Expanded School Day Could Boost Teacher Effectiveness

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Look into classrooms across the country. The teacher is standing in front of the room, his or her lunchtime is the only break, and with low achievement in many districts, more hours are added to the school day and used for instruction.

But, a new report from the National Center on Time & Learning looks at how expanded school schedules can be used to boost effectiveness - allowing more time for educators to plan with colleagues, analyze student data and develop new skills.

Research included examples from 17 high achieving schools, serving high poverty students and averaging 300 more hours a year than the national norm of 1170 hours. Teachers usually spend 80% of time in instruction and 20% in other activities. Teachers in those schools spend 60% on instruction and 40% on collaboration, peer coaching and acquisition of new content knowledge.