The major challenge with time is finding it. Current school-day schedules and school-year calendars are leaner than ever because of budget reductions. States and districts have implemented furlough days to balance lean-and-mean budgets that show no sign of improving. Few are willing to take the leap toward reducing instructional time to improve…

This article first presents findings from a report from the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and the National Staff Development Council titled "Professional Development in the United States: Trends and Challenges." The report raised the issue of the "intensity" of professional development--that is, the number…

The goal of the Intensive Partnership (IP) initiative is to improve student success by transforming how teachers are recruited, developed, assigned, rewarded, and retained. RAND and American Institutes for Research (AIR) have been studying the seven IP sites (including three districts and four charter management organizations--CMOs) since the…

This paper describes the redesign of a faculty development program at a large public university that transitioned from weekly face-to-face meetings to a version that reduced seat time by half. Focus is on course development activities in which individual faculty began designing and developing their online courses. Survey data was collected and…

Objective: This research investigated teachers' perceptions of the impact of professional development on the classroom instruction of secondary business teachers and the relationship between the impact of professional development and the number of hours spent in professional development. Background: Quality professional development for teachers…

Based on a statewide survey of professional learning activities among 577 middle school mathematics teachers in Missouri, this study examined two questions: 1) What professional learning activities do middle school math teachers participate in and how much time do they spend in these activities?, and 2) How are teacher qualifications and…

The National Education Commission on Time and Learning (NECT&L) is an independent advisory body authorized by Congress to conduct a comprehensive review of the relationship between time and learning in elementary-secondary education, including international comparisons, the use of time in and out of school, the use of facilities, year-round…

The Education Council Act of 1991 established the National Education Commission on Time and Learning as an independent advisory body and called for a comprehensive review of the relationship between time and learning in U.S. schools. This document serves as a supplementary volume to the commission's first report released in May 1994, which found…

In 1994, the National Education Commission on Time and Learning (NECTL) published "Prisoners of Time," an eye-opening study into how much schools are governed by the clock and calendar, and how families, administrators, and teachers are subsequently affected. This report expands and updates the 1994 report, adding informative questions and answers…

The Education Council Act of 1991 Established the National Education Commission on Time and Learning as an independent advisory body and called for a comprehensive review of the relationship between time and learning in American schools. The commission's report, released in May 1994, found that school reform is destined to founder unless programs…