents Arizona legislation relative to the extended school year and outlines the State Board of Education policy. An extensive annotated bibliography lists books, pamphlets, articles, reports, bibliographies,…

The introduction spells out the general provisions and the district information relative to House Bill 2019, which provides a framework for districts to operate on an extended school year. Five general guidelines are then provided that give the chronological steps to be taken to implement an extended year program from letter of intent to State…