Five States to Expand School Year as TIME Collaborative is Announced

On December 3, 2012, the Ford Foundation and the National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) held a meeting announcing the launch of the TIME (Time for Innovation Matters in Education) Collaborative. This partnership between the two organizations and five states–Connecticut, Colorado, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and New York–aims to develop high-quality and sustainable expanded learning time schools in an effort to close the nation’s existing academic achievement gaps. The event was held at the PEW Charitable Trusts in Washington, DC, and featured representatives from all five states, as well as a special guests like U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Education Week’s Virginia Edwards, and governors Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut and John Hickenlooper of Colorado.

The new initiative will affect nearly 20,000 students in 40 schools across the states. Each school will add at least 300 hours to their school year by expanding the school day and/or year. The new calendars will take effect as early as 2013-2014, kicking-off the three year pilot program. A mix of federal and state funds will go towards covering the costs of the additional hours. States will also receive support from the Ford Foundation, which has pledged $3 million a year in grants for the initiative as well as technical assistance through the National Center on Time and Learning.

Officials at the December 3^rd event explained that expanded time in schools will allow for a more diverse curriculum, with time for art and music, as well as individualized help for students struggling in core subject areas such as English and math. Jeannie Oakes of the Ford Foundation closed the event with a reminder that learning time in schools must be both “more and better,” an idea long indorsed by her organization.

More information on the TIME Collaborative can be found on its NCTL Web page.  You can also view video from this event online.

Note: This blog post was originally authored under the auspices of the National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The National High School Center’s blog, High School Matters, which ran until March 2013, provided an objective perspective on the latest research, issues, and events that affected high school improvement. The CCRS Center plans to continue relevant work originally developed under the National High School Center grant. National High School Center blog posts that pertain to CCRS Center issues are included on this website as a resource to our stakeholders.