Calls for more school instructional time are coming from multiple quarters. Academic standards and frequent assessments have changed the nature, but not the length, of the instructional day. Schools find themselves "robbing Peter to pay Paul," taking time from the arts, recess, and physical education to give to reading and math, subjects that…

The twelve papers, articles, and reports presented in this annotated bibliography review theories and evidence on the relationship between learning time and academic achievement in elementary and secondary schools. The papers concentrate on three types of learning time: "time on task," which is the amount of time students are actually engaged in…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT Far West Laboratory researchers involved in the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study contend that increasing Academic Learning Time promotes basic skills achievement among elementary school children. During the course of the six-year study, researchers identified numerous "helpful hints" for…

Procedures used to select classes for an intensive study of change processes in teacher and student classroom behavior resulting in increases in academic learning time are discussed. Included in the text are sections on the philosophy of the intervention, the procedures and methodology to be used, the history of selection, the instructional model,…

This report provides descriptive statistical information from Phase III-B of the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study. Within the sample of second and fifth grade classrooms in public schools in California, approximately six students were identified as target students to be studied during the school year. These students were observed approximately…

In this study college band students expressed a preference for the musical selections that required the fewest timeout periods. Student offtask rates increased slightly as timeout frequency increased. No significant difference in offtask rates was evident between timeout periods of 15, 30, or 45 minutes duration. (Author/RM)

This report provides descriptive statistical information from Phase III-B of the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study. Within the sample of second and fifth grade teachers in classrooms in public schools in California, approximately six students were identified as target students to be studied during the school year. These students were observed…

Data on how many minutes of instruction were allocated to various aspects of teaching initial addition and subtraction concepts and skills in the Developing Mathematical Processes (DMP) curriculum were summarized for 20 classrooms in grades 1-3. The same curriculum materials were used in each class at each grade level. The number of minutes spent…

Instructional time, especially time on task, appears to have a positive relationship to academic achievement. (MKM)

This literature review concludes that, although time spent is not so consistently related to achievement as it may seem, studies of time use in schools provide important information that can serve as a base for school improvement. (MJL)

Reviews current psychological research on the effects of time, discusses policy and practical implications, and proposes "productive time" rather than "allocated time" or "time-on-task" as a new focus of educational reform. Productive time allows students to engage in lessons adjusted to their differences in learning rate and background knowledge.…

Thirty-six children between four and seven years of age were asked a series of questions to determine their degree of insight (meta-cognitive awareness) regarding the way four common variables influence the ease with which a person can perform the three cognitive tasks of remembering, communicating, and attending. The four variables were the…

Examines the engaged rates of children in kindergarten to fourth grade for differences and makes some assessment of attention span as it relates to engaged rate and achievement. (HOD)

Presents information gained from a time-on-task study of one school district that suggests that school districts can improve their decisions about scheduling, instructional techniques, and student achievement through similar investigations. (FL)

Recommending that every state increase the duration and intensity of academic learning time (ALT) in schools, this working paper provides a rationale, discusses related research, offers guidelines for selecting and implementing activities, and describes actions schools can take to implement change. In the discussion, duration refers to the total…