Expanded Learning Time...

Thanks to Rebekah for compiling some resources on expanded learning time! (For those who don't know, expanded learning time is a school reform strategy that lengthens the traditional school day or year to increase learning time)


In January 2009 The Collaboratve for Building After-School Systems released Enhancing School Reform Through Expanded Learning, a report that aims to further the conversation of how school reform and improvement strategies can take full advantage of expanded learning opportunities to promote student learning, development, and engagement. It seeks to make an evidence-based case for the ideas that:
-->Expanded learning time can be an effective strategy to promote student performance.
-->The more effective school improvement strategies will be those that incorporate the key elements of expanded learning time.
-->Resources exist to enable districts and schools to build in expanded learning time activities as core components of their reform plans.

In July 2008 they released the policy brief More Time for Learning: ELT Initiatives & Enrichment Opportunities, which describes the momentum of various ELT initiatives around the country, identifies differences between ELT and traditional after-school programs, and calls for policymakers to explore how ELT might serve as an opportunity to strengthen connections between school and after-school systems.

The Harvard Family Research Project is also taking an interest in this concept, recently (January 2009) releasing the policy brief Supporting Student Outcomes Through Expanded Learning Opportunities (take note--this links directly to the pdf). This brief shines a spotlight on the role of afterschool and summer learning programs in supporting student success and to help bridge the divide between afterschool and summer programs and schools by offering some research-derived principles for effective expanded learning partnership efforts.

Of course, given the current economic situation and the fact that state education budgets are getting cut (though some help is theoretically on its way thanks to the recovery act), some states and districts aren't really looking at expanding learning time. They are looking more to cut it--or at least "reallocate it more effectively"--through 4-day school weeks. 16 states have already experimented with the idea, and proposals have been made in Washington, Utah, Maine, and California, among others. Principals' Partnership has a (nonrigorous) research brief (take note--it links directly to the pdf) out on the topic.